Second day of class

Today started with geeky Albert and one of my classmates who liked my Firefly pencil case, whom I shall call Firefly Joseph. They both spoke Cantonese, and they were trying to explain to me how this does not give them an advantage. I am still not convinced, since Cantonese and Mandarin have the same writing system, which means they also have the same grammar.

 

Class had a different teacher today, Ma Laoshi, who wasn't quite as good. She spoke nearly entirely in Chinese, and it was a lot harder to keep my mind for wandering for the whole 5 hours.

 

When it came time for our tutors, I walked over to mine and she shook her head.

  "Meiyou, Ni zhuan gen biede tongxue. Xuexi gen biede laoshi (No, you transfer with other classmate, study with other teacher)," She said sadly, "She is more at your level. It had been nice to meet you."

 

  We shook hands, and I was shepherded into the adjacent room by an older teacher with amazingly bad teeth. I tried not to stare as she introduced me to my new partner, Smiley John, and then we were off. This was much harder. Like ridiculously hard. I knew I would have to study like a freak to keep up, but I felt a little better when Smiley John explained after class that his dad was Chinese, and he was taking the program to learn how to write better.

  "You are very good!" He said, smiling. He was just being nice, but it was good to hear nonetheless.

 

I met up with mod Sarah and her Korean room-mate- Melissa, I think. Just as I was thinking about how none of my new friends had introduced themselves with their Asian names, The food arrived. It was sweet and sour pork with kimchi and rice this time, and it was the first meal I had that was just kind of ok. We got talking about music, so I asked Mod Sarah what kind of music she liked, and I nearly fell off my chair when she replied, "Oh, you know. Metallica." Melissa liked Korean pop, which I had heard before because it is hilarious, and we all liked the Beatles.

 

After that I went home and studied for a bit, then wrote this. But it is bedtime now, so I will write tomorrow about the excursion we're having to the Oriental TV tower.