Less than 2 weeks?!

It is pretty shocking that this whole adventure is so close to concluding. On top of that, this week has been going by pretty quickly itself! I'll be home (probably eating a burrito) in 2 weeks...

But until then, my days continue to be very full! Classes are still pretty demanding but are as a whole getting easier and easier as I'm more and more accustomed to the idea of learning 30+ words with 40+ characters in one night. In other news, although the program is drawing to a close, I finally have a new roommate. I haven't said anything about that whole issue on this blog before, but I've had major trouble with my roommate this entire trip--actually my only complaint this whole time. He was inconsiderate, arrogant, and severely passive aggressive in everything. Almost every time anyone found out who my roommate was, they would literally say "Oh... I'm sorry". Anyway, I've been trying to roll with it for the past six weeks, but we finally had a major direct confrontation Sunday night, and after that there was no question what needed to be done, so I have a new roommate who's so far been totally great and I think will make these last few days all the more pleasant!

Today I had a fantastic talk with my language partner: Today's lesson discussed lingual differences between China and Taiwan, so we started off talking about that and eventually went on to the much juicier topic of China-Taiwan politics. It was really a thrill how much we were able to discuss with very few English words thrown in there! She talked about differing opinions in Taiwan between old and young people, and I was able to point out that whether China recognizes Taiwan as independent, it's independent de facto. I was able to express why I thought a one-party unelected government was bad and I was able to understand the advantages she pointed out in reply. The conversation went on for about an hour beyond the official meeting time, and it was genuinely intellectually stimulating as if I'd had the conversation in English! It was fascinating to hear her take on everything, and I've got to say she defended the communist party pretty well, which is precisely why I need to keep improving my Chinese :-D

Otherwise, life continues pretty normally (aside from some pretty intense lightning storms we've had the last couple of nights), and it's starting to hit me that though this program's almost over, I'll be back at Yale starting the new year in less than a month! Life is crazy.

努力学习，
Jon (高俊!)