Week Two - Part Two

Ni hao everyone!



I'm having some camera picture loading difficulties, so no pictures this time, but more will follow soon, I promise. :)



Yesterday was my class's day of final exams, so there aren't any classes for the rest of the summer. As a result, Nankai University has graciously had two teachers step forward to personally teach myself and my roomie Monica for the remainder of our stay, beginning this morning. Classes are from 8:30a-10:10a and 10:30a-12:10p as usual, only this time it's like having a private tutor. The classes are entirely in Chinese, and let me tell you, trying to explain things like "luckily" and "movie director" in Chinese to us is quite amusing. I have learned a lot today alone, so I'm definitely looking forward to seeing how much I can absorb during the rest of my stay. One thing that's interesting, for those of you with a penchant for linguistics, is how varied the pronounciation is within ONE dialect. For example, the Mandarin word for "who" is "shei," which I've always been taught was pronounced "shay." But here, people don't recognize what you're saying unless you say "shui," which sounds more like "shway." I know that probably doesn't interest 90% of you reading this, but it just earmarks what a tough time learning a foreign language can be, especially when literally billions of people speak it. I've had so many different teachers, I wonder what I sound like to a native speaker; probably extremely geographically confused with my myriad of accetns, if nothing else. (high school Spanish students, you know what I'm talking about - the "th" thing, lol)

As a result of having virftually one-on-one lessons, I will be having a hefty amount of homework each night. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but this is the time when I miss my instant internet access I was so accustomed to at home. No opening a laptop and having an immediate connection with the rest of the world. Also something I miss, my mom recently sent me an email about one of the best shows on American television these days, So You Think You Can Dance. I definitely miss my call-in-and-vote shows. (American Idol, see you next season!) :)

Today, I went and had my hair cut at a Kerastase salon (a well-respected international hair product and styling company, for those of you who prefer the $7 haircut and are unfamiliar with this particular line...ie Dad...lol). I had an AMAZING head massage, and they microscoped my scalp and hair (I could have done without that, you know I'm queasy with seeing my own cells), and then I showed them a picture in a magazine of the style I was looking for and...no. NOTHING like what the picture was. I'll have to post a pic next time, but let's just say, I'm as uber-stylish as the native Chinese girls here now. Which means I feel ridiculous with the result. Half of me feels extremely Chinese, the other half more like a 50s actress, with the volume and flips and rounded-to-the-side bangs. Short in front of my shoulders, long in back, my brother would definitely call this a not-so-distant relative of the mullet. I am undecided as to what to do right now...but it did cost me only about $10 US. Small price for all the hair they took off...I'm leaning more toward just keeping it completely tamed with clips and hair thingy's. To be continued...

Alright, that's all for now. Beijing Saturday!!

Zaijian!
~Robyn