Week 3

I can't believe that it looks like I am only going to be able to write one blog a week. What an utter dissapointment. Last year I was so good about writing. Oh well.

Things have been much improved since the bus accident last week. it turns out that one of my American friends was close by and saw the child awake with only minor injuries.

Let's see if I can catch you up on my week.

Friday we went to what was being described as a farm. We made bets as to who would catch the bird flu or some other non-curable disease from being in thr rural area. It turned out to be a place maybe 5 minutes away and more of like a farm-reenactment (think colonial williamsburg, but smelly and farm like and in an Asain country). We had tea and learned to play Majohng. Then we got to help make our lunch. It was hot.

Saturday, I wento to the tailors to pick up some things and even though I swore that I was going to not have a lot made this year, I put in another order for a skirt, 3 pairs of dress pants, and a dress all from a JCrew catalog. They will be ready on Monday. and it will cost all of about $40. Nice.

Sunday was a lazy day.

Monday. Class. And then ping-pong. And more ping-pong. I don't think that I have played ping pong since Calico peed on our ping pong table and warpped it. Even then I wasn't very good. When it comes to me verses a chinese person, there is simply no hope for me. But I am getting better because I have played so much this month. I have also been suckered into playing basketball, but I am not improving there.

Tuesday. I was sick and I stayed in bed all morning. It is mostly a sinus thing and I think that I am about to kick it. And I think that it has something to do with the beautiful irises that my roommate received from some of the guys she is traveling with. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I think they were making me sick. Especially in light of the fact that she feels she has to take her bananna peels down the hall to throw them away. And she has been the source of much entertainment since she has started talking in her sleep in Chinese. It's great.

Wednesday. Same old thing. Class. More ping pong.

Today. This morning I had my exam. It was okay but not great. We all had to wait in a holding room where we were suppose to study a few more minutes. We had to draw numbers and one at a time go to take our exam. I got number 12 out of 12 and so I had to wait for about an hour and a half. The first thing I had to do was read some words from a card. They were written in pinyin (pheonetically) and it was just to check my pronounciation. And then they held up flashcards with characters and I was suppose to give the word. I think that I got 5 out of 6. And then the simple questions. "What are you studying?" "What is this?" (A magazine but I forgot the word for it). "Whose magazine is this?" (I don't know, maybe his?) And finally the role play were I had to pretend that I was going to the market to buy some fruit. I did really well on the role play bit. I think that tonight we are going to go back to the hair washing place and pay someone the equivalent of $2.50 to wash (and massage) and dry our hair.

It has been raining again all day long. It is either sunny and incredibly hot. Or cloudy and muggy and hot. Or raining and miserable. A lot of the walking surfaces are marble and so I have more than once almost fallen. (I did fall once yesterday but that was inside on the stairs and had nothing to do with slick surface, just my clumsiness.)

Abd on a final note, I can count 30 bug bites on my arms and legs. And I promise that is no exaggeration. I have never been eaten alive like I have the past 3 weeks.

We will be headed to Beijing next week and then home on the 2nd. My how a month flies.
I will try to write at least once more.