Kids Who Can't Read Good.

Sorry I've been bad about updating this week, y'all--a lot's happened! I had my first week at school, and it went really well. The first day gave me quite a scare, since I was up till the wee hours scrambling to finish my homework. Homework, people! guh. Anyway, we're speeding along quickly and learning about 40 characters a day--definitely a challenge, but I'm really enjoying it. The teacher is really cool, and very animated, so I don't have any trouble staying awake in class, even though 3 hours of intense concentration takes it out of me. I'm also less than fond of the daily dictation quiz and chapter test every three days(!). Oh well. There are 8 students in the class, most of whom are like me and were raised/born in the states and can speak Chinese, but can't read good and want to do other things good too. We're all 19-26 years old, so there's plenty to talk about, and they're cool kids.

My routine day normally goes:

7.15 AM wake up/shower

8.30 AM breakfast/ride with my uncle Sean, so he can drop me off at the metro stop on his way to work

9.15 AM arrive at school/study before class

10.20 AM class starts

1.10 PM class ends/lunch with classmates/obligatory chattering in English/start homework

3.30 PM gym with Diana, my UNC cohort

5.30/6 PM ride public transportation home

remainder of the night: homework

Thrilling, I know. In other news, I tried stinky tofu of the fried variety (the steamed kind really, really smells like a "steamer"...if you know what I mean) for the first time this week. Up until now, the, shall we say, pungent smell of it scared me, but it was actually really good!

Oh, and there was a pretty big earthquake in Taiwan on Friday morning, around 2 AM. It was pretty freaky, but I was half-asleep and therefore half-concious, so I wasn't all that fazed. My very first earthquake...awwww.

More soon! And as always, pics are up on Flickr. xx