17 June 2007

So after a long orientation with several speeches by our directors (in Chinese) yesterday we started the academic part of BCLU. This is what my day looks like:

8-10 am Lecture
10-12 am Drill Section
2:20-3:10 pm Individual Session (One-on-one with a laoshi)
7-9:30 pm Homework Review

Plus, every day we have a CD to listen to, 100 new words to memorize, sometimes a paragraph to memorize, and a homework worksheet. I'm hoping to take BLCU Martial Arts classes and Salsa classes (yep, Salsa) through the BLCU gym.

Down time is not going to be a problem here. The good news so far is that I'm still on California time, which means I wake up at 4am and have a few hours to study before class.

About the food here:

It's interesting in that it's nothing like Western food. For breakfast I have dumplings and tea, for lunch, dumplings and tea and for dinner... you get the picture. Actually, the food here has been varied and quite good so far--I ate particularly tasty "pork wrapped shrimp" and broccoli--but what baffles me is why everything is cooked in a sauce with the consistency of maple syrup.

I went to the grocery store yesterday afternoon and stared at labels for awhile. Eventually I gave up on the native stuff, though--when you can't tell if it's shampoo or alcohol, you've got a problem. My room, thus, is well stocked with Nestle hot chocolate and Pocky... the delicious chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks that are also sold in America, and that I may end up living off of for the next three months...