I’m writing this now because I’m avoiding studying for my midterm, which is going to be something I regret, but honestly, I cannot focus right now. I literally did all my major homework for this weekend as an avoidance method to studying.
I’ve just felt really drained all day. Class was slow, and I actually didn’t really have anything prepared for drill 2 today, and normally that class is my jam.
We had to advertise a weight loss tea, and I literally made everything up on the spot. I’m not sure how I got through it, but at one point I said “you know this tea will work because I use it! Have you seen me? I’m so curvy and pretty.” I was joking obliviously, but I was proud of myself for thinking that one up on the spot. Literally, I had no idea what I was going to say when the teacher asked: “yeah, but how do we know it works.” 哎呀.
I did get a Yang Laoshi quote today though, and it was “if you use tan tan to talk to boys, they could trick and kill you.” So thanks for that.
The next activity was a debate about whether or not we should ban TV ad, and I said we should because no one watches them, and they’re annoying. Daniel was arguing that we needed them because old people don’t know how to order stuff off the internet, so they use the TV as their main source of information. I tried to make a joke by saying “this sounds like an old person problem, which isn’t an issue because they’ll all be dead in a few years,” but no one got my joke. It was crude, but we had just learned how to say “within a time period” and I was ready to bust out that grammar pattern.
Lunch was just me and Hannah today since Rachel had to meet with her yuban, and Cayleigh was feeling sick today.
It was nice not having newspaper class because I had 2.5 hours free, and it would have been the rest of the day if it wasn’t Thursday, but unfortunately, I had 复习课, 一对一, and the RD meeting. Again, was not focused during any of it.
Yang Laoshi roasted us and asked why we were so bad at math, and I responded with “I came here to study Chinese, not math.”
My 一对一 was spent going over grammar patterns, and I think I understood it?
While I was actually waiting for Hannah to finish up, one of the teachers called me into the classroom and explained what I would be doing as the director. She said I was going to assign everyone their roles: ie, costume, makeup, acting, etc. I’m actually very excited for this, but nervous as well. I have no idea what I’m doing half the time in English, so it’ll be interesting to see how this goes in Chinese.
The movie set is going to be lit though. I honestly think that this trip is because of me. Like I’m the director and I’m literally just a 19-year-old running around screaming half the time. I texted my parents about the directing, and my mom said I should put it on my resume, but I think “directed a short film in Chinese while in China” is overselling what I’ll actually be doing.
The RD meeting was a riot, but it was because everyone is so over everything right now. It was nice though because Shanshida gave us two free tee shirts. The one good thing about being Chinese in China is that clothes fit you like they should I felt so bad for some of the guys, because they had to get 3XLs, and they’re still tight. The body proportions in this country are so different from that of America.
Also, our RD was talking about how we had to meet with him one-on-one as per program requirements. He was trying to make a joke by saying “I know some of you don’t want to meet with me one-on-one but I can’t have a threesome with yall.” I kind of just sat there in shocked, started laughing, made direct eye contact with Kevin, and we both died a little. This was not how I foresaw the meeting going, but here we are.
We talked about next week as well, and I’m super excited, because we only have class for two days. No class Monday because of the trip, class Tuesday and Wednesday, prep for presentation Thursday, and then present on Friday.
We’re supposed to give a big presentation on the trip this weekend, and part of our grade comes from the photos we take and how well we design the power point. This. Is. My. Shit.
For some reason, they put me in a group with Jason and Adam, which doesn’t make sense because their Chinese is well above mine. We’ve got a 600, 401, 300, and 201 in our group, so it’s literally the extremes of the classes. Honestly, I’ll take control of design if someone wants to write my part out for me lol.
So, now that I’m literally out of things to procrastinate about, I guess I actually have to do some studying.