I had a bit of trouble figuring out how to do the pictures-plus-captions thing, so I decided to just give the pictures their own post and describe them here. Unfortunately, they're in reverse order, so the earliest one is actually the one at the bottom of the post. I'm not going to go into great detail, because I don't have very much time, but I'll at least let you know what they are. I plan to write more about the accompanying experiences later.
Here they are in chronological order:
1) Just outside the big front gate of the Forbidden City.
2) Approaching the large central building. It looks like a cloudy day, but it was actually pretty sunny. Those umbrellas are in fact parasols, which women use all the time here.
3) Flag of an HBA teacher against a backdrop of one of the bigger buildings.
4) Although this isn't a great picture, this was my favorite view. I really like all the yellow roofs.
5) Here we are in front of the yellow roofs!
6) A view of the inside of one of the buildings. We couldn't get in, so we had to squeeze our way up to the front of the mass of people, snap a quick photo, and get out.
7) Part of a garden area towards the back of the City.
8) Teachers laughing in the foreground, very serious students in the background.
9) A hutong, one of Beijing's characteristic alleyways. Thoroughly charming.
10) A very blurry view of Houhai, an area known for its nightlife.
Hope that clears things up a bit! This is just a tiny sample of my photos; I intend to put the rest up on facebook and/or Picasa at some point.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Let's see... it's already been almost a week since I last posted! Unlike the first week, this week has sped by at an almost alarming rate. I'm sure this is because I've adjusted to the routine of life here -- I'm used to waking up early to finish my homework, going to class, eating lunch, going to more class, and doing more homework. Another thing that has definitely contributed to this acceleration is the addition of extracurricular activities this week. HBA offers extracurriculars on three of the five weekday afternoons: on Monday, you can practice singing Chinese pop songs or study Taijiquan, on Tuesday, you can learn to play erhu, the "Chinese violin", and on Thursday, you can cook Chinese food, do Chinese calligraphy, or learn the old art of paper-cutting.
Since I've never been one to hesitate about over-committing myself extracurricularly, I promptly signed myself up for the maximum of three classes. My first two choices, the popular music class and the erhu class, make a lot of sense given my interest in music. Neither disappointed -- even though I'm not crazy about pop songs in general, just being able to sing with other people again is great; and even though I do sound pretty screechy on my new erhu, I love the feeling of starting a new instrument. The third class I signed up for was paper-cutting, mostly because I don't feel artistic enough to paint brushstroke characters, and because I thought that the cooking class probably wouldn't cater to vegetarians. It, too, turned out to be a great choice. There are only five people in the class including the teacher, and all of us are girls, so it's a much more natural environment for conversation than my other two extracurriculars. Besides that, this is the first arts-and-craftsy thing I've done in a long time, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Taking extracurricular classes here seems to be a great idea, since not only have I been able to meet people and take a slight break from my intense studies, but I've also been improving my Chinese even more by listening to instructions and talking to fellow students (many of whom are much more advanced than I am).
Besides the extracurriculars, I didn't do anything too out of the ordinary since I last wrote, so I'll write a bit about a one-on-one class I particularly enjoyed. This Wednesday, my individual class was with one of the three "large-class" teachers, who teaches Chinese at Harvard during the school year. The first thing I noticed that really separated him from the other teachers I've had for one-one-one class, most of whom are just starting to teach, is that he was extremely good at guessing my meaning when I didn't know the Chinese word for something. To my astonishment, he was right on his first guess every time when I tried to say things like "reputation", "religion", and even "abstract". I'm sure this ability comes with years of interactions with second-year students, and encountering it made me think more about the different skills involved in language processing and in communication in general. Probably because his excellent understanding of my lacking Chinese made for a smoother flow of conversation, we got to talk about many different things, and unlike in previous one-on-one classes, when I'd mostly talked about myself, I was able to learn a few things from him about Chinese culture.
When discussing which countries I had been to, he mentioned that German people are supposedly unfriendly. I confirmed that everyone I've met in China so far has been much more friendly on first meeting than almost anybody I met in Europe (at least to a 老外 like me), and I found it interesting (although I guess not that surprising) that Chinese people seem to have the same generalizations about people of other countries that Americans do -- Germans are cold, Italians are exuberant, etc. We also discussed dating in the U.S. vs. dating in China, and when I told him that many people begin dating early in high school or even in junior high, he said that in China, dating in high school is really frowned upon since students are expected to devote all their time to their studies. Apparently college is the most common time to begin dating. I'd like to find out more about what courtship consists of here; probably a good way for me to do that would be to ask my "Chinese family", a single thirty-year-old woman who works for a consulting firm. One thing I've noticed on my own is that PDA seems to be quite common, more so than in the U.S.
Another thing we talked about is the social study project all HBA students do during the fifth week of the program. I told him that I had hoped to do my project at a Beijing school, but that since that wasn't an option this year, I planned to go on the trip to the Chinese countryside and research rural education. I was very taken aback when he said, "The countryside?! That will be so boring!" It turns out he grew up in a small village, one he clearly thought was quite boring, so I guess he doesn't see why I would find it interesting.
That about wraps up what I wanted to say in this post! Tomorrow we're going to Gugong (the Forbidden City), so I'll definitely have some photos to put up. In the meantime, I might also put up photos of my erhu and my first paper-cutting project. Again, feel free to write me with questions or just to say hi! I'm sure I'm forgetting to talk about some things that would be of interest to some of you, so don't hesitate to ask!
Since I've never been one to hesitate about over-committing myself extracurricularly, I promptly signed myself up for the maximum of three classes. My first two choices, the popular music class and the erhu class, make a lot of sense given my interest in music. Neither disappointed -- even though I'm not crazy about pop songs in general, just being able to sing with other people again is great; and even though I do sound pretty screechy on my new erhu, I love the feeling of starting a new instrument. The third class I signed up for was paper-cutting, mostly because I don't feel artistic enough to paint brushstroke characters, and because I thought that the cooking class probably wouldn't cater to vegetarians. It, too, turned out to be a great choice. There are only five people in the class including the teacher, and all of us are girls, so it's a much more natural environment for conversation than my other two extracurriculars. Besides that, this is the first arts-and-craftsy thing I've done in a long time, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Taking extracurricular classes here seems to be a great idea, since not only have I been able to meet people and take a slight break from my intense studies, but I've also been improving my Chinese even more by listening to instructions and talking to fellow students (many of whom are much more advanced than I am).
Besides the extracurriculars, I didn't do anything too out of the ordinary since I last wrote, so I'll write a bit about a one-on-one class I particularly enjoyed. This Wednesday, my individual class was with one of the three "large-class" teachers, who teaches Chinese at Harvard during the school year. The first thing I noticed that really separated him from the other teachers I've had for one-one-one class, most of whom are just starting to teach, is that he was extremely good at guessing my meaning when I didn't know the Chinese word for something. To my astonishment, he was right on his first guess every time when I tried to say things like "reputation", "religion", and even "abstract". I'm sure this ability comes with years of interactions with second-year students, and encountering it made me think more about the different skills involved in language processing and in communication in general. Probably because his excellent understanding of my lacking Chinese made for a smoother flow of conversation, we got to talk about many different things, and unlike in previous one-on-one classes, when I'd mostly talked about myself, I was able to learn a few things from him about Chinese culture.
When discussing which countries I had been to, he mentioned that German people are supposedly unfriendly. I confirmed that everyone I've met in China so far has been much more friendly on first meeting than almost anybody I met in Europe (at least to a 老外 like me), and I found it interesting (although I guess not that surprising) that Chinese people seem to have the same generalizations about people of other countries that Americans do -- Germans are cold, Italians are exuberant, etc. We also discussed dating in the U.S. vs. dating in China, and when I told him that many people begin dating early in high school or even in junior high, he said that in China, dating in high school is really frowned upon since students are expected to devote all their time to their studies. Apparently college is the most common time to begin dating. I'd like to find out more about what courtship consists of here; probably a good way for me to do that would be to ask my "Chinese family", a single thirty-year-old woman who works for a consulting firm. One thing I've noticed on my own is that PDA seems to be quite common, more so than in the U.S.
Another thing we talked about is the social study project all HBA students do during the fifth week of the program. I told him that I had hoped to do my project at a Beijing school, but that since that wasn't an option this year, I planned to go on the trip to the Chinese countryside and research rural education. I was very taken aback when he said, "The countryside?! That will be so boring!" It turns out he grew up in a small village, one he clearly thought was quite boring, so I guess he doesn't see why I would find it interesting.
That about wraps up what I wanted to say in this post! Tomorrow we're going to Gugong (the Forbidden City), so I'll definitely have some photos to put up. In the meantime, I might also put up photos of my erhu and my first paper-cutting project. Again, feel free to write me with questions or just to say hi! I'm sure I'm forgetting to talk about some things that would be of interest to some of you, so don't hesitate to ask!
Saturday, June 19, 2010
你们好!
I've finally reached my first weekend here at HBA, and unsurprisingly, there's even more to write about than last time! This time I'll work my way back in time, starting with today's adventures.
Today most of the students in the program went on a field trip to the Great Wall. We left at 7:50 to beat the rush (and the heat!). All the teachers had already warned us that this part of the wall was a comfy-shoes-required kind of place, but I think most of us were still surprised by how strenuous the hike was. Though it certainly afforded us the opportunity to practice complaining about how tired we were in Chinese, it was a great trip. The scenery (including the wall itself, of course) was breathtakingly beautiful, I was in the company of friends, and I made it all the way to the furthest and highest point we were allowed to go. Since I hiked for so long, I didn't really have much time or energy for shopping at the many stands selling touristy things outside the entrance. Some of my friends did have the time and energy, however, and I enjoyed hearing their bargaining stories -- for example, getting the price of a decorative scroll down from the initial 260¥ to 20¥. I'm going to pause for a minute to try to put in pictures...
<------ Pretty mountains!
Some of the Yalies who went all the way to the end. The point on the wall directly to the right of Marissa's head was our destination.
Here's a better view of the wall looking towards where we ended up.
This is the view looking down the very steep set of stairs at the end of the hike. It's a lot steeper and longer than it looks!
It is hard to visit something like the great wall without thinking of the mind-blowing amount of work that was put into it. Climbing just a tiny fraction of it was hard enough; I can't imagine what constructing it by hand would have been like! I wonder what kind of consolation it would be to the people who died building the wall to know that it still stands as an international marvel, and that it is covered daily with tourists, merchants hawking questionable bottled water, and foreign kids studying their language and culture.
Speaking of studying language and culture, I feel like my Chinese has improved dramatically in just one week. To me, the normal pace of learning languages is kind of like the pace of growing throughout most of childhood: there's no question you're gradually getting taller, but you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference from one day to the next. An intensive program like HBA, on the other hand, is like an extreme growth spurt, when you can measure yourself every day with different results. I can't possibly express how exciting this is for me. It makes make want to put even more effort into my classes and homework, since what I've done so far has provided such immediate and satisfying rewards.
I suppose it's not too surprising that my Chinese is already getting better. Every day we have five hours of intensive classes: one and a half hours of "large" class (8-10 students per teacher), two and a half hours of "small" class (4-5 students per teacher), and one hour of one-on-one class. So far, I don't think the actual material covered has been too taxing, but the classes themselves are quite difficult simply because absolute focus is required at all times. Unlike at Yale, I don't have the luxury of occasionally spacing off -- the teacher can (and probably will) call on me at any moment. I never did competitive academics like Quizbowl or Academic Decathlon, but I imagine how I feel in class is a lot like how I'd feel in some sort of academic tournament. I'm not competing with my classmates, but I do feel like I'm always on my toes and constantly forcing my mind to move as quickly as it possibly can. This is a surprisingly great feeling. It could be that, as I said in my last post, it's a kind of mental workout I haven't done before, or it could just be the adrenaline, but either way, I'm really enjoying my classes.
Again, I have a lot more I'd like to write about in this post: I'd like to tell you about my teachers, about my adventures in the area around BeiYu, and about my homework and tests. But I'll have to save those for later, because I'm extremely wiped out. Climbing the great wall really takes it out of you, as does rewriting half of a blog post from scratch because blogger deleted it :( ! Goodnight (to me)/good afternoon (to those of you in the U.S.)!
I've finally reached my first weekend here at HBA, and unsurprisingly, there's even more to write about than last time! This time I'll work my way back in time, starting with today's adventures.
Today most of the students in the program went on a field trip to the Great Wall. We left at 7:50 to beat the rush (and the heat!). All the teachers had already warned us that this part of the wall was a comfy-shoes-required kind of place, but I think most of us were still surprised by how strenuous the hike was. Though it certainly afforded us the opportunity to practice complaining about how tired we were in Chinese, it was a great trip. The scenery (including the wall itself, of course) was breathtakingly beautiful, I was in the company of friends, and I made it all the way to the furthest and highest point we were allowed to go. Since I hiked for so long, I didn't really have much time or energy for shopping at the many stands selling touristy things outside the entrance. Some of my friends did have the time and energy, however, and I enjoyed hearing their bargaining stories -- for example, getting the price of a decorative scroll down from the initial 260¥ to 20¥. I'm going to pause for a minute to try to put in pictures...
<------ Pretty mountains!
Some of the Yalies who went all the way to the end. The point on the wall directly to the right of Marissa's head was our destination.
Here's a better view of the wall looking towards where we ended up.
This is the view looking down the very steep set of stairs at the end of the hike. It's a lot steeper and longer than it looks!
It is hard to visit something like the great wall without thinking of the mind-blowing amount of work that was put into it. Climbing just a tiny fraction of it was hard enough; I can't imagine what constructing it by hand would have been like! I wonder what kind of consolation it would be to the people who died building the wall to know that it still stands as an international marvel, and that it is covered daily with tourists, merchants hawking questionable bottled water, and foreign kids studying their language and culture.
Speaking of studying language and culture, I feel like my Chinese has improved dramatically in just one week. To me, the normal pace of learning languages is kind of like the pace of growing throughout most of childhood: there's no question you're gradually getting taller, but you'd be hard pressed to notice a difference from one day to the next. An intensive program like HBA, on the other hand, is like an extreme growth spurt, when you can measure yourself every day with different results. I can't possibly express how exciting this is for me. It makes make want to put even more effort into my classes and homework, since what I've done so far has provided such immediate and satisfying rewards.
I suppose it's not too surprising that my Chinese is already getting better. Every day we have five hours of intensive classes: one and a half hours of "large" class (8-10 students per teacher), two and a half hours of "small" class (4-5 students per teacher), and one hour of one-on-one class. So far, I don't think the actual material covered has been too taxing, but the classes themselves are quite difficult simply because absolute focus is required at all times. Unlike at Yale, I don't have the luxury of occasionally spacing off -- the teacher can (and probably will) call on me at any moment. I never did competitive academics like Quizbowl or Academic Decathlon, but I imagine how I feel in class is a lot like how I'd feel in some sort of academic tournament. I'm not competing with my classmates, but I do feel like I'm always on my toes and constantly forcing my mind to move as quickly as it possibly can. This is a surprisingly great feeling. It could be that, as I said in my last post, it's a kind of mental workout I haven't done before, or it could just be the adrenaline, but either way, I'm really enjoying my classes.
Again, I have a lot more I'd like to write about in this post: I'd like to tell you about my teachers, about my adventures in the area around BeiYu, and about my homework and tests. But I'll have to save those for later, because I'm extremely wiped out. Climbing the great wall really takes it out of you, as does rewriting half of a blog post from scratch because blogger deleted it :( ! Goodnight (to me)/good afternoon (to those of you in the U.S.)!
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
It's hard to believe that I've been in Beijing for only two and a half days. Although I definitely haven't gotten over the jet lag yet, I feel as though I left Michigan ages ago. There's so much to write about since my last post! I suppose I'll proceed in a somewhat chronological fashion, but I'll probably gloss over some things and write more about others.
First, the flight: I was not much looking forward to spending a longer time on a plane than I ever have before (New York to Beijing beats out the Chicago to Tokyo flight I took in third grade), but it turned out to be no problem at all. The two Chinese women sitting next to me were both extremely friendly, and as we got settled we chatted about college and studying abroad, switching back and forth between their pretty good English and my very broken Chinese. By the time the plane took off, though, I was already asleep. I slept solidly for ten hours (according to my somewhat alarmed-looking companions) and missed both meals offered on the plane. When the captain announced we would be landing soon, I was actually confused, because I was convinced we couldn't have reached Beijing so quickly.
Once through customs, I was hailed by three very enthusiastic HBA teachers. All spoke incredibly quickly (at least so it seemed to me), and I probably understood about a tenth of what they were saying to me. Needless to say, this induced my first "what have I gotten myself into?" moment. I couldn't speak this language! Why was I going to sign away my English in exchange for a language of which I only knew the basics? Luckily, the teachers' friendliness and patience compensated for their fast speech. I calmed down quickly, and on the bus ride to BLCU, I was even able to take part in a conversation with a teacher and another student.
My first interactions with classmates the next day were quite fun. We were all somewhat giddy, probably because we knew we only had half a day left to speak English -- we wanted to make the most of it! I mostly spent time with fellow Yalies, some of whom had been in my Chinese classes, and some of whom I hadn't previously met, but I also met a few Harvard students. Most of our time we spent walking to various places in or near the campus like the bank, the supermarket, the computer store, and the cafeteria. The campus is quite pretty, with many trees along the roads and even a little park filled with flowers. Unfortunately, the Beijing air really is alarmingly smoggy -- I can't see very far out my window at all, and spending any length of time outside when it's not a clear day is pretty irritating to the eyes and throat.
After we had finished a lunch full of spirited English conversation, we headed for orientation, knowing what awaited us. Most of the second-year students could only understand bits and pieces of the convocation speeches, so we had lots of time to reflect on the pledge we were about to take. At this point, I was more excited than terrified. Even though I couldn't really understand what was going on, I knew that thanks to the language pledge, I would be able to by the end of the summer! So when it came time to sign, I did so quickly and happily, without even bothering to say a few final English words.
The language pledge proved itself very quickly to be quite interesting. What I've enjoyed the most about it so far is that it's so revealing about conversation in general. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn't actually too difficult -- people tend to say sort of the same things in chatty conversation, and even if there's a slight challenge expressing or understanding a thought, it's pretty easy to figure out what the intended meaning is. The second thing that struck me was the way we create humor when faced with severe linguistic restrictions. Since we can't really say funny things at our level, a lot of humor has come through the use of playing around with sounds that have meaning but aren't quite words: "mmm-hmm," "ohhh", and even some animal sounds. Of course, another source of humor is simply the situation itself. It's impossible not to laugh at the absurdity of some of our conversations. My mom always said that speaking a foreign language is a lot like playing the game Taboo, and I wholeheartedly agree. Naturally it can be frustrating to not be able to get your point across, but trying to is very much a game of talking your way around your limitations. One thing I hadn't thought about before beginning the pledge that I definitely appreciate now is how much it will be a great workout for my creativity.
I've already spent a long time writing this post, so I think I'll save a description of my classes and daily routine for a later post. Also, I hope to get out and take some pictures of campus in the next few days, so stay tuned!
First, the flight: I was not much looking forward to spending a longer time on a plane than I ever have before (New York to Beijing beats out the Chicago to Tokyo flight I took in third grade), but it turned out to be no problem at all. The two Chinese women sitting next to me were both extremely friendly, and as we got settled we chatted about college and studying abroad, switching back and forth between their pretty good English and my very broken Chinese. By the time the plane took off, though, I was already asleep. I slept solidly for ten hours (according to my somewhat alarmed-looking companions) and missed both meals offered on the plane. When the captain announced we would be landing soon, I was actually confused, because I was convinced we couldn't have reached Beijing so quickly.
Once through customs, I was hailed by three very enthusiastic HBA teachers. All spoke incredibly quickly (at least so it seemed to me), and I probably understood about a tenth of what they were saying to me. Needless to say, this induced my first "what have I gotten myself into?" moment. I couldn't speak this language! Why was I going to sign away my English in exchange for a language of which I only knew the basics? Luckily, the teachers' friendliness and patience compensated for their fast speech. I calmed down quickly, and on the bus ride to BLCU, I was even able to take part in a conversation with a teacher and another student.
My first interactions with classmates the next day were quite fun. We were all somewhat giddy, probably because we knew we only had half a day left to speak English -- we wanted to make the most of it! I mostly spent time with fellow Yalies, some of whom had been in my Chinese classes, and some of whom I hadn't previously met, but I also met a few Harvard students. Most of our time we spent walking to various places in or near the campus like the bank, the supermarket, the computer store, and the cafeteria. The campus is quite pretty, with many trees along the roads and even a little park filled with flowers. Unfortunately, the Beijing air really is alarmingly smoggy -- I can't see very far out my window at all, and spending any length of time outside when it's not a clear day is pretty irritating to the eyes and throat.
After we had finished a lunch full of spirited English conversation, we headed for orientation, knowing what awaited us. Most of the second-year students could only understand bits and pieces of the convocation speeches, so we had lots of time to reflect on the pledge we were about to take. At this point, I was more excited than terrified. Even though I couldn't really understand what was going on, I knew that thanks to the language pledge, I would be able to by the end of the summer! So when it came time to sign, I did so quickly and happily, without even bothering to say a few final English words.
The language pledge proved itself very quickly to be quite interesting. What I've enjoyed the most about it so far is that it's so revealing about conversation in general. The first thing I noticed was that it wasn't actually too difficult -- people tend to say sort of the same things in chatty conversation, and even if there's a slight challenge expressing or understanding a thought, it's pretty easy to figure out what the intended meaning is. The second thing that struck me was the way we create humor when faced with severe linguistic restrictions. Since we can't really say funny things at our level, a lot of humor has come through the use of playing around with sounds that have meaning but aren't quite words: "mmm-hmm," "ohhh", and even some animal sounds. Of course, another source of humor is simply the situation itself. It's impossible not to laugh at the absurdity of some of our conversations. My mom always said that speaking a foreign language is a lot like playing the game Taboo, and I wholeheartedly agree. Naturally it can be frustrating to not be able to get your point across, but trying to is very much a game of talking your way around your limitations. One thing I hadn't thought about before beginning the pledge that I definitely appreciate now is how much it will be a great workout for my creativity.
I've already spent a long time writing this post, so I think I'll save a description of my classes and daily routine for a later post. Also, I hope to get out and take some pictures of campus in the next few days, so stay tuned!
Friday, June 11, 2010
Hello, blog readers! Or reader, as the case may be, since I seem to have only one follower, the wonderful Daniel Thompson.
As you probably already know if you're reading this, this blog will document my upcoming two-month stay in Beijing. I'll tell you all about my struggles to memorize characters, my newly-formed friendships, and my (hopefully) nice and (possibly) bizarre encounters with local folks. At this point, though, I haven't done any of that yet: I'm leaving Ann Arbor for Beijing tomorrow morning. It's hard to say how I feel about this, since I haven't quite figured it out myself. My best guess is that I'm feeling a mixture of vague excitement and subdued panic. Even when I try to imagine what my life in Beijing will be like, I only manage to come up with a very hazy picture of classes, new people, and exploring parts of town, so there's nothing too concrete to incite either excitement or panic. I suspect that this is how I felt before I started Yale. And that's worked out well so far, so I'm not particularly worried.
Over the past few weeks, I've tried to read a bit about China. I'm now in the middle of Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones, and although I really like the book, I still don't feel at all knowledgeable about Chinese culture. My parents have been much more diligent than I. They listened to tapes of lectures on all of Chinese history while I was away on Glee Club tour, and my mom also read a short book about Chinese history. I'm very glad they've gotten so interested, because they've been a great source for crash-course historical information.
I'm off to bed now (though it's a bit past noon where I'll be tomorrow!). Please feel free to leave comments on the blog or email me -- I know I'll be craving the English communication after speaking only Mandarin every day. 再见！
As you probably already know if you're reading this, this blog will document my upcoming two-month stay in Beijing. I'll tell you all about my struggles to memorize characters, my newly-formed friendships, and my (hopefully) nice and (possibly) bizarre encounters with local folks. At this point, though, I haven't done any of that yet: I'm leaving Ann Arbor for Beijing tomorrow morning. It's hard to say how I feel about this, since I haven't quite figured it out myself. My best guess is that I'm feeling a mixture of vague excitement and subdued panic. Even when I try to imagine what my life in Beijing will be like, I only manage to come up with a very hazy picture of classes, new people, and exploring parts of town, so there's nothing too concrete to incite either excitement or panic. I suspect that this is how I felt before I started Yale. And that's worked out well so far, so I'm not particularly worried.
Over the past few weeks, I've tried to read a bit about China. I'm now in the middle of Peter Hessler's Oracle Bones, and although I really like the book, I still don't feel at all knowledgeable about Chinese culture. My parents have been much more diligent than I. They listened to tapes of lectures on all of Chinese history while I was away on Glee Club tour, and my mom also read a short book about Chinese history. I'm very glad they've gotten so interested, because they've been a great source for crash-course historical information.
I'm off to bed now (though it's a bit past noon where I'll be tomorrow!). Please feel free to leave comments on the blog or email me -- I know I'll be craving the English communication after speaking only Mandarin every day. 再见！
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