I spent my Sunday with the BLCU Comicbook Club, a group of teen manga/anime fangirls girded with sufficient determination to cosplay (dress up as favorite characters) not only in very dodgy weather, but to march themselves to another, more photogenic, university for photos. They are even all particularly extroverted ( Read more... )

My unbroken streak of health since my arrival in Beijing last September has, alas, been disrupted by a cold this week. I am mostly recovered now and stubbornly did not skip a day of class ( Read more... )

I met up with 世阳, my tall "kid," today for the first time since the start of the new semester ( Read more... )

Heading into the second week of class, a few surprises have settled into reality ( Read more... )

Despite my absolute neglect of informing any of my Beijing friends that it was my birthday until today, luck was with me. I got three of my dorm mates to go to dinner, where we ran into my former classmate and several of his friends. We joined up, had a much bigger spread of food than either group otherwise would have, and they all kindly pitched ( Read more... )

Took my placement test this morning ( Read more... )

It has been 83 days since Beijing has seen rain.

My last exam is in three hours.

I don't believe the two are connected, but I wouldn't say no to a "Dune" moment and getting some rain after I complete the 口语。Sky's looking a bit too blue for that though.

Our "听力" or listening exam, was friday morning. It was perhaps, 5-10% harder than its midterm counterpart for me, which is to say, none really. Roughly an hour of carefully listening to recordings and marking answers, then it was over. Came out feeling good ( Read more... )

First exam, the hardest one for me where it's necessary to read & write Chinese, is down. Gets easier from here. Tomorrow, listening exam and Monday, speaking. These things I can do ( Read more... )

My hopes of surfing quietly through the remainder of this semester were dashed yesterday with a third emotional classroom blowup. None of them involved me blowing up, but beyond that, the less said about those the better. I shall be relieved to have a completely different environment next semester ( Read more... )