Hit the Books

This week I had my first Chinese test.

Photos by Conor

I wanted to write this post two days ago when I actually had it, but I was too exhausted from staying up the night before, eating chocolate chips and avoiding actual studying. It was just like my old college days, but with less stamina!

Over many difficult hours of diligent chocolate consumption I was able to create the material for my 3 minute presentation, a comparative discussion regarding the weather of my current city and hometown, and my feelings on the issue of "weather".

How many pictures of me until you feel like you were actually there?

This test was for my weekly Chinese class, and I'm very glad we had it. I definitely don't work hard enough on my Chinese by myself, and I'm the type of student that needs tangible goals and challenges like tests to push myself to really hustle. I guess living in the country where knowing Chinese would make so much easier isn't... tangible... enough for me.

I fully understand that this is a small milestone, come on, it's not even an HSK test, but I'm thankful for any Chinese that I pick up that can actually stick FOR CRYING OUT LOUD PLEASE LET THIS STICK. We're taking a break from class for winter course and Spring Festival, so I'll be out of practice. Ask me about the weather in a month; we'll see if this testing thing works.

January Heatwave

Yesterday I went to the neighbourhood beach. 

I've never spent longer than a month in a place like Fuzhou, and I have to say that I'm really enjoying life in a place where winter doesn't come with mountains of snow and scraping my car windows every morning. As a Canadian kid, a January 4th beach day sounds bizarre, but yesterday we enjoyed an unexpectedly warm day with rarely seen blue sky all over the place. Thankfully we were able to take full advantage; since it was our day off we spent the whole afternoon there, throwing the frisbee and football around, and watching the old men be amazing at flying kites. 

OK so the sky wasn't "blue" ALL day...

What about the swimming, you ask? Settle down there cowboy, this is still China. Sure, the sand was surprisingly nice for a beach on a Chinese river, but I don't know if I'm ready to be jumping into that can of worms just yet.  

I've always wanted to live by the beach, and although it may not be Hawaii, I'm thankful to have this spot across the street.