6th Week at HBA

The 6th Week! I really cannot believe that time is going so fast, I feel as if I just got here, and now there are only a few weeks left. Anyway, this week is not as interesting as the other weeks, and is mostly full of stress and lack of sleep.

So Monday marked the start of the second semester, and with it came the creation of a new class: 对话课. This new class replaced the second 小班课 we usually had last semester. I will be very honest and say it: I DO NOT LIKE IT. This new class is very fun, really enjoyable. However, by taking away one of our 小班课 we are not getting enough practice with all of the new vocabulary and grammar. Now we only have lecture class and one 小班课 to practice, which amounts to about 2 hours to practice the vocabulary and grammar we would usually learn in a week! In this new class, we basically speak with another student while a teacher listens to us to correct us. This new class is supposed to help us use language in a more realistic manner, which is good, but the practice with the new material is very minimal. We mostly use structures and vocabulary we had previously learned.

Well, besides this new class, the other thing that made this week the hardest so far, according to most of us, was the writing of our Social Study Reports. During Social Study week everything was much more relaxing since we were able to travel and speak with Chinese people. This week the fun ended when we had to sit down and write it all on paper. I actually think that writing the paper was not that bad. The only thing is that it took a really long time to write, taking away any free time we had during the week.

I still managed to go to the Yale Dinner on Wednesday, though, which was a very interesting experience. According to what other Yale classmates told me, our teachers spent around 7000 元 for this restaurant! It was ridiculous expensive by both Chinese and American standards. Thank you! Well, that was not the interesting part. What was interesting is watching how this expensive restaurant's waitresses were always chatting instead of serving us food or drinks, and how they took an eternity to bring the food. Oh, there was also the interesting moment when they brought live lobsters and set them walking around on the floor before they died. Really awkward but fun experience. The food really was only slightly better than the average Chinese restaurant, but it would be great to go back to this one only to live these weird moments again. The gardens in the restaurant, by the way, were spectacularly beautiful.

Finally, I'll end talking about this weekend's HBA trip to Marco Polo Bridge. I found the bridge only a bit interesting, but the museum we went to afterward was very interesting. The Museum was basically all about the war with Japan during WWII, and although I'm not into history, I found it very interesting.

This week I sadly do not have any pictures to post, but I promise I'll take pictures during next week. 再见！