Week 4

Hi! I don't have any new photos uploaded yet but I need to post! We are officially halfway done with our adventure. Crazy to think we've been here for an entire month! This week was full of events, some good some bad. First of all on Monday everyone was exhausted from the Taishan trip, and in class all of our teachers were asking why we were so tired and why we didn't go to bed earlier. So because we were so tired they ended up letting us out early! Then on Tuesday a bunch of us got the flu and missed class =[ myself included. I think we all got the same bug from each other while spending 5 hours together on the bus. But it only lasted 1 day for me, so Wednesday I got to go back to class and have fun again. Every Wednesday now we have calligraphy class (书法课）where we learn to write characters with traditional brush and ink, and I really enjoy it. I still cannot even write my name yet though! We only learn a couple of strokes at a time and each one is hard to master. The teacher is really friendly, he is learning a little English from us and I try to understand as much of his Chinese as I can. Also, Wednesday was the 4th of July!! We celebrated by dressing in red white and blue all day. Some people got to sing patriotic songs to their teachers in class (not me) and then at night we went to an international bar called Helen's where we got pizza and burgers and listened to American music! I had a lot of fun but then it was pouring rain when we left and our cab driver was really mean (to say the least) On Thursday I had a really good day, because I made a new Chinese friend! His English name is Charles, and I met him through my other friend Faye (非一）because he is nice enough to lend me an old cell phone while I am here. The three of us with a couple other friends got lunch together and went to the cellphone store to buy a charger. Then we also got ice cream. And now I have been texting my Chinese friends all the time!! Getting the phone was definitely the highlight of my week, because I miss texting and having a phone that works so much, and now I can use it to practice Chinese.

That is all I will write for now, I want to do a weekend post later because we finally got to go to the Great Wall! Okay I love and miss everyone!!!