Had another early start and still a headache…just can’t seem to shake it. Had my hanyu and writing class this morning. I was so unfocused. I think my hanyu teacher noticed because he kept picking me to answer questions in class. Writing was easy as always. I’m still not sure what the point of that class is haha. I can’t wait to get my homework assignment back. I hope she was as amused with my writings as I was. Hoping for a good grade since most people I talked to didn’t do nearly as much work as I did. After class, I grabbed lunch with 2 of my classmates and biked back to the global village to pack the rest of my stuff into my suitcase. I stopped by a fruit stand to pick up a gift for my host family and then started the adventure of finding their house. I thought I remembered how to get there, but didn’t have much luck. I went out the west gate instead of the west side gate and ended up in the wrong area. I had to call my teacher for directions, but once I got to the right street, I recognized the area and was able to walk from there. I made a wrong turn in the apartment complex, but eventually managed to find my way to their house.

I’m living with a man and his daughter and the grandfather lives across the hall. I hear the man I’m staying with (ceng laoshi) is a very good cook. He’s making dinner right now and it smells delicious. I chatted with him for a bit and then unpacked my stuff and started on my homework for a little. They’re doing some kind of work on the building because someone was banging hammers and had drill guns going for a while. I moved out into the living room are to work on my homework since there is more light. Then the daughter came home. She’s really interesting. I haven’t gotten to talk to them much, but they seem like really nice people and they’re easy to talk to. He said my Chinese is pretty good, but I’m not so confident about that. So far I’m surprised with how much I’m able to understand and speak in their house. Still not fluent, but I’m better off than I thought I would be. I think it also helps that one of my classmates was staying here before me, so they probably have a good idea of my skill level and what I can and can’t handle. We just finished eating dinner and it was delicious. He made a stir fry with noodles and some kind of beans and we also had tomatoes, tofu and a type of bread. It was really really tasty. I’m surprised I ate as much as I did. We’re watching the news right now and it’s really good practice for my understanding skills.  Having internet problems here though. For some reason, I can get a basic connection which will allow me to access my email and google, but I can’t activate my vpn or access any other websites. So I’m kinda stuck. At least I can get to google translate so I can manage my homework. I have the rough draft of my essay finished and just have to get my tutor to edit it for me tomorrow during my tutoring session. Glad to have that out of the way so far in advance. That will save me a lot of time this weekend. Now I just have to finish studying for my quiz and figure out how my group is going to coordinate for our presentation tomorrow. I was so busy in the past few days that I haven’t been able to get together with them to put stuff together. I hate being so disorganized, but I can’t help it that I was so busy over the past few days. I’ll be glad to have this assignment behind me. Also, no vpn means no blogspot, so I’m going to be writing my posts in word and then uploading them once I get on campus or get the internet here working.