I'm still alive!

First of all, thanks to all of you who do read my blog. It's fun to see who comments on it. Thank you for all the encouraging comments.

Well, in case you haven't guessed...I am slowly getting caught up in my daily routine as you can see that there's a bigger time gap between each entry. Since I last wrote about how I was having an easier schedule because my teacher called in. Well, if we westerners complained loud enough, we get heard. The school heard how we were not pleased with the lack of classes we were having...hence, quickly found us another substitute to teach our class. He was this enthusiastic young post-graduate student who majors in English and Business. So, he taught us for the past two weeks. Well, since there are not that many of us in the class, it's a pretty much one on three or one on five in class. He was also firm enough to push us (me in particular since I am much behind due to late entry) to converse in class. Amazingly, with his pushiness, it's helped me to get to a fairly basic level in my pinyin (though I still can't distinguish my tones) and now I am a little bit better than I was a month ago. Now I am able to understand some basic stuff okay and act like I am more capable in my comprehension than before. I'm quite pleased. I can even spell out most of the pinyin for my chapters. Quite exciting! The sad thing is that next Monday I departing for 5 weeks in order to attend the formal orientation of my agency. That means my learning will be halted for now. I am skeptical what I will come back to...either I will surprise myself with how much I retain or I will want to cry because of how much I lost. It will be interesting.

I have enclosed some pics for you to see how things are going for me...some random pics of my food experiences here...2 loaves of homemade bread (the darker one is my banana bread, the lighter one is my wheat bread, beautiful dumplings that I did not make but got to enjoy; and live prawns on a stick, no! we didn't just eat them like that, they were broil in the hot pot that we had. kinda sad to drown them alive like that!) However, they were yummy!

all in all, no complaints on food...i am slowly learning that there are plenty of exotic things to eat as long as you are willing to pay the price (from good local cheapies to extravagant expensive restaurants (like western coffee houses that serve steak, Indian & Korean food), awww, the life of living in the city!). Maybe where I am at is not so backwards afterall.

Well, that's all for now....next time I shall tell you more about making new friends here. Take care!