This past week was my very stressful midterm week. I spent my whole week
working on presentations, reading and rereading assignments, memorizing
over 100 Chinese characters, and memorizing a speech in Chinese. By far
the hardest studying I’ve had to do, maybe in my whole college career,
is Chinese. Everything about it is just so different – the characters,
the sounds, and the grammar. I stayed up late and woke up early to study
Chinese, and I hope it paid off but I’ll have to wait to find out. It
was strange because having midterms week made me feel like I was at
Loyola. It was just like midterm week in Chicago with late night
studying and stressing out, spending the whole week cooped up in the
library and study lounge, but instead of coffee breaks I took regular
milk tea breaks. I bonded with my Chinese tutor since I spent extra time
with her studying Chinese and even though it was stressful it really
made me realize how much I’ve already learned this semester. In all my
classes I was able to reflect on all the research, reading, observing,
and learning I have done.
I finished my midterms on Thursday so on Friday my friend Molly and I
decided we needed and deserved a break. We went to do a little shopping
and then went to get pedicures. After reviewing the prices we decided to
add a massage to our pedicure since it was only 30 rmb, which is the
equivalent of five U.S. dollars. The pedicure was amazing! I’m not a big
fan of my feet, but the pedicure made them feel amazing, and the massage
was exactly what I needed after a week of stress. So I guess even though
midterms were stressful and there isn’t any good coffee in China I got
to end my week with some much needed relaxation.
Tomorrow I am leaving for the Sichuan province of China on another trip
sponsored by my program. We are going to see the giant pandas and
hopefully some other wonderful things! So unfortunately that means I
won’t be blogging for another week, but I will be sure to write about
my Sichuan adventures as soon as I return.
working on presentations, reading and rereading assignments, memorizing
over 100 Chinese characters, and memorizing a speech in Chinese. By far
the hardest studying I’ve had to do, maybe in my whole college career,
is Chinese. Everything about it is just so different – the characters,
the sounds, and the grammar. I stayed up late and woke up early to study
Chinese, and I hope it paid off but I’ll have to wait to find out. It
was strange because having midterms week made me feel like I was at
Loyola. It was just like midterm week in Chicago with late night
studying and stressing out, spending the whole week cooped up in the
library and study lounge, but instead of coffee breaks I took regular
milk tea breaks. I bonded with my Chinese tutor since I spent extra time
with her studying Chinese and even though it was stressful it really
made me realize how much I’ve already learned this semester. In all my
classes I was able to reflect on all the research, reading, observing,
and learning I have done.
I finished my midterms on Thursday so on Friday my friend Molly and I
decided we needed and deserved a break. We went to do a little shopping
and then went to get pedicures. After reviewing the prices we decided to
add a massage to our pedicure since it was only 30 rmb, which is the
equivalent of five U.S. dollars. The pedicure was amazing! I’m not a big
fan of my feet, but the pedicure made them feel amazing, and the massage
was exactly what I needed after a week of stress. So I guess even though
midterms were stressful and there isn’t any good coffee in China I got
to end my week with some much needed relaxation.
Tomorrow I am leaving for the Sichuan province of China on another trip
sponsored by my program. We are going to see the giant pandas and
hopefully some other wonderful things! So unfortunately that means I
won’t be blogging for another week, but I will be sure to write about
my Sichuan adventures as soon as I return.
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