First day of classes today. Finally. I thought the day would never come, honestly. I mean, I've been here almost two weeks now. Today's classes were "Listening" and "Speaking." I had them both for two hours each. The first day isn't like class in America, we jumped right in. Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, depending on your perspective, I knew everything in both the lessons I had today. It should get harder. I hope.
Notes. Even if you already know it, you should still write it down.
My class is an eclectic bunch. There are people from Korea, Thailand, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Ireland, Germany, and Britain in my class. And me, the sole American. I am not, however, the sole ginger. I'm one of three. And I'm one of, like, 7 I've seen since I got here. I made a joke with Brian and Sebastian (the other two gingers in my class), that the home office called us and said "Go East!" Sebastian is German, one of the two Germans I've met. They're both really nice guys. The other day when my arm was hurting they suggested that I could probably get it replaced with a gorilla arm here in China, to which I replied: "Yesss, and then I can finally take revenge on my enemies! The world has not seen the last of Dr. Gorilla-Arm!" They both laughed, and made a joke about how hard it would be to fill out all the damn paperwork we're always filling out. "Your form is all complete, sir, but you've killed the receptionist." It's good that weird is universal.
Gingers. We're everywhere.
My speaking partner is a 30 year old architect from Japan who looks, maybe, 18. And he speaks NO English. At all. My "nihongo ga sukoshi wakarimasu" was very impressive to him. Except, you know, that's all I got. I also received my complete Chinese name today:
Zhu Haideng? Hey! I know that guy!
The teacher picked out my surname, Zhū (朱), because it sounds a bit like "Drew" I guess. It means "vermilion." I thought it appropriate.
For lunch, we tried the restaurant above the Muslim Canteen. This was out of necessity: It's a madhouse around here at noon. We managed, somehow, to get both food AND a table. So, you know, there's that. Also, it was, like, "Chinese" food. Like, in America. I had sweet 'n sour chicken!
Sweet 'n Sour Chicken. Lunch in the restaurant over the Muslim Canteen.
Tomorrow, it's "Intensive Reading" and "Writing."
朱海登
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