classes are A W E S O M E

oh man. freshmen are awesome. they're really enthusiastic and eager to talk and to ask millions of questions. i already had my two classes today, an 8am and a 10am, which might have been supplemented better if i had managed to make coffee -- i ended up running out of time, but i left the pot of freshly brewed coffee for olson. (we bought a coffee grinder, beans, and this weird contraption with a jug at the bottom for water connected by a tube to a a jar on top that holds the grounds. put a flame under the water, it boils up the tube and mixes with the grounds, then drains through a filter back into the jug). i was running pretty handily on nerves though, so hopefully i won't be needing coffee as much as i thought. however, three 8am classes a week may turn me into a regular coffee drinker... meh, i've already picked up a handful of other tastes, coffee is sort of a natural progression.

class was really easy -- first 45 minutes were spent having the students ask me questions about myself and about america, then the second 45 minutes i attempted to work out of the book a bit (half of them didn't bring it, so that was difficult) and i had them do a short role-playing exercise. since we were working on introductions, i had them role-play a daughter introducing a boyfriend to her mother, and the mother disliking the boyfriend. they thought it was pretty funny and my first class was especially enthusiastic -- about six groups volunteered. second class wasn't as good, ended up having to sort of lecture them about the importance of participations. felt kinda bad doing that on the first day, but hopefully they felt bad too. =P

i really enjoy that the smallest things make them really happy. they crack up every time i say 'wo bu hui shou zhongwen' (i don't speak chinese) and they applaud when i enter the room, whenever i attempt to speak chinese, when i tell them i'm half-chinese and whenever i compliment china. all of the classes have asked me why i decided to come to china -- i have a bit of a set schpeil about how china is such a strong and powerful country and how it's growing quickly and it's important to make friends and understand the culture... i still have yet to get a class that hasn't applauded when i'm done. pretty cool.

tommy's birthday was a little while ago, that was pretty sweet. tony invited some of his classmates along, and it was nice hanging out with girls again -- we went out to a bar, had a beer or two and played this simple dice game (everybody rolls the dice and keeps them covered, one person says two numbers. then you look at the dice and take out any die with those numbers. goes around the circle with people saying different numbers each time until someone loses all their dice. that person drinks and you start all over) which was a lot of fun. lots of girly squealing punctuated with shouts of "oh no!" and "he jiu!" (drink alcohol) afterwards we swung by a KTV place and sang all sorts of randomness. i sang the one chinese song i knew about five times, the students sang a bunch and they had a really good collection of english pop songs (mostly from the 90s or older).

i finally got a cell phone. it was way too expensive (not gonna say how much, but it was still cheaper than buying a cell phone retail in the US) but it's a sony ericson so i can bring it back to the US and use it there when i get back. i was really really tempted to blow a chunk of cash on a motorola pebl... damn those are cute.

i'll hop on phil's computer soon and figure out some way to get pictures on this thing. i still have a good one i want to post from when phil and olson had to share a bed in beijing. heh.

ok, it's naptime.

~ anna

p s - btw we all have skype now. get it. it rocks.