Ok…so I read back over the last post and other than the whole travel discussion I realized it sounded pretty darn depressing. Guess I was in a weird mood due to the fact that last week was a pretty odd week, what with switching tutors, not having any set schedule, kid in the house is sick (i.e., not sleeping so well), and it was hump-week for the trip. As a result I thought I’d post something a little more normal and less dull.
The Learning:
Today begins my new tutoring schedule. I have two tutors that are friends from college and both are teachers at reputable colleges in Beijing. In fact, the newer tutor, Zhang Laoshi (laoshi = teacher in Chinese), is a teacher at UIBE, where Doug and I studied 10 years ago…when we both realized that it was pretty funny.
From now on, my weekends will be Friday-Saturday, and the rest of the days I’ll have tutoring from 1-7pm, one chapter a day. I started adding it up recently when I saw the huge pile of flashcards on my window-sill, and realized I’ve probably learned 700+ words in the last month (or had the opportunity to learn…not saying I know all of them yet), not the characters, but the words. I’ve started trying to learn the characters, or at least learn to recognize them if not write them. It’s pretty daunting. I also realized that I’ve gone through the equivalent of a year and a half of Chinese in the last month, and by the end I will have studied the equivalent of two years (if you measure these things by the number of books you finish). Pretty crazy when you add it all up.
The Seeing Things:
Yesterday the Lotus program invited all of its current students to visit Yonghegong, the largest Lama Temple outside Tibet. About six students showed up. A few of the other students couldn’t make it due to being sick…it’s that time of year you know. We spent a few hours there with the folks from Lotus teaching us about Buddhism and how it fits into Chinese culture and history. It was pretty fun. I don’t have any pictures right now because I took my good 35mm camera instead of my digital. I may post some pictures later if Lotus sends them. It was great to be there early morning before the boatloads of tourists showed up. Still relatively touristy, and I would definitely rather go to a quieter temple, but it is definitely beautiful nevertheless.
After the temple they took us to the most famous vegetarian restaurant in Beijing, Yu Xiang Zhai, which is around the corner from Yonghegong and across the street from the Confucian Temple. I guess they specialize in making vegetarian food that looks and tastes like the meat equivalent. I had Lazi Ji (a chicken dish) and pepper steak, that looked and tasted remarkably like the real thing. Oh, and it was a buffet so we all gorged ourselves – it’s probably the most food I’ve eaten since I came here.
In short, it was nice to get out and see something fun and socialize with people I can communicate with, and hopefully my tutoring will continue to get better. I’ve learned quite a bit, and since folks keep telling me to remember that when I got here I spoke very little and look how much progress I have made, I spent some time reflecting on that this morning. I guess if I make the same relative progress over the next month I will have accomplished something pretty cool. Unfortunately, when you start counting down (as I kind of am at this point…really looking forward to the travel and seeing Doug after all), I think you lose some of the drive. But I’m going to try and stay focused and learn as much as possible in the time allotted and see where it takes me.
See! I can have a positive post once in a while! :-)
11/12: Update: Here are some pictures that lotus sent me...I can't believe how ridiculous I look!
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