I fell asleep before midnight last night, and I actually sleep through the night. I must have been really exhausted because I already took a six-hour nap.
And, in other good news, my legs aren’t even sore. I talked to the other group that went to 华山 and they said they weren’t sore either. Logan joked that it was because it was a holy mountain, but honestly, it’s gotta have some powers because there’s no way I should be this pain-free. Throughout the hike, I kept joking by saying “catch me hobbling to class on Monday.” Although, I will say, seeing stairs is kind of triggering now.
Class was the usual and for drill 2 we had another role play. I was paired with Hannah instead of Daniel this time, which changed how I do role plays. Normally I just free form and make a joke out of them, but Hannah made me actually think.
I was trying to sell her a pen, and she ended up saying “oh I use my computer to take notes, so I have no need for a pen.” All I could think of was “wait…how would I even respond to that in English??” I ended up saying something along the lines of “well, what are you going to do when your teacher says you’re not allowed to use a computer to take notes?”
Cayleigh and Daniel’s role play was interesting because Daniel forgot which person he was supposed to be, so he ended up welcoming Cayleigh into her own store. She later ended up asking him why he was such a complicated person.
Rachel and Li Laoshi did the role play together, and Rachel piggybacked off of mine and Hannah’s since she was trying to sell a pen as well. Li Laoshi said she heard a different store was selling the same pen for 4/5 the price of Rachel, so Rachel started trash talking me. I said “安静” and then remember that Korey taught me the word for shut up (闭嘴, bizui) so I said that as well. Li Laoshi then told me I had bad manners, oops.
We got lunch at the 餐厅 and then afterward walked to shidalu because I needed to pull money from the bank.
Hannah, Rachel, Cayleigh, and I got drinks at GCUP and then went to newspaper class. I managed to read the article in 10 minutes with 90% comprehension, and I’m very impressed with myself. I will say, I did zone out, and when the teacher asked me a question I couldn’t respond. The most frustrating part about it this time was I knew exactly what she was asking me, but I had no idea how to respond. So instead of being silent because I didn’t know what was happening, I was silent because there was literally no answer in my head.
At the end of class, Li Laoshi talked about how we did on our presentations, and she told me: “Hayley, you did so good! You spoke so well; I was so impressed. You normally don’t say anything in class, but now I know how capable you are!” And, that, my friends, is called setting the bar as low as possible.
Hannah and I walked back to the dorms, and on the way, we thought we saw Korey wave to us, but neither one of us can see, so we low-key ignored him.
I did my homework in record speed—it probably took around 40 minutes? My yuban was running late, so I went to Hannah’s room because I had a homework question. Right when I opened the door, I saw my yuban, and she nearly gave me a heart attack. We went to Hannah’s room anyway because I figured she could help both of us. Hannah actually got the grammar’s right, and I just sat there like a sack of potatoes.
We watched douyin videos and discussed language learning. At one point, we started talking about learning Japanese, and I said that if you already know Chinese, reading Japanese isn’t too hard since they use some of the same characters. I told her I knew the word for “world” in Japanese before I knew it in Chinse because of an anime called sekaiichi hatsukoi. Now, here’s the thing: I used to love this anime in early high school, but it’s also a yaoi, so I didn’t expect her to know what it was, which is why I said the name.
Plot twist: she does and we both started laughing uncomfortably. Apparently, she and her friends also used to watch it in early high school. This was a bonding experience.
Also, idk how it never got brought up, but my yuban used to cosplay with her friends. Fun fact: cosplay is both an English and Chinese word.
We also watched vines, and I was able to translate “what up, I’m Jared, I’m 19, and I never learned how to fucking read” into Chinese. Finally, my skills are coming in handy.
At some point, Cayleigh’s roommate came into the room, and we had a good chat. She asked me about 华山, so I showed her some pictures, and she said she liked the hat I was wearing. I told her that it was actually Korey’s, but she said I should have taken it from him. I thought she was joking so I played along, but I think she was half serious because she kept pushing the issue lol. Cayleigh’s roommate also added me to the singing group, so catch me and some other people singing 那些花儿.
Before she left, I told her that I liked her shorts and asked where she bought them. She showed me Taobao, and then offered to help me buy them. Catch me rocking a cute pair of shorts soon. (And for on 25 kuai!!)
At 6:15, Hannah, Korey, Kyla, Faith, and I went to go get din din from the cafeteria. I need to stop making jokes about death because I think Faith is concerned for me.
Hannah, Korey, and I got ice cream from the 超市, and then I went back to my room to study for the tingxie.
Once Hannah finished reading, the two of us went to her room to play Runescape, but it was cut short because Korey and I had to go practice with some other people for a performance at the end of the program. Cayleigh, Mei, plus the Chinese roommates, and I are singing 那些花儿 and Korey and his roommate are playing the guitar.
Cayleigh and I tried to figure out the harmony, but neither of us has the ability to harmonize on queue, so we spent a good thirty minutes just plucking out notes on a piano app on my phone.
Funny story: Korey tried to text “everyone steals my shit” but ended up sending “everyone steals me shit” followed by “autocorrect just made me sound like a leprechaun.” I burst out laughing and my roommate asked me what was so funny, but I couldn’t explain it because there are too many layers to it. First of all, if English isn’t your first language, it’s not going to make sense. Second of all, how do you even explain that in Chinese?
I tried to say that “steal me shit” isn’t proper English, followed by what it should be. I then said Irish people might say “steal me shit” which is why it was funny, but she couldn’t understand. Ah, classic language barriers.