Happy birthday to us!
Happy birthday to me and Stevie! Yay!
The teachers are planning an awesome party for tonight. I'm very excited.
I started writing little bios of the people with whom I am traveling. I'll include them at the bottoms of my entries as I write them.
Max and Jared went on a double date the night before last with some Chinese girls. Max was very reluctant to go, being the shy, studious young man that he is, but I heard in the morning that he had a wonderful time. Jared says that Max and the girl really hit it off. I'm very happy for him.
Wang Laoshi invited us to dinner last night. She is a very good cook. She made all kinds of wonderful things that we can only partially identify, but it was better than any of the restaurants. She had some delicious things that had the texture of matzo balls but turned out to be made of crab and shrimp. Whatever, it was good.
In other news, I'm going to try to stay an extra week in order to spend some time in Shanghai. I feel like I'm gypping myself a little bit by not seeing any place besides Hefei and spending all four of my weeks in class. Some of the other students are staying in Shanghai from the 2nd to the 8th, so I think I'll hop on board that if I can. (Hello, parents!)
On Morgan, 21, one of my two flatmates:
Morgan is a social butterfly. Halfway through the school year she shaved her head and began a “finding herself” sort of phase, possibly as a result of her boyfriend leaving her. She started to question the social concepts of feminine beauty and women’s place in American culture, and it seems like she hasn’t quite figured out what she feels yet. Maybe she’s looking for answers to her questions in other people, because she talks to every random person she meets, trying to get each one’s story.
Morgan loves being in China because she doesn’t have to make any commitments to anyone she meets. None of her friends are good life-long friends, they’re just some random Chinese people she meets and will probably never see again after she leaves. She probes each new person, whether he is a waiter or a student or just a guy on the street, about his life. She’ll strike up a conversation on any topic she can think of that might interest her acquaintance. “What’s your favorite drink?”, “Are you a student? What do you study?”, “Do you think this shirt looks good?” We’ve witnessed her ask these questions to people who happened to be walking next to her on the sidewalk. Though this would seem strange in America, the Chinese love meeting Westerners, so she almost always gets a good conversation going and has made many friends already.
The teachers are planning an awesome party for tonight. I'm very excited.
I started writing little bios of the people with whom I am traveling. I'll include them at the bottoms of my entries as I write them.
Max and Jared went on a double date the night before last with some Chinese girls. Max was very reluctant to go, being the shy, studious young man that he is, but I heard in the morning that he had a wonderful time. Jared says that Max and the girl really hit it off. I'm very happy for him.
Wang Laoshi invited us to dinner last night. She is a very good cook. She made all kinds of wonderful things that we can only partially identify, but it was better than any of the restaurants. She had some delicious things that had the texture of matzo balls but turned out to be made of crab and shrimp. Whatever, it was good.
In other news, I'm going to try to stay an extra week in order to spend some time in Shanghai. I feel like I'm gypping myself a little bit by not seeing any place besides Hefei and spending all four of my weeks in class. Some of the other students are staying in Shanghai from the 2nd to the 8th, so I think I'll hop on board that if I can. (Hello, parents!)
On Morgan, 21, one of my two flatmates:
Morgan is a social butterfly. Halfway through the school year she shaved her head and began a “finding herself” sort of phase, possibly as a result of her boyfriend leaving her. She started to question the social concepts of feminine beauty and women’s place in American culture, and it seems like she hasn’t quite figured out what she feels yet. Maybe she’s looking for answers to her questions in other people, because she talks to every random person she meets, trying to get each one’s story.
Morgan loves being in China because she doesn’t have to make any commitments to anyone she meets. None of her friends are good life-long friends, they’re just some random Chinese people she meets and will probably never see again after she leaves. She probes each new person, whether he is a waiter or a student or just a guy on the street, about his life. She’ll strike up a conversation on any topic she can think of that might interest her acquaintance. “What’s your favorite drink?”, “Are you a student? What do you study?”, “Do you think this shirt looks good?” We’ve witnessed her ask these questions to people who happened to be walking next to her on the sidewalk. Though this would seem strange in America, the Chinese love meeting Westerners, so she almost always gets a good conversation going and has made many friends already.