My roommate said that 25 degrees was 太冷了so we agreed to put it at 27. As long as I don’t move, it’s a comfortable temperature.
I ended up waking up five minutes before my alarm, so I didn’t have time to lounge around. We had one last orientation, and then we started class. The first class isn’t bad. I like it. But our teacher gives us tough love. She told us we moved too slow because we only covered one lesson, but the rest of us thought we ’re moving too fast. The good news is I understand the grammar patterns, although that’s probably only because my roommate explained that to me in 英文.
Also, the language policy started today, so that was the last of the 英文 I’ll be speaking with my peers. Everyone is now strangely awkward, and uttering a single word in English will get gasps and quick corrections. No one wants to lose points, but also we’re struggling to communicate.
I will say, the cool thing about the language policy is that it gets you to think. Since I can’t say “X” in Chinese, I’ll have to figure out how to say it using the words I do know. It’s a struggle, but even after class when I was alone, I kept thinking in Chinese and would utter stuff in the language. It’s very easy to slip back into English, but it feels wrong. While I would love to go back to speaking in English with my cohorts, I know that’s not a thing anymore. It’s an adjustment alright.
The second class (newspaper) is kicking my ass. I had to get my roommate to help me read the homework, and she said it’s too difficult because of the specialized vocabulary. We told the teacher it was too hard, so maybe she’ll give us something easier to read.
For lunch, I had a really good sandwich, burger thing? Idk, but it was yummy.
I had to ask our RD to help me exchange my sim card since it’s cut and will not work in my program phone. When we got to the store, they said the program phone was too old, and that a new sim card would not work inside it. They tried to get us to buy a new phone, so Phillip called one of the teachers, and said we had to call DC. But here’s the thing: it’s 3:30 in the morning in DC. So we leave the store and get me a different program phone hoping the sim card will work in that one.
I put the sim card in the phone, but the phone’s not charged. Nbd, I’ll plug it up. My outlet converter doesn’t work. I know, we’ll use Philip’s MacBook. Oh wait, it’s the new one, so no USB. Ah, good, he has a dongle. Okay, phone’s charged, andddd…the sim card doesn’t work.
We end up putting a sim card from a working phone into my phone, but even that doesn’t work. I give Daniel his sim card back, but plot twist, now his phone doesn’t work. Now we’re down two program phones and mind you all this is happening in Chinese. Idk how I was able to follow along, but I was.
We leave, I do homework for five or six hours, eat dinner, and am sad that I couldn’t go see the Chinese drama because we have 听写 every day. 我想哭啊.