Long story short:
Wake up: 6:30, I’ve come to enjoy the extra 15 minutes I have in the morning before breakfast. Usually, at home, I don’t wake up until the last minute because that’s the only way to guarantee I’ll get out of bed.
Breakfast: fried dumpling skins and 汤包
School: We learned about Chinese memes today, and I’ve never been more amused. Like, our teacher just whipped out a meme power point in the middle of class, because she wanted to teach us about Chinese pop culture. Most of the memes revolved around “being too beautiful for others to handle” or “being fat”. My favorite was a picture of two penguins in a boat. Both of them are fat, but then one loses weight and the boat tips over. Our teacher explained this meme as: “Two friends are fat. One loses weight. They are no longer friends.” And that’s not even the best part of my day. In our second class we had a 听写, but it wasn’t for a grade; it was for a really good tea. I was kind of betting on the fact that no one else would study because I wanted this tea. (And the bragging rights.) And I probably would have won if Naomi hadn’t snatched my life by studying so hard. It’s fine because I came in second and got four Oreos. Also Naomi is the best, because she gave me ¼ of her drink. (Mainly because I’m annoying.) Also, we’re having a party in class tomorrow and I’m excited. We going to bring food, play music, and play some games. But first we have to make it through another 听写. Boo.
Lunch: If you get placed in Nanjing, then first floor cafeteria is the way to go. I got a bowl of rice (I didn’t chicken out this time!), chicken, a sushi roll, and a really good orange drink for like 20 kuai. I’m so happy.
Shopping: I refrained from buying stuff even though I could have used my meal card. I’m so proud of myself because there was stationary, and I didn’t buy any! But wait, this story gets better. First of all, I was minding my own business when some guy slides into my DMs but irl. He literally slide against the shelf, put his arm on it, and looked directly at me. I thought he was one of my friends at first, but it clearly wasn’t. I walked away in fear. Two: I was looking at some teas, because I need to get my friends gifts. I was trying to open one to see what the tea looked like, but then some guy walked up to me and started speaking to me. I assumed he was a store worker who was trying to tell me not to open the tea, so I just sat it down and walked away awkwardly. He then followed me and asked: 你是中国人吗？I responded I was, and while I knew how to say “I was born in China and grew up in America” my brain decided to say a different sentence pattern that I ended up getting tripped on. The guy finished my sentence for me, and then asked if the people I was with were also Americans. I said yes and then he asked me why we were here. Using my broken Chinese, I explained we were studying here for the summer. I thought he was done with me, but boy was I wrong. He then came up to me and took my wallet in his hands and stared at my driver’s license. He asked me what it was and I responded with the very intelligible answer of: “this is a card that allows me to drive in America”. That circumlocution though. The guy started at my picture for a while before saying I was pretty and then walked off. I think he was trying to flirt with me, but idk really. I’m just going to flatter myself though and say he was flirting with me.
RD Meeting: We learned that we have to present stories about Chinese history tomorrow for some competition. I’m just going to whip out something from Barron. #APChinese We also learned about our IIOP (bleh), so I think I’m just going to make some bomb ass power point presentation and then translate an essay I wrote in comp. gov. into Chinese. It’s going to be lit.
Cultural activity: We got to make dumplings! It was more stressful then I thought it was going to be mainly because some lady kept yelling at me and telling me my dough was “不好看”.
Keys: It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to open the door to the apartment because no one has let me open the door by myself prior. And you would think it was be easy to just insert a key and turn it, but no. Apparently the door has 4 dead bolts, which means you have to turn the key four times to the right. Well no one told me that, and also, you have to push on the door to get the other three bolts to unlock, otherwise the key gets stuck on the first lock. I texted my host mom and sister for help, but they didn’t respond. I was ready to sit in the hallway for an hour by myself, but I decided to suck it up and figure out how to use the key. Quite frankly, I’m surprised the neighbors didn’t come out to see what all the noise was about, because it honestly sounded like I was trying to break in.
Mailboxes: I spent an entire day trying to figure out how to translate “mailing address” effectively to my host sister. I didn’t want the building address; I wanted to know the address to send packages. A supposedly simple task was more trouble that it was worth.
Dinner: My host sister and father and I went out for dinner because my host mom is out with some friends. I had some 牛汤包 and some more 汤包 in general. Life is good.
Looking back, I’m surprised at how lively today was.