China Series: I Can’t Even

It’s 3 a.m., and I have class in five hours, but I suddenly felt compelled to start writing — and finishing — my blog posts again. Thanks to the shouting of students living across the hall preventing me from sleeping, I was scrolling through social media and stumbled upon a post my freshman-year roommate had written about graduating. Suddenly, I was hit with this sudden melancholy I assume most students feel right before graduating. But the difference is, I didn’t spend four years at SDSU. In fact, I feel so out of touch with events and life at SDSU that I was surprised to see this graduation reflection.

China Series: Goals?

“Your Mandarin sounds pretty bad,” a checkout lady said to me in Chinese. “It’s as great as my English.”

Dumbfounded at this response to my “can you help me” request, I replied, “Sooo you speak English?”

“No,” she hesitated.

Ouch.

China Series: Disenchantment

Boy am I homesick as the holiday season rolls around yet once again.

Where is “home?” Right now, it’s somewhere with continuous sunshine under a blue sky, and brunch. Preferably I’d have both, simultaneously. Maybe a view of the beach thrown in here and there. Definitely not what I see out my window every morning when I open my eyes. I want to prepare for the “cold” season by surrounding myself with autumn-themed decor, ordering hot cups of sugar water from Starbucks, and listening to that never-ending loop of preemptive Christmas music.

But alas, it is but a wish, even with Santa in the picture.

Still in China and Still Alive

Hey world, it’s been a while and I still have no idea what I’m doing! But hey, every day is a brand new day, or so they say… here’s my update, over a month after which I arrived in China!

Wait, does that sound choppy?

Which leads me to my first observation: my English is deteriorating. Proof? I had to google the “opposite of improve” to grab the word “deteriorating.” I’ve also been Google translating certain Chinese characters into English. I guess it’s really as they say, language is a skill that you either use or lose. I mean, I’ve been using English with my friends on a daily basis, but only to discuss basic matters, like food, classes, weather and how the smog seems to permeate our entire vicinity before magically disappearing a few days later.

All of my classes are taught in Mandarin, and the local language is, of course, Mandarin with a heavy Northern accent, which prompts me to think and speak in the same manner. While that’s great for my Chinese, it’s not so much for my English. But enough about my little conundrums, here’s a report on China:

China on the Mind

“China. China, China China, China.” It almost sounds like a sentence, no?

The name itself carries so much context that an introduction is not quite needed. China, the home of the Great Wall. China, the land of almost unrivaled smog. China, a country of designer lovers, city dwellers, and factory workers, all of whom make this modern country possible.

But of course, there is a lot more to it than that.