Long story short:
Wake up: 6:45
Breakfast: Walnut milk, a peach, and some corn? Tbh I forgot.
School: Pretty uneventful until the mid-term, and even that wasn’t as bad as it could have been. There’s only one section I’m pretty sure I absolutely botched, but everything else was fine. (I hope).
Orion: Orion connected me with a NSLI-Y alumn who gave her IOPP about adoption. I sent her a message on Wechat and accidentally asked her about her OPI. Fml.
Lunch: My usual drink with my usual peeps + Sam Chan. (Rip Jessica for getting killed)
Sam Chan: I actually had a really nice conversation with Sam Chan about my IOPP and host family.
Me and Chinese: I gave a speech about being Chinese-American and the class had a good discussion about my topic.
Song class: We learned 甜蜜蜜
Meaningful conversations: After the culture class, Jessica Yan, Ben, Justin Thach, Josie, Ines, Orion, and I had a solid conversation about NSLIY academic year, languages, accents, and genetics. It was really nice being able to answer questions about academic year and when to take it. Even though I will never get to do academic year, I did get to throw in my two cents about how you’d want to do it as a gap year. I also got to share my knowledge about critical language learning periods and how to eliminate an accent. I liked talking to these people.
Walk: Jessica Yan and I went on a walk around Nanjing as we tried to find a building to climb. (Access the rooftop.) We ended up getting questioned by a guard who asked us: “what country are you from??” We yeefed out of there pretty quickly.
Program phone: This stupid thing ended up sending a blank text message to my host mom. I’m annoyed because I was trying to tell her I was on my way home. I hope she wasn’t worried too much ugh.
Dinner: Corn, meat, cabbage, rice, and cucumber