Text Only

So... I have spent the last number of weeks intending to finally make a fantastic post with great photos, video, etc., when I finally got decent internet. Well, that didn't happen so much... every time the internet briefly improved on campus it quickly resumed a snail's pace, and the Starbucks that my friend claimed had a glorious internet connection failed me as well. Thus, instead of waiting to make a post with both pictures and text as officially required, I will start just trying to post text frequently and do pictures when I can. Of course, by now I've kind of not posted weekly, so I'm not sure if this blog can even count for the requirement anymore... let me know, please, Kelly!

Anyway, so so much has happened since my last post. We've visited the Great Wall, palaces, Xi'an (terra cotta soldiers!) and more... but those are the things I wanted to post photos and video of. The Great Wall was just amazing: one afternoon we drove out to a hotel within sight of where the wall goes along a very steep mountain ridge, and then we rose from sleep at 2am to start climbing. It took us maybe 20 minutes to get to the wall, and then we just climbed and climbed for a couple of hours while the sky slowly lit up. It was really an amazing experience I can't do justice and was hoping to do slightly more justice than I currently am by uploading some of the video I took, so hopefully I'll get a chance at some point. In fact, everything else we've seen, while interesting and impressive, just doesn't quite compare to that particular experience. Before I left, however, my dad showed me a number of photos from my parents' trip to China in the late 70's just when it started opening up to tourism, and it has been cool to recognize some of the landmarks they photographed 30 years ago.

As for academics, Chinese still isn't really my gift... I've been struggling from day to day with varied results. I must say though, at the very least, my Chinese is seriously taking visible strides: it's really thrilling to be able to hold up even a brief uninteresting conversation with one of the students or teachers. I wish I could pinpoint why I'm having such a tough time... and I'm wishing I'd taken a spoken language in high school (Latin was interesting but...). It's almost like my mind just doesn't have a place designated for learning new language and I'm having to forcibly chisel out mental space for all this new material. Of course, it was a similar experience studying at Yale, but I just devoted way more time to Chinese than to any other of my four classes. But here, I have Chinese all the time, but four times as much of it. So it's taking a toll. The good news is that I think it's getting easier as I go along.

So the last couple of weeks varied... the second week was still somewhat overwhelming... the third week ran pretty smoothly with work getting done early, sleep being had, etc., but then the fourth week had some pretty long lessons so it wasn't so smooth. And that concludes the first "semester" of this "year" of Chinese study! :-) I haven't actually seen my grade... I'm guessing not the greatest but not abysmal. I just hope it doesn't come off as if I'm no incredibly thankful to have the opportunity to be here...

On one more quick note before I call it a night, while we were in Xi'an over the "midyear break" this last weekend, the entire group went to a Chinese music/dance show with dinner provided Saturday night. Before the show started, near the end of the meal, the band started playing what I finally realized was the "Happy Birthday" song, and the servers brought out two cakes for me and a girl whose birthday was the next day (mine was Saturday). What a great surprise!! (and the cake wasn't half-bad either)

So, onward to the second month! (with many more posts and--hopefully--more photos and other media!)

Really hoping this post actually makes it through...,
Jon