Summary

I arrived in Qingdao (from Hawaii) on a Friday morning (February 20), three days before the new term started. I had previously decided to study at Qingdao University of Science and Technology. I was picked up at the airport by some of the university's staff. I immediately moved into the school's dormitory and have continued to live there for the past seven weeks, though I would like to find an apartment off campus.

I have not had a great time so far. Classes are difficult, I have not gone out much, and have not made any good friends. When I was in Kunming, I very quickly had a few good friends. Nonetheless, the weeks fly by here. I continue to enjoy studying Chinese.

This write-up will include information about Qingdao (the city I live in), the school at which I am studying, my classes and classmates, the new people who are a part of my life, and a few stories.

My Plans

I will stay in Qingdao for the remainder of the school term (the term ends in July). After that, I will most likely continue studying for one more semester (through the end of the year). I may spend the next term studying in Beijing instead of Qingdao. I plan to come home for a visit this summer.

Qingdao

Qingdao is a modern and clean city of seven million people, located in China's Shandong province. It is on the coast (on a peninsula), and thus has many beaches. It is southeast of Beijing and northwest of Shanghai, an hour flight from either. I have read that it is called 'China's Switzerland.' Qingdao was governed by Germany from 1898 to 1914 and in certain neighborhoods the influence is clear. For example, there are some areas that are full of beautiful gardens and tree lined streets. China's most famous beer, Tsingtao, is produced here. The first brewery opened in 1903.

The city is huge and hilly so few people bike. Instead, they use the bus. The public bus system is extensive. The buses are often crowded, though it is rare that it is so crowded that you can't get on.

There are many options for a westerner in Qingdao, including a newly opened Pizza Hut, and numerous McDonalds and KFCs. There are also a couple of bars where many ex-pats hang out.

I chose to study here because I liked the city when I visited it last term and thought the Chinese spoken on the streets was standard. Beijing is probably the best place to study, but I opted for this lesser-known city.

Qingdao University of Science and Technology

There are a numerous choices for a foreigner studying Chinese in Qingdao. I chose to study at Qingdao University of Science and Technology (QUST) because I thought the class size would be small, and because the administrators were very friendly to me when I previously visited. The campus is removed from the city (a 30-minute bus-ride), and I thought that would be peaceful. Some people say our campus is located in "the countryside." We are a good ten kilometers from the city.

QUST has two campuses. I live on the new one. The campus is not large. Most of the buildings are pink. This university is the third best in Qingdao, behind China Ocean University and Qingdao University.

So far, I am not particularly happy with the program. The teachers are below average and the classes larger than I had expected, though still smaller than they would be at other universities.

In total, there are fifty foreign students studying Chinese here - nine Americans, a Canadian, three Kazakhs and the rest Korean. More mainstream programs have at least one hundred and fifty students. Their Chinese language program started just a few years ago.

Though there are few foreigners, there are thousands of Chinese students on campus. Almost all the students live in the school's dorms. The foreign student dorms have electricity twenty-four hours, but the Chinese student dorms have the electricity in their rooms turned off at 11 PM. They can still go into the hallway to study, or use battery-powered devices from their rooms. I heard that after 11 PM the students all stay up chatting. I also heard that there is spot checking by some guards to make sure the students are in their rooms at night.

My Chinese

I hang out with a few Chinese people, but have yet to make good friends here, so I have not spent as much time speaking Chinese as I did in Kunming.

I am now clear on my strong and weak points. I speak well, with good pronunciation and tones, and good grammar. My weaknesses are that I have a small vocabulary, and I do not know enough characters. The result is that my reading and listening comprehension is low. I also read slowly. I have no problems expressing myself and the result is that people think my Chinese is better than it is.

Class

Class level

I was placed in the highest level Chinese class here. At other universities, I would be in a mid-level class, but here there are fewer levels available because of the lower number of foreign students. This makes for a less than ideal situation. A major problem, I realized after a week, is that the level of the students in my class varies greatly, and I fall at the bottom of my class. Our one class should really be split into three. I have by far the lowest vocabulary and recognize the fewest characters, though I can speak better than a few people.

Class times

I have twenty hours of class a week. Six hours of comprehensive, four hours of spoken and listening, four hours of reading and six hours of an HSK test preparation course. The HSK test measures one's Chinese ability, and it is very important to many of the Korean students studying here. I am not sure if I will take the test after this term, but I find studying for it useful. Mondays I have class from 8-12, Tuesdays no class, Wednesdays 8-12, 1:30-3:30, Thursdays 10-12 and Fridays 8-12 and 1:30 to 3:30. In addition, I have a tutor (a teacher at Ocean University) on Mondays and Tuesdays from 2-4, Wednesdays, from 5-7 and Sundays from 9-12. 

At the start of the term I was in the highest class of each of the classes above. After a couple of weeks, I dropped back to a level in both the reading and test preparation classes. Both were way over my head.

Classmates

Besides me, my class has five Korean girls, one Korean guy, two girls from Kazakhstan and one American woman.

Korean girls

All of Korean girls are in their early twenties. Two of them have studied for a year, as I have. The remaining three were classmates in Korea, and are here together studying abroad as part of their university's program. They have already been in China six months, and will be here for another six. They previously studied Chinese in Korea for three years.

I only have one male classmate, a twenty-seven-year-old Korean. He majored in Chinese back home and just graduated. He arrived in China this term. At first, I thought it was nice that the majority of my classmates were female, but I've since decided that I'd prefer a more equal distribution.

Kazakhstan

The two Kazakh girls, both twenty-one years old, are also majoring in Chinese back home. They have already studied Chinese for three years and just arrived in China this term. Our classes are way too easy for them. They already know all the words that are considered "new words." 

Side note: they are both Muslim, believers though not religious. They plan to make a pilgrimage to Mecca when they are older and seem to be looking forward to it. In any case, right now they are party girls and like to go out and drink.

American

My fellow American classmate, Ann, is thirty-four. She studied in Beijing in 1991, and majored in Chinese when she was in college. She was a lawyer in San Francisco for awhile, but did not like the yuppie path she was going down, so came back to China.

She often makes negative comments about American and says how great China is. She is also overly polite. She apologizes to the teacher when she does not know what a word means. She is in love with China, and interested in things like how they make the different teas. She first said she did not find the Chinese men attractive, but has since said that there are a few students she wouldn't mind getting involved with.

Random notes on my classmates

• Apple, a Chinese girl I exchange study with, is friendly with many of the Korean students. She told me that a few of the Koreans girls in my class think I'm handsome. Early in the term, one of the girls had wanted to study with me, but later decided that she wouldn't be able to get work done around me.
• I had spent a fair amount of time with the Kazakh girls at the start of the term but now do not hang out with them much. They both want to lose weight, and tried a rice diet (eating only white rice). They had planned to do that for a week but could not complete an entire day. They also jogged with me a few times in a week but then stopped.
• The three Koreans who come from the same school in Korea are very studious, and I often give them tingxie (a writing quiz) before the teacher arrives, to prepare for the real quiz. Unlike last term, all my classmates here seem to appreciate tingxie. Further, scoring perfect is not particularly rare. The teacher even criticized a student because he has never gotten 100%.

Tutors

Reading class teacher

I thought the teacher had a cute voice, and had her tutor me. Though her voice was cute, her pronunciation was not very good, and she often spoke too fast. Since she was cute I was patient with both her tutoring and her class. Even with her tutoring, I found the class ridiculously difficult.

Since all of us classmates agreed that the class covered too much material at a time, I spoke to the office and they gave the teacher permission to teach at half the speed. Thus we would study one chapter per class instead of two. It was still fast!

At the start of the term, the teacher would often have us simply read to ourselves in class. Everyone thought it was a waste of time. I spoke to the teacher and let her know we felt this way, but she continued to do it. During the last class I attended, she not only had us read to ourselves, but also left the class room as we read.

I had been strongly considering dropping the class, and decided to do so then and there. I left the classroom, while the teacher was down the hallway speaking on her cell phone. At the end of the class period I came back to explain that I thought her class was too difficult and was dropping it. She said something to the effect that this would mean I wouldn't need her tutoring me anymore, and I gladly agreed. I had been thinking of dumping her as a tutor anyway.

I found out when she returned to the class after I had left in the middle of class, and saw that I was not there, she asked the other students how she should change the class.

My classmates later told me that since then the class has been much better and suggested that I come back. They also thanked me, because they thought that because of my actions the class is much better than it had been. But, it is simply too difficult for me. In addition, the office changed the schedule of the lower level reading class so that I could attend.

I also found out weeks later that the teacher cried in class after I left. All this time I had had cold feelings for her and did not feel badly at all for the way I left, so hearing this made me feel sad. I tried to invite her to dinner as a result of hearing this, but she made an excuse.

Bookstore tutor

One Saturday I went to investigate. It was clear that they were there to work with young Chinese students, but one guy I spoke to said he could help me with Chinese, so I figured I'd give it a try. He just so happened to be a student at my university and the next day came to my dorm room. I tried studying with him, but his pronunciation was bad so I did not study with him again. In addition, he had bad breath and gave too detailed explanations, occasionally using English even though I said I preferred not to using English at all when studying Chinese

Lucky find - Zhou

I did not remember her name, but one day decided to go to Ocean University to look for her. I checked out all the classrooms while classes were in session and could not find her. I asked around and eventually found a teacher who knew who I was talking about by the physical description that I gave.

We arranged to meet, and my first session with her confirmed that she was an excellent teacher. I was thrilled when she let me know I that I could join in on her tutoring sessions with a Korean girl, who (three times a week, two hours per class) was preparing for the HSK test. Zhou is an expert at explaining grammar and on the HSK test.

Since then, I have been studying with her four days per week.

I have learned a lot about Zhou's background and I realize I am very lucky to have her as a teacher. She did graduate studies at a university in Beijing that is the most well known in China for teaching foreigners Chinese. She applied for and was accepted into the school's program the very first year that they had a program available for studying: teaching foreigners Chinese.  She tested the highest out of all the students who applied to her graduate school program. When she was in elementary school, she would often read to the class because her pronunciation was so good. She met her husband in high school.

Because she has such a good background, Ocean University gave her an apartment when she decided to join their faculty. She is only twenty-nine, and many teachers who have been there much longer than she has do not yet have an apartment. Ocean University also recognizes that they are lucky to have her teaching there.

Zhou explains things very well, is interesting in teaching foreigners Chinese, and is well-prepared.

Often, the Chinese teachers in China seem to me unqualified and unmotivated. I understand that there is no financial incentive to be a good teacher, as the teachers are all paid the same regardless. But once in awhile you find a teacher who has pride in her job, and Zhou is one such teacher (as is Zhang, who I studied with last year).

Besides being a good teacher, Zhou and her husband are both nice to me. Once, they once gave me a huge bag of sunflower seeds.

Details

First weekend (Feb 20 - Feb 22)

I arrived on a Friday. A student who works part-time in the foreign student's office, Annie, met me at the airport, holding up a sign with my name. She took me to a nice car, which a professor was driving, and in 30 minutes we were at my dorm.

My first impression of my room

When I first saw my dorm room, I was thrilled. My room is on the highest floor (the sixth), as I had requested, and I can see ocean from my bedroom window (it is about 2 kilometers away). I also have twenty-four hour hot water and good shower pressure. I have two rooms, a new TV and a nice table at which to study. There are six other Americans that live in my dorm, though I have not socialized with them much.

Diarrhea

I did not do much my first weekend, besides sleep, wash my clothes, and see a doctor. In India, my health had been great, but once I landed in Thailand, the previous week, my diarrhea started. I was patiently waiting for it to stop, but after a week my health had yet to improve. I made the mistake of telling my mom I was not feeling well and it was under her pressure that I went to see the doctor. Conveniently, there is a university clinic about fifty feet from my dorm's entrance. The doctor's medication temporarily helped but did not seem to cure whatever I had. Slowly, it got better, and finally, about five weeks later, my stool was back to normal.

Relaxing

I was glad to be settled down after being on the road for the previous two months. During my first weekend back in China, I was in a great mood and made friends with one of the doctors on campus as well as with one of the women who works at the desk of my dorm. The desk woman eventually introduced me to her niece, Apple, so that we could study together. Apple is an English major here. We have been studying together ever since.

Apple

Besides Zhou, Apple is the only person I study with outside of class. We meet twice a week, three hours at a time. One day I teach her English, and the other day she teaches me Chinese. She is from Beijing, so has very good pronunciation. She also tells me gossip, including what people say about me, so she is interesting to talk to. She is obnoxious in some ways, which reminds me of my friend in Kunming, Shelly.

First week of class (Feb 23 - Feb 29)

I met a Chinese student named Garrison in front of my dorm, and learned that he was an NBA fan. That weekend we watched an NBA game together. I learned that Garrison chose this name from reading a movie's credits. Garrison told me that he had read in a Chinese basketball magazine that Versacci paid the Jeff Van Gundy, the Houston Rocket's basketball coach, to stop wearing their suits (because he is a funny looking guy and they thought it hurt their name).

March 1 - March 7

As classes were very difficult and I had not yet given up, I did not do much besides study during my second week.

KFC for my friend's birthday

One evening I took my two Kazakh classmates along with their roommate to KFC, as it was one of their birthday's. They had never been to KFC before, so I was excited to introduce them. On the ride to KFC one of the girls said that she did not like the American way of life (though she had never been to America). I find it interesting how people find it so easy to put down America. In any case, the three of them all liked KFC, and I know that they have gone back there on their own various times since then.

March 8 - March 14

Dropped my readings class, and running to see an NBA game

I was not hungry, but ordered a few cucumbers. After the game, the owner of the restaurant said the cucumbers were on him.

Lower level reading class

Later that morning, I tried the middle level reading class. The difference between it and the advanced class was huge. Though this class seemed easy in comparison, it was suitable for me.

Side note: At this school, in the lower level classes, the teachers sometimes use English when giving explanations. I find it unnecessary and counter-productive, and I know it also bothers the majority of the students, who are Korean students. This is one of the reasons I am not happy with some of the teachers here.

My first session with Zhou

On Sunday I had my first session with Zhou, and was impressed. She spoke clearly, explained things well, understood my questions, and corrected me a few times when I said things incorrectly. Often teachers let mistakes go, and the result is that the student will say the same incorrect phrase over and over again.

Lunch at Pizza Hut

After the tutoring, I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. The waitress thought a large Pizza would be too much for me, but I explained that I would take the leftovers to go. I also bought ten DVDs on the street. After a good study session and Pizza Hut, I was in a great mood.

March 15 - March 21

For Saint Patrick's day I met up with Apple and her friends (all Chinese), including Garrison, at an Irish bar in town that was serving green beer. Garrison thought he could drink water fast, so we raced and I crushed him.

My many girlfriends

I jokingly told the table that I had four girlfriends, Japanese, Korean, American and Chinese. I was joking and I thought that was obvious, but a few days later Apple told me that one of her friends wanted to speak to me about my girlfriends. I thought her friend wanted to tell me that what I was doing was not OK, so I explained to her that I did not really have four girlfriends. I was surprised when she told me that what he wanted to do was study from me how to get girls. She said they really thought I was serious. She explained that after I had said I had four girlfriends, they discussed it and it made sense - the American in America, the Chinese in Kunming, where I had lived previously, and the Korean could be one of my classmates. They were not sure where the Japanese girlfriend was.

Class Dinner

Various people in class had told me that they wanted to get to know the other classmates. Though we are all friendly in class, after class we did not socialize much. For this reason, I arranged a class dinner. On Monday I asked the entire class and almost everyone said they would come on Thursday. Disappointingly, on Thursday evening only a few people showed up - the two Kazakh girls and the Korean guy. One of the Korean girls showed up at the meeting spot in front of our dorm only to let me know she and her two roommates were busy. The poor showing really bummed me out for a few days, especially as everyone had said they could come and knew about it well ahead of time.

Sweet classmate

On Thursday, an American girl in my reading class, out of the blue, offered me some leftover ribs she had in her room, which I accepted. I thought it was very sweet of her. She also offered me some fried rice she had frozen, which I politely declined. Reheated (from frozen) fried rice? No thanks!

Michael Jackson videos

On the weekend, two female Chinese students I was introduced to came over to my room and we chatted for a couple hours in Chinese. I showed them some Michael Jackson videos. They had never seen one before. They were not overly impressed, which disappointed me. I showed them Billy Jean, and one commented that the way Michael Jackson danced was no longer in style.

March 22 - March 28

Teaching English

Annie had told her students in advance that I would be coming, and the word spread. The first class, she said, would have twenty-five students, but the students from another class Annie taught (at a different time) showed up, and the room was packed. In total, there were over 50 students. Only six of them were male. These students were only a few years younger than me, and had rarely if ever learned English from a foreigner, so they were enthusiastic.

In the first class, when I introduced myself, I explained that I was here in China to look for a wife, to see what reaction I would get. People were definitely interested and we went through the qualities my wife should have. I was surprised when five of the six males said they preferred a non-traditional to a traditional Chinese wife. I had the class list topics they wanted to discuss, and there were enough to take up the entire two-hour class.

I then taught one more two-hour class. At the start of the second class, Annie asked the students to ask me questions. This turned out to be difficult for them. A few students asked me how to study English even though I kept telling them I was not an English teacher and did not have good suggestions. Annie would point at a person and say, "you in the pink one," to indicate someone with a pink jacket should ask me a question.

Forcing questions from the students was ineffective. The class continued awkwardly. Eventually Annie broke the class into groups, to have conversations in English amongst themselves. I took turns with the different groups, joining in on their conversations. It ended up that when I would join a group, instead of having a conversation, the students would continuously ask me questions. In addition, students from other groups would come over to listen to me speak.

After four hours of teaching, Annie treated me to lunch.

Class incident

Classes continued to be difficult for me as the weeks continued, and I spoke with a women who works in the office about my difficulties the unfortunate situation where the students in my class were at very different levels. I did not suggest that she speak with my teacher, because I didn't think there was a good solution (besides creating another class). Nonetheless, before class on Wednesday morning, the women from the office spoke with my teacher, in private but right outside our classroom.

As a result, that day in class, my teacher kept asking, "Jeremy, do you understand?" Finally, I responded that I almost never understand what she said completely because she talked too fast and used too difficult words, especially when giving explanations. My teacher then explained that she was asking me in particular because she had been asked to make sure she paid attention to each student, as we were at different levels, and she knew that I often did not understand. Her comments effectively made comments I had made in private public, and it embarrassed me. There was some tension after that. This incident put me in a bad mood for a week.

Wednesdays

That afternoon I went to study with Zhou in my jogging outfit, which included a bright red fleece. Strangely, Zhou said I looked handsome. I thought I looked particularly sloppy, showing up in my jogging clothes.

Plane tickets

I tried to have Apple help me buy some plane tickets. On April 4, my brother and his girlfriend will arrive in China to visit me, and we will do some traveling together. I wanted to buy the tickets that well in advance. I thought having a Chinese person helping me get the tickets would make things easier. Instead, after speaking with a ticket selling agency, Apple told me that there was no way for me to get the physical tickets until April, and further that she could also not tell me the price until then. I decided to take care of this matter myself and went to a large hotel's ticket office. At first they gave me the same line - that I would have to wait until April. But I persisted, and got the tickets that day despite the fact that Apple had said that it was impossible (against the airline's rules).

Lunch with my Korean classmates

On Friday, the Korean girls in my class invited Ann and me to lunch. I think they were trying to make up for skipping out on the class dinner I had arranged. We had a nice time. They mentioned that class was much more fun when I am there, and in a good mood (which I am usually in!). Lately, I just could not get enthusiastic for class, because of the teacher's attitude and the difficulty of the class. The Korean guy was also there, and he mentioned how they did not care if he was in class or not. I did not know if he was joking, but it did not sound like it, and it made me feel awkward.

March 29 - March 31

Locking myself in my room

My dorm consists of two main rooms: a living room, with a TV, table and chairs, and a door to the hallway, and a bedroom, which connects to the living room. While I was in my bedroom on Tuesday morning, the door slammed shut from the wind that came through an open window. I could not figure out how to open my door to the living room. There was a lock on my side, but I did not have the key, and I concluded that I would need the key to pen the door. Luckily, I had my cell phone and  called Apple. She could not answer as she was in English class, but responded with an instant message saying that she was in class. I sent her a message, letting her know that I was locked in my room, but could wait until her class finished.

She said she would come over right away to help me, and left class early. When she knocked on my door, I yelled to come in. But then I realized - there was no way for her to get in as the door from the hallway to my living room was locked with a bolt! I started to worry, but in no time played with my lock and was able to open it after all! Apple and I had a good laugh. She told me her entire class knew about my problem because she laughed upon receiving my SMS in class. The teacher then read the message.

Tough order

On Thursday I went to a restaurant on campus, which is attached to the cafeteria. At 12 PM I ordered a dish - I explained that I wanted a red and sweet chicken that I had had before there (when eating there with friends). The first dish they brought me was spicy and not red, besides the hot peppers. They gladly tried again, but the next dish they brought, though it was a sweet chicken, was also not at all red. Finally, the third time, they got it right. The restaurant workers did not get frustrated and found it funny. So did many of the restaurants other customers. I tried not to let it get to me. This is a typical experience, so to be surprised by their bringing me dishes that were nothing like those I described would be ridiculous.

People

Apple

• She says "mmm-hmmm" like an American, which I've never heard from any other Chinese person
• On the weekend she works at a western cafe for free because she finds it interesting, learning how to cook, etc.
• She often tells me gossip. She told me she heard I had a girlfriend from her roommates (I have no idea who they are, but she said many students I do not know know who I am). They said that I often had dinner with a particular girl in the cafeteria. I could only think of two times the entire month that I had had dinner in the cafeteria with a girl! Both times, it was with Ann, who had picked me up from the airport.
• She told me my spoken Chinese has gotten worse since she met me.

Marsha

She got sick for a while, and went to her hometown (a seven-hour bus-ride from Kunming). She said that when she goes home, she gets better. I spoke to her a few times while she was at home - her parents got a phone a few months ago, for the first time in their lives. She stayed home for five days. She said her mother always smiled when passing on messages that I called.

Shelly

Daxiong

Last term he opted for private tutoring only. He called it "Daxiong University." At the time, I had suggested that he go to school for the discipline but he disagreed. He is not easily influenced. Now he told me he thinks its good to go to class every day, for the very reason I had stated. He says that was what he was "telling me all along." He's quite funny this way.

In Haerbin, hockey, which is his favorite sport, is very popular, and he has become very involved. He plays almost every day and is coaching China's third national woman's team. He says they are all fifteen and sixteen years old. In addition, he gives the girls weekly English lessons! He is also living in an apartment on the Olympic complex. He was previously living with a couple of older Chinese women (in their fifties) but they were uncomfortable with the fact that he is single.

Misc.

Apple teeth story

Apple told me what Chinese children do when they lose their baby teeth. When a child loses an upper tooth, he throws it to the ground (so that the new tooth will grow DOWN straight). When he loses his lower teeth he throws it on a roof, that way the teeth will grow UP nice and straight. It can be any suitable roof, and the child must throw the tooth himself.

Random Apple comments

She said the crow is most intelligent animal, with an IQ of 60. I had always thought it was the chimpanzee, dolphin, or elephant.

She said Jews are the most intelligent people in the world, and when I asked where she learned that, she said this type of information is in the newspaper. She said that Jews have the highest IQ and often have great scientific achievements. She also said blacks have the best rhythm. She made these comments as if they were facts, oblivious to how politically incorrect and unacceptable they would be in certain parts of the world.

Trains

Apple said that it is not possible in China to be a train ticket more than five days in advance of the departure. The reason is that if they let you buy it any time, it would be impossible to get tickets as they would all be sold out. If I think of it like a ballgame where the team does not let people buy advanced tickets, there is some logic to this, but all in all it made very little sense, no matter how I looked at it.

She gave me reason after reason and finally admitted that it did not make sense to her either but she was repeating the reasons that were told to her. She said that despite this policy, she often could not get a train ticket home during school's vacation. I then went off about the trains being run by the government and that it is inefficient and bad for the customer because it is not privately run, but she had some good comebacks that showed that my comments were ignorant.

Random

• My speaking teacher commented about how the young Chinese people are not proud of their country because it is poor. She mentioned that ninety percent of students from Qinghua University (the best university in China along with Beijing University) go to live abroad after graduating. I found this fact interesting.
• My speaking teacher asked if we noticed the students who sit in class but are not eating. She then explained that they are there to make sure students behave appropriately. If there is a guy and girl flirting with each other, such as serving each other food, they will be reprimanded by this student. Such behavior is not allowed. Only a few years ago, having a girlfriend or boyfriend was not allowed in universities.
• I noticed a huge percentage of people in this city dye their hair, usually some kind of deep red. I am told it is because of influence from nearby Korea (Seoul is an hour away). Because it is so common, I now find this unattractive.
• I've come to better understand some differences between Koreans and Westerners in terms of learning Chinese. The Korean language is a dialect of Chinese and not so long ago, written Korean consisted of Chinese characters. Because the languages are related, Koreans learn Chinese much faster than Westerners, particularly reading, writing and vocabulary, though the grammar is difficult for them. It is something like an American studying Spanish, where certain words are practically the same. It often baffles me how fast Koreans can write Chinese characters, and even now I do not completely understand it.
• It is funny how Chinese girls often tell their friends (including me) to wear more clothes, because it is cold outside, or to take care of themselves. It is true that many Chinese girls sound like mothers.

My daily life

• I eat most of my meals in the cafeteria, which is a five minute walk from my dorm. I occasionally eat with friends, but more often alone. I do not have a lot of spare time, as I have twenty hours a week of class, 9 hours of tutoring from Zhou, and six hours with Apple.
• To walk from one side of campus to the other takes fifteen minutes. The campus is very narrow. That should give an idea of the size of the campus.
• It takes ten minutes to get to class from my dorm.
• For breakfast, I often have fried eggs on a fried steamed bun. They are lukewarm, not quite fresh. This is usually the case for food in the cafeteria.
• There are two buses I can take into the city. The closest stop to my dorm is ten minutes away. I walk down a hill to get there. At the top of the hill, only a few minutes from my dorm, are vendors that sell food until late at night, like fried rice and fried noodles, in addition to many other snack foods.
• When I want to treat myself well, I eat dinner at a German restaurant. It is only a ten-minute bus ride from Ocean University, where I study with Zhou four times a week. They have pork schnitzel, good home fries and salad (which is rare in China).
• I study with Apple in my room.
• I study with Zhou in her apartment, at a table in her living room. To get to her apartment takes fifty minutes door to door. It is a half-hour bus ride and a ten minute walk to and from the bus stop. If I cab it, it takes twenty-five minutes door to door. I do not mind the ride at all. I look forward to studying with Zhou because I really like her and learn a lot.
• Sometimes I feel overwhelmed from studying, in which case I watch a western DVD. Lately I have been watching more and more DVDs.
• My neighbors are three American guys. Three American girls live on the first floor in my dorm, along with the three Kazakh girls. On the floor below me is am empty room, where two Korean guys (one my classmate) live. There are two dorm rooms per floor, up to three people per room. I am the only person I know who lives alone, everyone else has roommates.
• On weekends, I usually spend one day walking around the city.
• I have gotten used to the bus rides and don't get frustrated with the fact that it takes me an hour to get anywhere.
• I have had various random meals with students and Chinese people I've met elsewhere. Often people ask for my phone number and then don't use it but sometimes they do. I think that's part of the culture.
• Though I'm used to the bus rides, it is still annoying how there is no order as far as boarding a bus. You use physical force to make your way on, unless you want to wait and be the last one on. Anyone and everyone pushes.
• The weather has been cold since I've been here.
• I've gone jogging a number of times, and sometimes jog on the beach, which takes about fifteen minutes to jog to.
• Many of the English teachers here are Mormons from Utah.