want to see some photos??

Hi Everyone! I just spent some hours uploading pics onto my facebook albums. Don't know if you are able to get into it. Here are the links....
(this one has photos of my place with furnitures & the company's school's opening celebration) http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=71544&l=53a59&id=547510378

(this one has recent photos of the city's sceneries and friend's visits)
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=78820&l=bf41f&id=547510378

Let me know if you can get them...if not, here are a few here for your preview (the beautiful day at the park and yummy dinner with my visiting friends). Two more days then I am off to the official orientation training in S'pore (which I should've gone to before coming here to this city). It will be good to be away from the cold weather but it will also be 'Very' difficult because I will have a big lapse in my language learning, which is the thing that I am most afraid of. For now, I am kinda glad that I get to escape to some nice warm weather for a little while and give my emotions a rest from feeling stupid and feeling exasperated from a lot of presumptions. Having an escape from needing to explain why I can't speak putonghua, why I am american even though I don't look American, why I don't know too much about Hong Kong anymore, why I don't know my grammar in chinese, why I speak like an 'wai guo ren' ( a foreigner) when I speak in chinese. Man, with all that said, I will definitely need prayers and positive attitudes re: language acquistion. Today I already had a melt down moment since I felt the teacher was completely ignoring my needs in class, she somehow isn't able to hear me when I ask questions or when I answer, and when she says something, she often refers to the fact that I'm 'Guangdong Ren' (cantonese) and ask me how's the weather pattern in HK or what's the latest movie in Hong Kong. I was SOOOOO frustrated that I was almost in tears, almost got up and walked out of her class half way through but held back because that would be a BIG insult to her. So I told her 'I DO NOT KNOW OR RECALL WEATHER PATTERN IN HONG KONG!!'

I tell you, I am soooooo tired of people's assumptions. So, in that manner, I am thrilled to be taking a break but know that I will suffer again after coming back. Alrighty, enough about my gripes. As I was told, this is ALL part of the normal process and part of the acculturation. The only incentive I got out of this bad day is that one of my team mates felt sorry for me and introduced me to some pseudo Korean food (He's Korean American, hence, it was good fun to have him take me there and compare whether it's good enough or not). The verdict was that it's good enough.

Weather is down to 30s right now and I was told that it will get colder when I come back in Dec. Yikes!! I am currently using an electric heater since I am always feeling cold. My apartment is nice and spacious but it's COLD (my friends said it's because I don't have much furnitures and no curtains)!! I will find out what happens when I come home in a month re: weather and the heating situation. Very interesting as I learn to adapt to life here. Keep you all posted.


Well, will share with you life and photos later about my next adventure in the next two locatons. Then back to the daily grinds of being a language student. Hopefully, less lamenting. Boy! this full time study deal is and can be stressful, so different from acquiring professional skills. I admire linguists.