enjoying or at least anticipating Spring Break, I have finally started
my spring semester classes. It has been a very good first two weeks,
but an incredibly busy two weeks as well. You see, I've run into a
problem. I spent the whole winter here in Shenyang, with nothing to do
per se. So I started up lots of various activities, got more involved
in certain areas, etc. Now that school has started again, I have no
desire to stop doing all those things I started during the winter, but
I also have to attend 20 hours of Chinese class a week (and
theoretically study outside, too!). So I've been a little overwhelmed
with activities… And the real problem is that I enjoy all of them, so
I really don't want to stop anything. Hm. Such dilemmas. :)
As far as my classes go, this semester is looking quite promising.
With the semester change, I moved up to the next level class. The
benefit of that move is that the higher level class has much more
interesting courses. I now get to take courses on reading newspapers,
writing essays, understanding Chinese culture, and – get this –
watching movies! The watching movies class is definitely an enjoyable
one, especially since it's the last class on Friday. What a great way
to start the weekend! Of course, I still have the more traditional
grammar and speaking classes, which are going just fine.
The composition of the class is quite different from my class last
semester. In general, the foreign student population at my university
last semester was probably around 50% Korean (we're pretty close to
Korea here…), and in the higher level Chinese classes, that percentage
increased exponentially. (I.e. in my class, I ended up with a Czech
classmate. And there was me. And Koreans.) However, apparently the
world financial crisis is hitting the Korean currency quite hard, so
many of the Koreans are finding it difficult to afford the tuition and
living expenses in China these days. A huge number of them just went
home. So in my class of 15-20ish, there are only 5 Koreans now, which
is a huge change.
Of course, I have nothing against Koreans. In fact, some of my best
friends in Shenyang are Korean. But it's really fun for me to look
around my classroom this semester and see so many different countries
represented. It really looks something like the U.N.! Korea, Japan,
Mongolia, Germany, Slovenia, Russia… even Belarus! (Ok, I'll be
honest, I didn't really know how to spell that country's name. But I
do know how to write the name in Chinese!) The Belarusian happened to
sit right next to me the first day of class, so we started talking.
When we each heard the other's country, it was really interesting.
"Oh, we don't have very good relations with the U.S." she said. So
true. But don't worry, I'm doing the best I can to alleviate the
tensions between our countries, by befriending this girl here. So far
so good. :)
The reality of starting the spring semester is that the winter
vacation must come to an end. For me, the two semesters and the winter
break just all seem to run together, since I've just been around
Shenyang for the whole time anyway. But many of my friends left for
the winter, traveling off to various places literally around the
world. The last of my friends returned last week, so everyone is
pretty much back now. (The exceptions, of course, are the few people
who were only here through last fall, so have now left for good.) Of
course, it's been fun to catch up with all my friends and hear about
their experiences. It sometimes makes me a little jealous, admittedly,
to hear of all their adventures, but I've had my own here. And it's
all good anyway, because I now have souvenirs from literally all over
the world! For some reason most of them are edible, so they won't be
making it back to the U.S. with me… but for now, I'm certainly
enjoying such things as Belgian chocolate, brought straight from
Belgium; Ghanaian chocolate, which is also amazingly delicious; and
famous Kenyan tea. Just think, all I had to do was move to China to
get all this! Haha!
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