I had my first day of classes yesterday! I have 4 hours of Chinese language class everyday starting at 8am. A reading-writing class and a speaking-listening class, then an hour for lunch then back to the class room for a tutorial review session. Some days we have a Chinese culture class after our tutorial session and other days we have free time to work on our independent research projects. AND when thats done its time to do homework! They don't kid around here, study abroad means STUDY and then study some more abroad. I might sound like I am complaining (okay I am a tiny bit) but its actually really good. The professors are great, the classes are so small we get so much one-on-one attention and it will really help improve my Chinese. Which was the point of studying abroad, I think :D
OH Did I forget to mention Tai-chi? Tuesdays and Thursdays we get up SUPER early and have a Tai-chi class at the lovely hour of 7am. My favorite part is that our class is held on this huge public field in front of several academic buildings. So its really just public embarrassment class. Today we had a crowd of about 5 people standing and gawking at the waiguoren or foreigners attempting Tai-chi, which is usually an activity for those over 60.
Its really a strange experience to be a minority and be openly stared at. The other day we (the group of W&M students I am with) went to Tiananmen Square to do some touristy stuff and one lady followed us around for about 15 minutes taking pictures of us. None of us have been asked to take pictures with people yet. I hear that after the olympics people got more used to foreigners.
Well thats all for today. Homework time!
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