Late night drowsiness...

Right now, I'm sitting in my room (i.e., my apartment/dormitory, which screams yearnings to someday become a full hotel room....at least it looks like it's trying to mimic one), periodically glancing up at myself in the giant mirror that is placed directly in front of me on the wall (unavoidable), and man do I look like I'm on some sort of downer/weed/sleep-inducing medicine. I mean, it's 11:40pm, so I wouldn't say it's surprising that I should be tired at this hour. Cheery and relaxed eyes, calm smile, but dauntingly sleepy expression. I seem to be tired a lot lately...or, conversely, jolted with energy in sporadic bursts. I think it's the ridiculously hot and humid weather here, and the going back and forth between amazing air-conditioning (which rocks my world to the nth degree) and hot hot heat. I'm even getting a wee bit of a cold from the constant temp changes. Blast.

HOWEVER, let me deter from the bizarre physical description that I have just laid upon you (which is, for the most part, irrelevant) and move on to the bigger picture. I'M IN CHINA! SETTLED IN FOR THE NEXT YEAR!! At first, the thought was incredibly scary and overwhelming for me, mostly because I know next to nothing regarding the language. I knew how to count to ten at first....which, with some miming and pointing, might help me to tell someone how many apples I wanted to buy at a store. Even with learning a bit more since then, I have still felt overwhelmed, mostly because learning Chinese is proving to be very very difficult for me. I like to think of myself as good with languages, with Italian under my belt, and French and Spanish within a level of conversational comfort. But memorizing and pronouncing all of the different tones (4!) AND attempting to recognize some Chinese characters (mostly on menus)....holy moly, it takes a lot of mental energy.

Jon and I just had a 2 hr 15 min session with our new friend Ben (clearly he's Chinese, and clearly Ben is not his given name), and my brain is fried...perhaps that's why I look a bit stoned and wiped (duh). However, I've started to get into a new rhythm of studying -- going at my own pace -- and I feel a lot more confident and comfortable about learning the language now and throughout the school year.

A propos, I like to think of this picture as me taking control (to a certain extent) of learning Chinese, while zooming at crazy awesome speeds and having a blast in the process.


Peace out for now,
Em

P.S. The food is ridiculously delicious! Especially the "si ji dou" (green beans). :)

P.S. This next picture is from the mall in Bangkok, Thailand. It is totally random, but I felt that its weird awesomeness just had to be shared with the world. Enjoy.