Tuesday January 18th, 2011

Again, I must apologize for the tardiness of these journals. I’ve had a little more free time than usual during the day, and I can’t bring myself to write in the afternoon. As all modern writers do, I must write in the dead of night, in a smoky room, of a shoddy apartment above the crowded streets of some big city. However, my apartment isn’t too shabby, and my roommate doesn’t smoke… Let us begin.






Today, I got up and ate the remainder of my breakfast supplies. Many of the others in the camp are starving, and I think that soon everyone will resort to cannibalism for breakfast. Perhaps, I will make another trip to Carrefour (oh nectar of the CCP!) to get some more food for the week to come.

I got up and went to class. I’ve had difficulty all day paying attention to the material in class. A lot of the vocabulary is words that we’ve already studied, and the text isn’t as bad as the usual articles for Chinese back at Ole Miss. Thus, I have been at wits with myself throughout the entire day: should I move up to 5^th year and take harder classes? Once the extracurricular activities start, maybe I will learn more than the classes. What if that doesn’t happen? If I wait to late to make a decision, I’ve already unwillingly made the decision to maintain the status quo. The debate raged all day.

Funny story: I went and ate lunch at the Muslim cafeteria on campus. They were getting ready to close up for the break, and they only had about 10 dishes to choose from. I got some potatoes and beef for 13 Yuan. Then I said to myself, “I’m kinda thirsty.” I got a bottle of peach juice from the refrigerator in the cafeteria. As I sat in the poorly heated cafeteria, it occurred to me that the juice I was holding was warmer than the surrounding room. Which reminds me, our room is still freezing.

I went and talked to the program director about the possibility of moving up, and in classic poor Jamey form, when I go up to talk to her, I’m a mumbling idiot. No woman in her right mind would let a bumbling American like the one who presented himself then to move up to a higher level. This is what I gathered: the 5^th level classes are much more like the ones I took at Ole Miss. Check.  The program director openly condescends all of the students in the program. Check. The 5^th year classes don’t have too much speaking practice, and focus more on higher-level vocab. Check. The 5^th year classes are designed for people whose native language is Chinese. Check…

Thus, I was even more confused about what I should do in the way of classes. If I don’t learn a buttload of Chinese while I’m here, I do believe that my folks will strangle me (shout out for Demopolis!). This is what I finally decided. Albeit the material that I am learning now is very little, this lends me the opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture through other media – TV, movies, books, etc. I will also have more time to hang out with Chinese people, exercise, and maintain my sanity while I’m here. I might even read a book or two. I will remain a 4^th year student.

This afternoon, in lieu of my decision, I watched The Last Emperor, by some Italian guy. It was very good, and portrayed the life of Pu Yi, the last emperor of China (hence the name). Then, I watched about 30 minutes of a Zhang YiMou movie called My Father and Mother. Zhang YiMou is a super-artsy director from the Mainland, whose movies generally incorporate two key elements: a countryside setting and a documentary-style plot. Although the movie was well directed and such, the movie has a lot of dialect, and it makes my head hurt a little.

Around 7, my hunger got the best of me, and found some other hungry students in the dorm. Joy, Cailin, Lee and I all ate at our neighborhood favorite Cheng Du Roast Fish restaurant. We ate eggplant (yeah!), egg-cucumber-tomato soup, fried bread with icing dipping sauce, beef with peppers, and cucumbers. I’m going to miss the food here when I leave. It’s so good, and you must eat it to believe me.

Then we headed back to the dorm, so that we could all prepare the next day’s text.