Today was not a good day for waking up. In fact, it was a horrible day for waking up, especially when faced with a lack of food in my room. I cursed myself for not going to sleep earlier the night before, but these things cannot be brought back once Pandora’s box is opened. I went to class, did my quiz, turned in my essay, and tried to soak up some more knowledge of the Chinese language.
For lunch, I went with some of the third year students to a jiao zi and noodle restaurant. Wesley, Chris, Leora (whose name I was formerly misspelling as Lauren), and I ordered 3 fers of jiao zi, and each fer had 27 jiao zi apiece. That gave us a total of 81 jiao zi – 20 apiece. It was a great meal, but the best part was that we only paid $ .92 for the meal, which I find incredible. We haven’t been sticking to the language pledge to rigorously, which I think is beneficial to my sanity. Nevertheless, I’m still learning an incredible amount of Chinse.
I went back to my individual class, where I was tutored by the only teacher in the program who grates on my nerves. She is a real stickler about tones, and I swear that she will correct my tones, even why I know I’m saying them right… But enough about that.
I headed over to Bally with Shazeda, and on the way, she wanted to look in a store that sells handmade dresses. She planned on making a purchase on the way back. I did my exercises, and headed back to campus to take a pronunciation class. I, however, like to translate the Chinese directly and call it my “speak out loud class.” When I arrived to the classroom, I found that I'd looked at the sheet wrong, and that my “speak out loud class.” Started a half hour before I got there. Imagine that.
So, I called Shazeda back, as she had mentioned making a trip to Carrefour – and I couldn’t let the opportunity pass me by. We started towards the grocery after I’d spent approximately an hour studying the text for the next day. We arrived at the store no later than 5:15, to a scene of total pandemonium. I have no idea how many people were in that grocery store on that day, but I do know this: I was about to have a freak out (as Amelia would say) by the time I was done. Cailin wanted to go with us but couldn’t. Thus, she asked us to get her some groceries and such. That was no easy task, as I had but 100 Yuan on my person and Shazeda 200 Yuan. Shazeda was like a kid in a candy store at Carrefour, but I can’t blame her. I was the same way when I discovered the wonders of the French grocery store. We walked nearly every square inch of the store, and she got a little of everything.
We checked out, and began to make our way back to the dorm. In the arduous process of checking out (I had to run back to the produce section and weigh all of the fruit, as we had forgotten to do so), our groceries were all mixed up, and we had to sort them out back in the dorm. By the way, I don’t think Shazeda has stopped eating the fruit and snacks since we got back. I do have good news: I have food and drink in my room now. Another update: the fish is dead.
For supper, Shazeda, Lee and I went to The Little Bean and got take out. I had to hurry back to the room and slurp them up before 8:20. I had an appointment with the teachers then, and our homework was a to do a little speaking activity with them. They recorded our voices, and I’m sure that these recordings will be scrutinized for tones and grammar in the days to come.
After this “homework,” I came back to the room and tried to stay awake until an appropriate time to fall asleep. 10:15 was appropriate enough for me…
I’ll write soon!
Love,
Jamey
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