Second year in a row I’ve spent the Fourth of July away from home. I’m actually wearing the same outfit I wore last year because I forgot to bring something red to make my outfit more America, but oh well.
It rained all day, and I don’t know why it doesn’t occur to me to wear flip-flops in the rain. If my feet are going to get wet, they might as well get wet and then be dry in a matter of minutes as opposed to sitting in wet socks all day.
Class was pretty good today because I actually understood the grammar pattern. Yang Laoshi was on a roll with the roasts today. We had “when I listen to your Chinese it sounds strange and awkward,” “you’re Chinese has some redeeming qualities,” and “if I say a sentence 10 times, Daniel will finally understand.”
Today in class, Hannah accidentally said “if my boyfriend doesn’t love me, that’s okay.” She just forgot to finish her sentence, but our drill two teacher was very confused.
For lunch, Hannah, Cayleigh, and I went to get milk tea. We also stopped by the bank to get money for this weekend. We went back to the lunch room for some actually food and then walked to the classroom for class.
We talked about abortion, and if I actually know how to speak Chinese, I think the conversation would have been very interesting.
We had a fourth of July celebration with pizza and watermelon. At some point Isaac threw a plate at me, so that was fun. Also, singing and harmonizing with Cayleigh is really fun.
My yuban, Hannah, and her roommate + yuban went to eat what I assumed was the be BBQ, but it turned out to be a bunch of different meats on a stick. Not complaining though.
I tried to teach Hannah how to speak in a southern accent, but it just wasn’t happening. In my Chinese class in high school, I had a friend with a really strong southern accent, and it was just fun listening to her say 老师我不知道. So, now when ever I say it, I like to do it in a really southern accent.
I had my yuban help me with my homework, and then we talked about the 留守儿童学校. I told her I thought it was irresponsible for parents to have children if they didn’t even have enough money to support them. My yuban said that it wasn’t a big deal and that the parent-child relationship was there, but it was just different. I concluded by saying I didn’t understand because I’m American, and that’s not how our relationships work.
I didn’t have much left to do after meeting, so I finished what little work I had left and goofed off on my phone.