Life just got busy.... (Thurs, 9/22/11)

So life has gotten pretty busy for me.  My Chinese teacher is back from her honeymoon, so my Chinese language and Chinese studies class will start on Saturday.  I am REALLY excited for both of them.  She is using the same text book that Li Laoshi (my Chinese teacher) last semester used at the end of the year, so I am already familiar with it. 

Lets see.  This afternoon I have class.  Then after class, the Public Relations class is going out for hot pot.  Yum!!!  I will take lots of photos, I promise.  ^_^  Friday I am meeting with Qiu Laoshi (my Chinese teacher) to get the textbook and the syllabus.  She is also going to be doing the Chinese studies class, and that will be more about seeing the sights of modern China and writing about my experiences.  Friday afternoon, all the ICB (International College at Beijing) teachers are going out to eat, and since I’m the only American student, I have been invited too.  I think we might be going out for Korean BBQ….I’m not sure.  Saturday morning I am going out with some classmates Carmen and Christina to 798, an art district in Beijing, then in the afternoon I have my Chinese language class.  Then my Intercultural Communication teacher Patrick wants me to meet his fiancé Beibei, but I’m not sure if I can because of my Chinese class and time overlapping.  So now I’ll have classes Monday through Saturday.  Also I was offered at job working at the ICB Writing Center, helping students writing their essays for their classes.  I was not sure if I wanted to do this because of time, but I might because one of my friends, Baiyun asked me to read her essay and give her advice on how to fix it.  The problem was she was translating her ideas directly from Chinese to English, using Chinese sentence structures.  So I would know that the sentence sounded wrong in English, and that the word order was off, but I didn’t know the grammatical rules as to why it was wrong.  Cause I’m fluent.  So I might do the writing center so that I can get the training to know exactly what to say to help them improve, and so that if someone wants my help I can tell them to see me in the writing center.  If I’m going to be doing it any way (I think that other students will ask me) I might as well be getting paid for it, and trained to do it properly. Baiyun also wants me to join the drama club…which I did sign up for, but I don’t know how frequently they will meet/practice, ect.  On Tuesdays before class I am meeting up with a random girl Wangke, (王可) because she is at about the same level of English as I am in Chinese.  So the two of us are going to eat noodles and practice together.  I think it will be better because her English is not as good as some of my classmates.  All the ICB students just use English around me because they are almost fluent (I mean they are taking college courses in English, so sometimes they have difficulty expressing themselves but most of the time they are excellent).  So they are not really letting me practice my Chinese.  A little bit, but not a whole lot. 

Last….Tuesday Carmen invited me to a “freshman welcoming party”.  It was not really a party, it was more of a show in an auditorium.  There were dancers, singers, martial artists and a play (most of which I understood) ^_^.  I got video of it, but I am still having difficultly loading videos onto my youtube.  I have been uploading photos on facebook but I am still behind on that, all of the photos are from about 2 weeks ago. 

I am going to have to do a post on community spirit vs. individualism.  People are interested in me because I’m different, and they say that they think that Americans are more free than the Chinese, that the Chinese are more traditional.  But because of them being traditional, they are a tight-knit group.  They share everything, they work together they are unified in a way that I think Americans will never be….unless they join a cult or something.  I want to analyze the conflicting emotions that my classmates are describing to me, as well as the conflicting emotions within me on this subject.  But I will do it when I have more time.

Finally I am going to be wearing my cat costume for Halloween.  The leopard.  Oct 31^st is a Monday, so I will have class.  I already told my teacher that I was going to dress up for the holiday.  He didn’t mind.  Apparently they have a party every year and carve pumpkins…I don’t think they know about trick-or-treating, or the costumes tho.  They seem to only associate Halloween with the pumpkins and the party.  When I told Baiyun about my plan to do the costume, she said that people would stare at me.  That is not a problem, I’m already being stared at.  I think in another month I will already be used to it.  So….yes….that’s what’s going on in my life right now….miss you guys!