Sooooo it has only been like three weeks since I have posted but I apologize for the lateness. I feel like I say that on every post but life is just busy.

I will give you a quick update on my comings and goings. I am going to save the next post for a much longer (and more interesting) story.

SO 国庆节 (guo2qinq4jie1) is China’s Independence Day, but not nearly as exciting as America’s. Mostly it is a day when you avoid going outside because EVERYBODY is at the tourists spots. You do not know what crowded means until you get to a tourist spot on a holiday. I mean, we went to West Lake and walking outside, near the lake, was like walking through The Brick on Saturday night before everyone goes to the bar. Just like any other house party, you walk around with your hands up and end up touching everyone near you. It was insanely busy.

We had 5 days off (win) so on that Friday my Mandarin teacher took me to Nanjing! She had been there before so she was going to be my tour guide! We had a great time and I saw many different historical sites. Nanjing literally means Southern Capital (Beijing means Northern Capital) so lots of history has occurred there. Like seriously, 5,000+ years that city has been a major player in Chinese history. Rome ain’t got nothing on Nanjing historically.

I would post pictures but you can just look on my facebook and I am too lazy soooo check it out.

Other than that, things have been going pretty smooth sailing. My teaching is going great, I am starting to get a hang of things. I just had my Master’s evaluation done in the classroom and he loved it so that was a positive. The students are starting to warm up more and more to me (sometimes too much…more on that soon). The Masters school work is also going well. Hopefully I will be getting started on the thesis this weekend…. My Mandarin is still steadily getting better. Actually today was probably my best Mandarin day. I went out to dinner with my Mandarin teacher and almost our entire conversation was in Mandarin, yay! These are the days when I actually think that I can become fluent in this crazy language.

I think I am going to stop there. Like usual, feel free to FB me or ask to skype and hopefully we can figure something out!! Also, quick shout out to my boy Aaron Rodgers. Just day in and day out doing his thing. I mean against the Vikings ehhhh thats a given, but that last drive against Miami #clutch. Also, the NBA is huge here (like biggest sport in China huge) so I plan on watching a ton of that. Our T’wolves have tons of potential too so I am quite excited.

Hope all is well

 

❤ Sam