It's been too long... (Read this before Qingmingjie post)

Note: This was supposed to be posted two weeks ago, but because I am technologically inept, I saved it instead of publishing it. Please forgive me T.T

Hello everyone.

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted anything new on my blog for a while. It's a mix of reasons.

First, I've been really busy with schoolwork. This semester has been really insane with one of my classes, while the others are okay. I enjoy having a challenge in my classes, but this isn't a challenge; this is a teacher with no experience not taking into account the concerns her students have about the pace and her teaching methods. The homework I receive in this class is double the homework I receive in all my other classes, and we are also moving through the lessons at a very fast pace.

At first I thought maybe it was just me. After all, I went to a school for dyslexic students when I was younger, and I tend to learn much more slowly compared to other students. But when I talked to my classmates, most said that they were having trouble in the class too, and one even said that when she asked the teacher if she could slow down the pace and review the lessons more before moving on to new ones, the teacher said that there was no need to worry and that everyone would be fine. Except we're not. I enjoy learning and going to school, but I really dislike this class.

I want to make myself very clear. I am not trying to disrespect my teacher. I am simple explaining that our class has been having trouble and that we have concerns about doing well in this class after being told we shouldn't worry, yet we still have problems.

Second, I've been a little depressed. This is my first year living in another country, and at first, I thought everything would be fine. And it has been, don't get me wrong. I am happy to have had this opportunity to study here and experience new things. However, since this is my first time living abroad, and since I haven't returned home since August (not even for a short visit), I've started feeling more homesick than usual. I'm not sure if it's because of my recent problems with this one class, or because in approximately two months I actually will be home so I feel a stronger desire to get home than before, I don't know. All I do know is that I have felt rather down, busy, and stressed. As such I haven't done any blog posts.

I'm very sorry that this first half sounds really depressing. I will now tell you some positive things about this semester.

I love my kouyu class. My teacher is very experienced, and we all think that we want to move faster in the class, which has made our teacher happy. Everyday I have kouyu class I feel like the world has gotten five times brighter, even when we have a small quiz (I never feel this way about the other class I previously mentioned). I am very lucky to be in such a wonderful class with such a fantastic teacher!

The weather is getting warmer, but the pollution still varies from time to time. For example, yesterday the sky was very blue, but today the pollution is over 200 (gray, gray, and more gray...).

I met with my language partner (we've been meeting every Friday since the semester began), and I introduced him to Taiwan pancakes. Taiwan pancakes are delicious meals that are essentially a super oily blintz which has meat and some sauce inside (I order mine with egg, chicken, salad dressing, and lettuce). My language partner said he never had them before, which surprised me because he's been studying in China for a long time now. He really liked them, so I'm glad he now has a new dish to enjoy.

We talked about a movie that he recently saw and enjoyed. The movie is called The Man from Earth. I haven't seen it yet, so I can't say whether or not it actually is a good film, but if you are curious here's a link to the Wikipedia page about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_From_Earth

On Friday I took a break from studying, and went out with my friend Janie and her roommates to eat Indian food. And MY GOD IT WAS DELICIOUS! Seriously though, this food was fantastic. Unfortunately my camera battery was dead so I don't have any pictures to give you, but I'll describe it. We had two different kinds of curry, one with chicken and cashew sauce, and one with cheese. We also had a lamb dish which was a little spicy, but not so much that we couldn't eat it. We also had two different kinds of naan, a type of Indian flat bread which comes in many different styles. We had garlic and what I believe was kashmiri naan (it has fruits and other things inside it, yum!). We also had a potato dish, but I forget the name of it. Overall, it was DELICIOUS! I was very happy to have such a wonderful meal with my friends. Also, the restaurant we went to is fairly famous in Beijing.

Here's a link to the restaurant's webpage:
http://www.ganges-restaurant.com/en/find-us-ganges-indian-haidian.php

After eating such wonderful food, we went out to buy some bubble tea at a place called Happy Lemon. I really enjoyed it.

I've also recently started going to a theater class at Beiyu University. This is a university which specializes in linguistics and has a lot of foreign students. My friend Helen, who lives on the same floor as me, told me about it when I told her I was interested in learning more about Chinese theater (I'm double majoring theater and Chinese after all). The first half of the class is focused on music, singing specifically. I learned how to sing a song in Chinese, which was quite fun. The second half of the class is about acting. The kind of acting is not like acting for plays/musicals, but more like a stand up comedy. Except this isn't improved, it's a sketch which often has jokes about Chinese language, history, and differences between provinces. I think this kind of humor is a bit innocent compared to a lot of humor that comes from the US and parts of Europe, but it's interesting to learn about.

This week I'm going to prepare for exams on Thursday and Friday, so I probably won't have anything interesting to write about. I'm going to try not to stress too much, but I want to do well.


Since I haven't taken any pictures in a while, I leave you with two internet pictures to brighten your day:

This is the Bulldog when he loves you~


Images courtesy of:
http://www.sunnyskyz.com/uploads/2013/06/f4f5c-cute-bulldog.jpg
http://cdn.sheknows.com/articles/2013/07/Mike/SK/Happy-bulldog.jpg