Day-to-Day: China Edition
For the most part, day-to-day life here in China is routine. We start classes at 8:30am sharp so I typically wake up around 7am with my roommate to get ready for the while also making time for a 20 minute study session on the day’s dictation. 15 minutes before 8:30am, I usually head downstairs and get my morning breakfast wrap from the wrap man. It has the typical egg, scallions, your choice of meat, and lettuce all wrapped in a flour-type tortilla. It has been the closest thing that I have gotten that tastes like home so the wrap man sees me regularly.
From there, I make my way to the first class, Chinese language. In this class we spend 2 hours learning new characters, grammar, tones, and discuss different possible dialogue encounters where we would use the words we just learned. After those 2 hours, we would get 2 more hours with a different teacher who focuses on comprehension and reviewing what we have just learned. Personally, I love the second class the best just because I feel that I get to be more myself. My personality really does shine and the teacher encourages us to think out of the box.
Once the classes are over, it is lunch time and there are many options to where to go to eat. We have 2 hours for lunch before having culture class, which changes on a daily basis. On Mondays and Wednesdays, we are split up into 2 groups, meditation or folk dance. These groups are chosen before the trip even begins so there is no worries about the groups changing or fearing to not get what you asked for. On Tuesdays, we have a variety of different things we do. Some of the things we have done so far are paper cutting and calligraphy. On Thursdays, we propose part of our main proposal which is something that is included in the curriculum of the dialogue. On Friday, we have Taiji. From these different classes, I really do feel as though I am learning more about the culture that I am surrounded by.
After culture class begins the wait for the language parters. All of our language partners are graduate students at Yunnan University so they take afternoon classes. Once their classes are over, they spend about 2 hours with us individually and they help us practice our Chinese, help us with our homework and also they answer any questions we might have about the culture or about the proposal that we are working on.
From there, I typically get dinner with my elementary classmates and get back to my room to sleep. This is the routine for the weekdays with the exception of the weekends where field trip activities are planned. As you can see, the schedule here has been very busy and tight for the most part especially since we have a 12-hour difference from home, speaking with family members and loved ones has become a real challenge but not one that cannot be handled.
