Classes have begun
Today was our first actually day in the program. That translates into, classes, classes, classes ALL day long. Starting at 8 am we had breakfast, then directly after that we headed to our Chinese language classes. Since I am in intermediate 1, I am with Yang Lao Shi but other students have different teachers. We had class from 9-10:30. Class was not as bad as I thought it would be, I actually remember a lot more than I thought I did.
Since it was our first day, we also had orientation. After classes we went to the building next door for orientation with the Xiamen University president. On the walk over I learned that Chinese people don't use umbrellas for rain. Although many people think they do, they actually use them to shield themselves from the downpour of cicada pee that falls constantly from the trees. I am not exaggerating, you can literally see it falling from the trees in front of you. Yesterday I had thought it was rain but no my teacher confirmed that it is 100% cicada pee hitting my head. Lovely right? Anyways after running for my life away from the trees and into the comfort of a building, we had orientation. It was pretty boring since the lady was only speaking in Chinese, really fast Chinese. But we did receive our local phones for program use only. They aren't anything special. Just think, if I traveled back in time to the 1800 and had this phone, I'd be popular. It's one of those phones with teeny tiny screens and the keyboard along the number board. We only picked our interest groups at orientation. These are "classes" that we sign up for every week that we are interested in. For example there is Chinese calligraphy, folk dancing, Chinese instrument, paper cutting, and more. I would tell you what I signed up for but I don't remember; but you'll find out when I write about it later.
After orientation was lunch. Usually I don't really look forward to eating because the food isn't my favorite but I was surprised today. I had rice, chicken, cauliflower, tofu, and noddles. It was delicious. My friends and I gave it an 8 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best lunch we had ever had and 1 being the worst.
Guess what we did after lunch, more classes. This time it was culture class where Dr. Chen, the director of this program, lectures about Chinese culture and geography and so forth. It was interesting but I am not excited for his everyday quizzes that we will have.
After Culture Class we returned back to language class for an hour which was followed by tutoring with local students. It was fun talking to them in my broken Chinese and them trying to respond in their broken English.
Sorry, no pictures today :(
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wow that cicada pee part is crazy
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