I feel like some of my classmates have this habit of attempting to impose their will on me XD Twice today it’s been like having these decisions made for me and I’m like, "No. I'm not doing that." XD I think it's because I'm 'murican.
I woke up early because I was planning on going to a Chinese modern art museum with Laura the Concept and she texts me saying if we could move it to 10:15AM. Then she asked if we could move it to 11AM. Now to this I say I'm not sure because I had class at 1PM so by the time we'd get to the museum and me leaving to make my way to the train we'd have at most barely an hour there. I don’t want to rush things or be late to class, and she knew I had class. She said we'd probably be done in an hour.
Uh, probably? XD I mean, this is a museum and I don't think museums usually take a rushed hour (especially in China because they're all huge) and what if there was something I wanted to keep looking at? Anyway we rescheduled.
After Mandarin class I asked a couple of people if the big cafeteria was open. They're classmates of mine, but in a different program. So the guy, Emmanuel from Nigeria, says we can check it out so the three of us go.
We get there and it's closed. We asked the people working when it would be open and they said 4:30. FOUR THIRTY. It was 3:45PM. I said I ain't waiting that long for the cafeteria to open and that I would go to Cloud Nine. Emmanuel said that it would take me that long to get to Cloud Nine and I said uh no, I walk there almost every day and it has never taken me 45 minutes to walk to that mall. He said, yes it does. He wouldn't believe me.
why are you arguing this point with me, this is getting weird
Emmanuel said the cafeteria will be open at 4. I said they told us it would be open at 4:30. He said it'll be open by 4 though. The girl had left to go to the bathroom and had come back at this point. I said I'll wait until 4, so 5 minutes. 4 comes and it's not open.
Emmanuel said we could kill time by going to this shop to get the girl a drink, and it'll take us 10 minutes to get there. We get there in 1 minute and the shop is closed. At this point it's like 4:02PM. I ain't waiting. I had class at 6PM. Emmanuel said we can go to a muslim shop and buy a snack, and return to the cafeteria. He kept thinking of ideas for us to kill time so we can return to the cafeteria.
As we're walking I start turning around and I go, "I'm going to the mall, bye!" (I was heading off to Global Harbor Mall, which is even closer to us, and I pointed to that direction.) He goes:
"But it's--"
"I'M GOING TO THE MALL
"
"Okay bye!"
I felt like someone was attempting to trample over me and I was feeling feminist XD Then he messaged me an hour later saying, “Hi” even though we’re not WeChat friends and I think he revoked his message because I don’t see it anymore… *weirdoooo*
That reminds me: His friend Donald from Ethiopia (?) was a guest speaker at the Welcome Ceremony. He made a nice speech and all was well. I never spoke to him, never met him, and I was just sitting in the audience. A week later he starts messaging me, saying hi, giving me his number, asking if I’m in my room, how he’s going out tonight with people and he’d be happy to see me, things like that. I showed Simona because I’m a GURL and we were like WTF XD The next day he messages me, “Hi” and I still have not responded at all. Then I found out he already graduated and isn’t even in a program anymore. WTF XD WEEEIIIRDOOOO.
Anyway, I’m off to Huzhou this weekend so that should be fun. I found a few masters students who seem super nerdy and nice! They’re so nice, nerdy, and one even gave me her extra copy of our Chinese Civil Law textbook so I wouldn’t have to wait for more copies to be printed. ^^ I was all, “OMG thank you!!!” They’re also going to Huzhou!
This past Monday my classmates and I went to a “Learning English Club” that has Chinese students learning English to make friends with us. It was so much fun. Simona, Reshabh, me, and three Chinese girls, Vera, Vincy, and Lily.
We named our team “The Blind Girls Plus One” because we all wore glasses or contacts and Reshabh is a guy and joined at the last minute.
We went through three rounds of competition. We had to learn the names of Chinese snacks, memorize idioms and match their characters, and correctly explain the meaning of the idiom. It was a close race and it was between us and Anthony’s team. He’s my one law school classmate. Our Chinese girls coached us and it was just like Rocky. Soon enough Vincy, my coach, was flipping through pages of characters and I was spitting them out like BULLETS. She said, “You know this.”
We lost the second round by 5 seconds and I felt nervous. We were so close. The final round was to raise your hand fast and explain the idioms. The final one to be explained was up. The person who screamed the loudest would be chosen. The beep went off and I SCREAMED MY HEAD OFF.
I was chosen! So Reshabh and I explained the meaning of “Blind men touching an elephant” and Saakshi challenged our meaning but was defeated. We won. It was intense, friendships were severed, but we won postcards of Shanghai and paper cut bookmarks.
Anthony afterwards said he doesn’t like losing and he can’t believe it, and I just wiggled and did a victory dance.
ADRIAN!!!!!! He said my Mandarin was very good though and Vincy said the same! Vincy is actually FROM Suzhou and she said she can be my guide for the city. YAY! She said it’s up to me to decide when to go and she’s up for whenever. I like that attitude! Wow, it’ll be so nice to be taken around Suzhou by a native!
now to get ready for tomorrow’s adventures…