Blue Skies

After four days of guessing whether the thick haze around everything was smog or fog, the weather has finally cleared up. You can even see the sky, which is apparently a rare thing in Beijing. Classes started on Monday, and the language pledge took effect this afternoon, which means we're only supposed to speak Chinese with each other. Unfortunately our Chinese isn't too great yet, and what Chinese we do speak is punctuated by English words, lest communication become so arduous that we just stop speaking all together.

Classes are simultaneously fast-moving and tedious, but I'm really learning a lot. We have about thirty new words and characters to memorize per day, as well as homework and compositions, which makes studying at night pretty rapid fire. In class, on the other hand, we spend three and a half hours going over the same vocab, topics, and grammar points. The topics are relevant but not exactly engaging. For example, yesterday's involved complaining about getting up early, and the advantages of showering in the evening (the chief one, in the book, being that that's when there is hot water. Luckily we have hot water all the time). Although it's not always thrilling, the teachers here are good and friendly, which makes class enjoyable, and my Chinese is improving rapidly.















My language partner is proving to be a font of interesting information about China, as well as fun to hang out with. On Monday night, I went to see a show that she was in. During the show, there were all sorts of acts: one-act plays, Peking opera-style singing and costumes, a brass quintet, and a jazz band. During the show I kept an eye out for my language partner, but didn't see her. Later on, when I saw her, she showed me pictures of herself in her complex get-up, in which she was completely unrecognizable. She could be one of the singers in this picture, I'm still not sure.

That's it for now, since I still have to study for tomorrow's test and write a composition about the bizarre assignment we had at the post office today.


Oh, and for those who are interested (Bridget) and want to try their hand at copying characters, here's my address:

100089 中国北京首都师范大学
海淀区西三环北路83号，国际文化学院
杜克大学留华学习班
Samuel Steinbock

If mailing from the US, it's probably a good idea to write "CHINA" on there, too. Good luck.

Oh, and one more thing: I made it so you don't need an account to comment, so let nothing hold you back!