Midterms!

So it's midterms week, which is pretty stressful. I probably should not be writing you all. But I have my October quota, also this is a nice break from studying.

This past weekend I went to the Mu-seum of NATURAL HISTORY! (that is for my dad, from that dinosaur movie-We're Back!) It cost about a dollar fifty and was pretty fun--they had formaldehyded sea creatures and amphibians, taxidermied mammals, and pinned up insects, some unbelievably large. I am glad I don't live in a place with unbelievably large beetles. All the signs were in Chinese, but they had English titles. Also, it was for kids, so the Chinese was sort of simple, which meant I could understand some of it. The English titles were also fun--translations here are often sub-par, which means hilarious. "An animal protecting starts within each of us."

Also, there was an eight year old girl there giving speeches like she was a tour guide--it looked like maybe a school assignment because there was an adult there taking notes? She just talked and talked so professionally for a few minutes at each "stop" on her tour, and she didn't seem to be the least bit nervous.

After the museum we went to a huge park nearby with a rose garden and Tiantan Temple, where the emperor used to go to pray for good harvests.

Things I like in China: Visiting my donut friend, eating a Korean dish called Bibimbap, yoga, parks, translations, spicy food, small restaurants, using Chinese to talk to storekeepers, roses everywhere, fall weather, street cart food, the fact that my Chinese is actually getting better.

Things I am starting to not like: classes being the same every day, missing American food and friends, forgetting tones, forgetting words, trying to remember everything, not knowing what people are talking about half of the time, only being able to say really simple sentences and ideas because my Chinese is not good enough for more complicated ones.

Think of the above as descriptive more than complaints.