Update!

Hello people of the world but mostly America, and mostly Ohio and Pennsylvania in America, but also whoever, aliens, Google, China, etc,

Just wanted to let you know that I haven't given up on writing here. I had a really good winter break. I traveled and hung out with Jake and relaxed in Beijing. We started classes a week ago and I am trying to get back in the swing of the language pledge and studying.

Thankfully I am much more "used" to both ACC and speaking Chinese now, so I'm having a richer experience already. Tonight I had dinner with my Chinese family and I could actually talk to them and understand what they said back to me. Last semester I nodded and said mmm (嗯) a lot.

So anyway, if you find this interesting, keep coming back. I'll have more pictures, and more regular updates, as the semester goes on. Tonight I have to get back to work though.

More later,
Jen

Language Pledge

We started the language pledge yesterday. It was exciting at first, but now it sucks.
I realized I can't say anything! I get nervous so I say hello when I mean goodbye and I didn't understand the cashier at the fast food chinese restaurant when she said 12 (the price of my food). a girl next to me corrected me in english pretty abruptly. I guess I was holding up the fastness of the food with my ignorance. Anyway everything is embarrassing. Apparently this stage lasts for two to three weeks. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
But I took yoga again today. I think it will bring me a little peace every now and again.
The next three days I don't have too much to do. I hope I can see some cool stuff, take pictures, and write you about it. But then I have to talk to people! We'll see :)

pictures, placement tests and kendeji

this is my dormitory and where I have classes!
ten of us went out for a "casual" lunch after our teachers took us for a tour. At Chinese restaurants you order a bunch of food and everybody shares. This place was the best tasting food so far--roasted asparagus with spicy peppers, chicken with nuts, seaweed with nuts, some potato and eggplant thing, spare-ribs, wonton soup, etc. etc. Also, we split the bill ten ways and it came down to about 20 kuai or 3 US dollars each. It is wonderful to eat so well for so cheap!
This crazy looking building is in my neighborhood. It is still being finished and when it is done it will be the CCTV (China Central Television or something) headquarters. I walk past it all the time and I still can't really believe it exists. I would like to go in that top weird corner at some point but I am guessing I will not be able to.
Chinese ad for Maidanglao--McDonalds! Note the drumsticks exploding out of the bag. I would not be sad if I didn't go to Maidanglao or Starbucks the entire time I am here, although I have already been to Pizza Hut, KFC, and Walmart. It is fun to compare and contrast. But starbucks is expensive!
This is the scene of one of my favorite China adventures so far: the donut shop. They look pretty authentic, don't they? they taste pretty authentic too. Apparently the guy who owns it is married to a taiwanese woman who learned how to make them from americans, and they make them above the store. I definitely plan to go back because I also made a friend there. I will put a picture up of her next time but this time it would only let me do five pictures for some reason.

We started the language pledge today and took our spoken placement test. written placement test and results tomorrow! I'll let you guys know.

Tonight I am going to try and take yoga at the gym. Should be interesting at least because they teach it in Chinese.

the greatest power the Internet has is to reveal just how little people care about what we write

the title to this blog entry is a quote that can be found at today's article on Savage Minds, the anthropology blog which I really enjoy reading and which I will now link to on the side of this page. It comes from an interesting blog entry that talks about how even though the internet makes writing blogs and creating groups much easier, we don't have time to really get into very much of it. i think that depends on how much time we spend on facebook, but that's just me.

today I finally didn't feel completely scared in China. I went to a store that said "Donut Shop" in English and to my surprise they had delicious american-style donuts. I spent about two hours talking to the girl who worked there IN CHINESE! I used my dictionary a lot but it was really exciting. She didn't speak much English and she was really bored because not too many people go to the "Donut Shop" (Chinese don't like things that are too sweet, and it is in an awkward location for foreigners).

I was so pumped about this that I went to the Kodak store to get passport pictures and managed to order them in Chinese, and bought some office supplies in a tiny little office supplies store.

My confidence was punctured a little when I went to join the gym and I didn't understand anything the guy said. Thankfully so many ACC students go there I knew what to do, but still, it was depressing.

My roommate and I ate at Pizza Hut tonight. It was our last meal where we could talk in English so we just decided to go for the American food too. The veggie pizza had corn, pineapple, mushrooms, tomato, and green pepper and was very very good. They had a seafood pizza too with just about any animal you can eat out of a shell on it, and escargot as an appetizer. In China Pizza Hut is a fancy affair--people get all dressed up and you sit down and they treat you very well. They also have McDonalds and KFC but those are fast food like we know it.

i have more mosquito bites than i ever have had at one time in my life. tomorrow i start the language pledge. more adventures to come!