Tuesday, May 27, 2014

First day of class

Today was my first day of class.  I'm registered for 6 credits - 3 credits of Intermediate Chinese, 2 credits of Chinese Conversation, and a 1 credit Tai Chi class.  Between the two language classes, I have class every day from 9am until noon.  The Tai Chi is only two days per week and it starts tomorrow afternoon.  The language classes are going to be a little intense - my Intermediate Chinese has 6 people in it right now.  I think the conversation class might only have 3 (it meets for the first time on Thursday morning).  No place to hide in such small classes!

This morning I had a successful venture out to get food for breakfast.  There's a little bakery just down the street and I randomly point at something and tell them how many I want and they weigh it and tell me how much to pay.  This morning I ended up with something that tasted little like coffeecake.  Two big pieces cost me about 65 cents.  There are a couple of convenience stores right here too, so picking up a cold drink is pretty quick and easy too.  Those cost about 50 cents each.  It's easy to spend a lot on food if you go to fancy restaurants, but we've been discovering lots of little places nearby where the food is really cheap.  Of course, we often have absolutely no idea what we're going to get.  I managed to purchase what looked like a grilled cheese sandwich at a cafeteria on campus for lunch - it turned out to be a combination of french toast with syrup, and grilled cheese with pickles inside.  I shared that one with some other students....

Campus is a very busy place.  It seems to be a community gathering spot as much as anything else. 
A view looking down one of the main thoroughfares through campus.

People relaxing in one of the parklike areas on campus.

 A little group tai chi with fans going on here.

The little girl in the yellow was fascinated by the women doing tai chi.

Along with a soccer field and track, basketball courts, and tennis courts, there are also outdoor ping pong tables.  There are probably at least 20 of them here and they were all being used.  There's also a court nearby for a game that looks similar to croquet.  No one was playing tonight, so I didn't get a picture yet.

There are also a lot of students moving out and they've been having little sidewalk yard sales every afternoon.

I thought I'd also provide you with a list of rules for our portion of the international student dorm for your reading entertainment.

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