Tuesday

Oh I do not like waking up for 8:10 class. Thank God for reason #21 I love China: iced coffee juice boxes for 50 cents! Today in our social issues class we talked about unemployment of college graduates in China. Not one of our more interesting topics, but that class is my favorite because it's discussion based. I also think it's really helped my Chinese the most because I've had to learn how to articulate my opinion on all these different topics, and then explain why I disagree or agree with other people's opinions. The vocab has been really practical, and our weekly tests are essays so it's been a good balance of spoken and written Chinese. After that class speaking class was again on house reform. Soo boring. I get the basic gist that there's three types of housing in China: market housing that people can buy if they have the money, and then the government housing that'spretty cheap and is available to those in a certain income bracket, and then other government housing that's really small and outside the city that is for really, really poor people. Beyond that I was a little lost. Oh and she gave us a political cartoon about housing prices in China. Political cartoons sometimes confuse me in English; I didn't even know they had them in Chinese! Reading & writing class was a little better today because we just talkeda bout how American companies in China are doing, how they change their products, how they are doing post-economic crisis in the U.S., etc.

I wasn't feeling that well during class and I thought about skipping my one-on-one class but then I decided I could handle 50 more minutes. The laundry people came today so I dropped off my lunadry, and on the way back to my room my teacher called, saying she was busy and couldn't meet at our regular time. I was thinking great I wanted to cancel anyway, but then she wanted me to come up with another time to meet and let her know. Yeah right I did not want to do that. So I came back to my room and ate the rest of my sandwich from last night, and then laid on my bed and watched a movie. It was so nice to do nothing and relax (especially since it was raining) since I usually study all afternoon. This week we don't have weekly tests so there's not as much pressure to get studying done. At 2 I went to meet my teacher and tell her there was no time for me to meet and haev class, since I was leaving at 2:30 to go to Starbucks (to study and use the internet, since ours was still broken). But she didn't even like listen to what I said and said I could join her and Faith for their one-on-one time. I don't know why but the whole thing made me so mad. I think because she disregarded what I told her, she was the one that canceled on me so that's her deal, and how weird is it to just join someone else's one-on-one time? That's the whole point of the class. Anyway I joined their session for just 30 minutes because I was still going to Starbucks and didn't want to be in that class any longer.

When I got back to our room our internet was fixed but Melissa and I just wanted to get out of the dorm so we got a cab and went anyway. Going out in the rain is probably one of my least favorite things to do, but for a frappuccino it's worth it. We got our drinks and then actually walked across the street to Coldstone because their internet is free. We took turns using my computer and got a lot of studying done. We were kind of waiting for the rain to slow down because we left, because it was lightning and I refuse to use an umbrella when it's lightning. Coldstone just smelled so good we really wanted ice cream. But neither of us had very much money with us, because at Starbucks we both ended up buying coffee mugs. So we were too poor to buy ice cream, so we just bought a waffle cone for 3 元 and split it. Then I told the guy working we were poor students so could we just please have a sampler? I love cake batter ice cream.

We got a cab to this side street near campus where we planned on picking up dinner. We love sweet and sour pork so we ordered two plates of that and then three things of rice. The total was 39 元 so Melissa and I get out our wallets and discover between the two of us we only have 29 元. Yikes. The rice was only 1 元 each so that wouldn't have made a different, and we definitely wanted 2 orders of pork so we didn't know what to do. All the Chinese people around us were getting a kick out of the two white girls who didn't have enough money to buy dinner. So we're both scrounging through our purses and backpacks, and finally come up with enough random change to make 33 元. Melissa was like "if only we had gotten tall frappuccinos instead of grande! We would've had enough money!" Oh well. I love me some Starbucks. So we finally just asked if we could come back tomorrow and bring 6 元. Thankfully they said yes so we waited for our food. But while we were waiting we saw our friend Chen Long and he graciously lent us money so we could pay the whole bill. Then we went back to the dorm, ate dinner, and I went to my room to finish studying for my quizzes. Then I called my mom and talked to her for a while before I went to Bible study.

I invited O Ye to Bible study and she came with me! There were six of us altogether. We sang a few worship songs in Chinese and then started discussing 1 Peter 4: 7-11. There were a lot of new words for us so we had a vocab list of Biblical terms so that was helpful. Halfway through Bible study Luke was in the hallway calling me name so I went out to talk about our plan for going to visit the garden tomorrow. After we worked everything out I went back to Bible study but I just felt distracted. Sometimes Bible study is really a challenge because we all have such different backgrounds and different expectations for what a Bible study should look like. And without much structure it sometimes turns into random tangets. Besides the fact that it's hard trying to discuss a passage of Scripture in Chinese! I am so thankful I have had Christian fellowship this summer, but it has been difficult at times, just like all relationships. I can't wait to go to church at home. After Bible study I showered and went to bed early again. Well, midnight to me is early anyway. It's so nice being able to catch up on sleep!