I figured out that I bought the worst laundry detergent you can buy (also the cheapest), so that's why my laundry was stiff when it finally all dried. For a while I was frantically searching for places where people would do laundry for me, but I really didn't find anything until I asked the RAs. Apparently there's one literally 15 feet away from my dorm. I thought it was just a dry cleaners. Anyway.
Yesterday and today I had my real first classes. Thursday was a fluke since the class I signed up for was horrible. I think I mentioned that. It was called "Globalization of China's Environment" and was mostly political. Not really my cup of tea. I switched into literary translation, which I had yesterday, and it was amazing. I am so glad I switched into that class. The professor is a linguist, and also apparently the best Chinese/English translator in the world? I'm pretty sure somebody casually mentioned that.
I SHOULD CLARIFY, since nobody seems to understand this. Being a linguist is NOT the same as being able to speak languages. This guy just happens to be both. As one of my professors at U of R so aptly put it, asking a linguist how many languages he/she speaks is like asking a doctor how many diseases he/she has.
Moving on. Today I had calligraphy. The professor for this class is AWESOME. Holy crap! Seven universities in the United States are begging him to come teach for them, including Harvard and Yale, but he was like nope, the Chinese education system needs me. /flies away. And he is a direct descendent of Manchu royalty. Many other things too, and basically the coolest guy ever. Also an incredibly, incredibly talented calligrapher.
The weather has been beautiful the past two days! On Saturday and Sunday it poured, which cleared out all the pollution in the air. Also clouds too I guess, since the sky is so incredibly blue. It's been in the mid-seventies. Eee! I can't even believe it. The first week I was here it was in the nineties with 100% humidity every day. So obviously I hope it stays like this until winter, and doesn't get so hot again.
I lied, I did take a picture. It's up on facebook, though, so I'm sorry if this is a repeat for you.
Other things I am happy about:
-Chinese roommates don't move in until Friday. This is excellent because my first roommate moved out on Sunday, and I previously thought that the Chinese roommates moved in on Tuesday (today), so I get a little more time to myself. Which is awesome.
-Although I have a lot of homework to do, all of the time, it gives me an excuse to not go out and not feel guilty about it. Win.
-If I do go out in lieu of doing homework, it won't really matter since the grades I get in my classes here don't factor into my GPA. But obviously this is not how I function, and I will be doing homework anyway.
-We started our one-on-one tutoring sessions yesterday. Mine is at 7pm, which sucks, but apparently the two people that have their sessions before me aren't that good at Chinese, so when I got there and started reading the text, my tutor was like oh man you are so good at this! Ego boost.
-So far I've eaten one full meal and one half meal, and it's only 6pm! Already this is a big improvement, and I might (but probably not) go out and get more food.
-I GET TO SLEEP IN TOMORROW. I don't have morning Chinese classes on Wednesdays. Ooooh I am looking forward to that.
-This is super weird of me, but all the Chinese babies here are so. adorable. I can't even. I want to steal ALL of them. There was one today who was wearing shoes that squeaked when he walked. Like two puppy chew toys attached to his feet. I made the weirdest "awwwwwww!" noise.
But on the other hand:
I got this book of fables for kids that I'm (slowly/laboriously) trying to translate. I've been told it's a hard way to learn, but I find it way more entertaining than reading lame dialogue. There was this great moment on the train when I was wondering why, if a story began with "很久很久以前" the first few verbs had "着" after them. How could the action be on-going AND a long time ago? A random Chinese guy just happened to be there (it was neat) and he explained it as "a status that has been going on for a long time." I think I'm going to put a "since" in my translation somewhere, but yep. It's pretty rewarding. Well, when I didn't realize "除夕" meant New Year's Eve and I thought someone was trying to remove the evening, that sucked, but still. Figured it out eventually.
ReplyDeleteI know! I find translating to be so satisfying. In my class we discuss what the meaning of the Chinese is and how we should go about saying the same thing in English. It takes forever, and it's mostly just "which adverb do we use to describe this?" or "does 弹 mean 'a bullet' or 'to pluck or flick'? " Lots and lots of confusion but it is so cool.
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