I woke up 40 minutes before my alarm, and I was surprisingly comfortable this morning. Idk how I did it, but I managed to find the perfect sleeping condition. Normally, when I wrap myself in the comforter, I’m limited in my movement since the comforter is not very big, but last night, I just slept on the edge of the bed, giving me maximum coverage and movement.
Nothing excited really happened in class other than getting back our midterms. I already knew grammar was my weak spot, but goddamn, I lost all my points on it (22 to be exact.) I got full credit on reading comprehension and writing though, but it’s a shame that that portion of the test isn’t worth more. Sad reacts only.
I did finally get my oral report grades back, and I made a 2.93 and a 2.96 out of 3, so I’m very satisfied. I was scared because I thought that the grade was out of 5, but thankfully, it is not.
Drill two was interesting because I forgot to look over the topics until 10 minutes before class started. When I realized it was just a presentation on what Chinese people do during the New Year, I called going first because our textbook dialogue was literally that topic. My master plan was just to say everything the textbook said and call it a day. Somehow that worked, and then when Rachel tried to do the same, Li Laoshi told her she needed to come up with her own sentences and said that no one else is allowed to read from the textbook. Suckers.
Joking, but I did get off easy.
The second part of drill two was a role play situation, and I got paired with Daniel. Idk how we went from “what did you do during the Chinese New Year” to “I dislike my wife’s parents because they criticize me” but we did, and I’m okay with that.
On the way to lunch, Rachel, Cayleigh, Hannah, and I talked about how Yang Laoshi is so obsessed with why weight is a sensitive topic in America because today in class, I tried to explain that the media likes to tell us that fat people are ugly. I tried to explain that, even if a friend asks if they look fat/are fat, we say no regardless if we think it’s true or not. She then called our culture superficial.
Cayleigh ended up making a good point: this isn’t something you can really explain; it’s just out culture. It’s like how Chinese people think drinking hot water is good for your health, but if you ask them why, they can’t really explain it. It’s something that’s taught, and you believe it because it’s been a truth all your life. We’re told not to ask people about their weight because it’s rude. In China, telling a friend about their weight is a way to show concern for their health, but in America, it’s an issue of vanity.
Idk, I think this topic of conversation is interesting because it shows how different topics have different connotations.
I finally finished a whole meal at lunch today, and I’m so proud of myself. I had a plate of noods, and they were super tasty.
Newspaper class was rough today because I hardcore zoned out, and then the teacher was asking for my opinion of the refugee crisis. She told me to be Trump and then say what I think he would say to a boat full of 500 refugees. I ended up saying “go home.” Li Laoshi then asked if I would say that to a bunch of sick and dying people, and I said “well, if I was Trump I would.”
It was a mess.
She also asked what we thought some of the disadvantages of letting in refugees was, and I said “some people think that refugees will take out jobs.” I know it’s immigrants, but I was really out of it today. Everyone started laughing, and we had to explain to Li Laoshi what we were talking about. It’s a whole thing.
In the 40 minutes I had between newspaper and my meeting with Philly, my group met to discuss our group project. I said I’d put together the power point if everyone set me their information. Now is my time to shine.
I’ve decided I’m going to talk about my experience in a Chinese film set vs my experience in an American one. I think it should be a good topic of conversation, but I’ll have to look up the words for that first.
The meeting with Phil wasn’t bad. He asked me about how I was doing, what I liked and disliked about the program, and we briefly discussed my goals. I told him about my trip to China last year, and despite this one being much harder, I’m happier. Although, I did make the joke about wanting to launch myself off the balcony, and he didn’t find it funny. He told me that someone might actually want to do that. I’m sure I wouldn’t be joking about that if I actually wanted to do that, but I digress.
The other thing we talked about was the Chengdu trip. I made comment that idk how I got put in charge of organizing the whole trip, and he said that he noticed that everyone kept putting my name down as the inviting party on their form. That made me laugh because I told people not to do that, but I appreciate their trust in me.
Finally free, I went back to the dorms to work on homework. At some point, Amanda came into my room to escape the heat. This week, the temperature is supposed to get up to 103, and this just so happens to be the week that her AC is broken. Some people came to fix it, and they were literally standing on her balcony banging at the thing without a harness. We’re ten stories up, and these people are just standing on the edge of the balcony like they’re not several hundred feet above the ground.
Korey came back from the gym as well, and he, Amanda, and I chatted for a bit. He gave me some of his rock candy (it’s literally pure sugar, and I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to put it in tea and not eat it like candy). The bad thing is that he left it in my room, so I kept snacking on it after her left, which is bad for my health.
In an attempt to avoid doing homework, Korey and I did laundry. Surprisingly enough, my one week’s worth of clothes plus his fit in the same tiny-ass washing machine. Also, god bless tide pods.
I decided I was sick of dealing with drying all my clothes on only 5 hangers, so I sucked it up, went to the 超市 and bought 20 hangers for 12.50 kuai. I love this country.
Two Asians and Korey (Hannah, me, and Korey) went to go get dinner, and we realized how limited our options were now that schools out. Literally, there are only a select 4 stands open, and the second floor is closed, so no more chicken nuggies.
On the walk back over, I tried to convince Hannah and Korey to come visit me in Nashville since it’s centrally located, but Korey doesn’t believe that. He tried to get us to come to Washington because it’s “better” and also because he “owns a house” that we can “crash at.”
I was going to say “master plan: Hannah get your ass to Memphis, and then we’ll road trip it to Washington,” but she interrupted me at “get your ass to Memphis” and completed my sentence with “and not invite Korey,” which is also a very valid option.
Since Hannah and I will turn 21 the same year, we have a master plan to go out drinking together. Whether or not that will happen is up in the air, but I think it should happen.
So, basically, Korey was telling us that we should come to Washington when we’re 21 because he’s older and will know where all the good bars are. He said we’d probably be giggling showing our IDs because we’d be new 21-year-olds, and blah, blah, blah. #roasted
But also, Korey realized he’ll be 26 when we’re 21, and I think that put him in a very small crisis lol.
When we got back to the dorms, Korey grabbed his external hard drive so we could put the photos and videos that Hannah’s roommate had on it. Somehow, Korey’s managed to fill up a 2 terabyte hard drive, so we had to delete a few things, but it was Gucci. We got some quality videos of us high key failing at the film studio.
I took Korey’s hard drive so I could transfer everything onto my computer, air drop it to myself, and then send it to Hannah and Korey so we could all have everything on our phones.
So, you know how I said I finally bought hangers? Turns out there’s a reason you don’t put all your clothes on a weak-ass clothes line, and it’s because it will collapse and drop all your clean laundry on the ground.
The string was too short to each the other side of the balcony, but luckily, I found another string and tried it to the original one so it could reach. That plan worked for two seconds because the knot I tied sucked. I ended up asking Korey if he knew how to tie knots (they teach that stuff in the military, right?), so he came to help me.
It turns out you should bring scissors to this country because we tried to cut the second line so we could make the first line longer. Finger nail clippers are not the best option. Thankfully, Hannah has scissors because she used them to cut her bangs. We waited around for a while for her to bring them, and in that time, we sorted through all the photos.
My roommate returned and started laughing at how bad our Chinese was in the video.
After Korey left, I worked on my presentation for Friday. Hannah came back to retrieve her scissors, and we had a solid conversation about being awkward and how we cope with it. I did a little analysis of her and Korey. I said that Hannah likes to pay up how awkward she is because if she thinks other people know that she’s self-aware, it’s not a problem. I then said that I do the same thing, but instead I use self-deprecating humor. If other people know that I think I’m a piece of shit, it hurts less when they tell me. With Korey, I said he likes to downplay how smart he is so people lower their expectations.
I think it’s fascinating to see how we all deal with ourselves.
My roommate and I actually had a funny conversation.
It took us 10 minutes to figure out how to say film studio in Chinese because I was trying to translate “sound stage.” I then didn’t know how to say “film set,” so I tried to say “well you can put green screens in here,” but then she thought I was trying to translate green screen. When we finally did get to the word I wanted, it was the biggest moment of “oh my god we got it.”
My roommate asked me if I wanted to go climb a mountain and I said no. She then said: “Korey’s going to be there” and I was like damn, she sused me out quick. I tried to defuse that comment by saying “let me ask Hannah if she wants to go.” It didn’t work because a few minutes later she said “well Korey’s going, so figure it out.” I’m actually dead.
I showed her the turtle stack photo and she asked why Logan was on the bottom in the original pose. She said “Korey should be the base because he’s in the military.” She then took note of Logan’s beard and asked why he was growing it out. I joked and said it was because there was a girl here that likes him, but she told him she didn’t like beards. (That’s not the reason he’s growing it out though.) She asked me if it was an American student, and I said no. She then asked if it was a language partner, so I told her it was a roommate. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it’s Shi Yi. She then told me she wasn’t surprised because she has classes with her, and she’s always like this. “She always goes after boys and tries to make them do stuff for her.” I’m actually dead. She low-key roasted her.
We started talking about George Washington, and I made her listen to Hamilton. She couldn’t understand the words though, which is valid. I should have made her listen to Guns and Ships.
I’m dead.