Hello everyone,
So the week before I didn’t post anything because I had a
really bad cold, so I wasn’t feeling up to it, and I wasn’t doing anything
particularly interesting other than coughing and feeling miserable. As such, no
post for two weeks ago.
Last week, however, I was well enough to go to four days of
class. I missed Monday because I still felt under the weather, which was bad
because last week we had our second set of big exams. Here at PKU, we have
three sets of exams for hanyu and kouyu classes; one major exam near the
beginning of the semester, another set during the middle, and then finals. If
you get sick and miss the first or second set of major exams, you can fill out
a form explaining why you were absent, hand it in for the dean of students to
approve, and if approved, you have to then pay 50 yuan to take the exam you
missed. This is only applicable for the first two sets of exams, so if you miss
the final exams for some reason, you can’t take them at a later date. That was
an interesting policy to learn about.
Also everyone is getting sick here, so I wasn’t the only one
from my class who missed an exam. And because I had to figure out how to
reschedule the kouyu test, and had a test on Friday to prepare for, I wasn’t
really doing anything very interesting that would be worthy of a blog post. As
such, I’m sorry about not keeping you up to date.
I do have one funny story to tell you though. Last Thursday,
I went to a small canteen near my dorm to buy dinner. They have really good
food, and I really wanted to eat scrambled eggs with tomatoes. While I was
waiting for my food (they cook it right in front of you after they take your
order, this place is a “hole in the wall” kind of canteen), I heard the staff
talking. And I understood what they were saying. They were speaking rather
hushed, but I could still hear fairly well. Basically, they were saying this:
“Where do you think she’s from?”
“France, probably France.”
“Nah, she’s definitely from England, she’s so pale.”
“Maybe she’s from America?”
“No, her accent sounds British.”
And after a few minutes of this, the main woman in charge
very loudly “Hey! What country are you from?!” Once I told her I was from the
USA, she said “Oh really? You have such pretty skin. Really!” that last
sentence kind of threw me off, but it’s always nice to get a compliment.
The next day though, someone else mistook me for a French
person. When I was in the elevator heading to class, a student joined me and
started speaking to me in French. I told him I don’t know how to speak French,
and then he said he thought I was another French girl here at the dorm who
always greets him in French.
So in short, people seem to think I’m French, and I apparently have a doppelganger living somewhere in my building. I would have
expected most people to assume I’m German, considering I hang out with a lot of
Germans, and because there are so many here, particularly at the university,
but no, people first think I’m French. Who knew?
Well, I’ve got some homework, and I’m planning on doing some
interesting things this weekend, so my post this weekend should be a bit more
interesting. Again, I’m sorry about falling behind on keeping you up to date,
but sometimes you just get bad, really boring weeks.
Vive la France!
So Aunt Terry is in Paris now and recently posted a picture of the Eiffel Tower on her FB page :)
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