Not working :(

We did go a few places and have a little bit of fun.  We ate at Ghiredelli's Fine Chocolate shop.  We ate the EARTHQUAKE!!  It is an eight scooper ice cream platter with as many toppings.  Man oh man was it amazing!  

We also went to the beach and it was quite and enjoyable time.  Thank you very much.

I have been trying to get more pictures uploaded but it just sits on a screen saying uploading pictures.  please see the "about me" part at the top right of my blog.  I will keep trying the picture thing.  

I now have my computer!!

It will be a little bit until I can get used to posting pictures etc but I will try to improve as time moves along.  

Traci and Mandy went on a road trip through California last weekend.  As good friends would, they brought some of my personal effects to me.  I know have a few things to wear and some ways to relieve stress.  Thank You Very Much!  Also a great big thanks goes to Mike and Dave for loading my stuff together.  

Leaving foot prints...

This was something a couple of my friends did and it looks like fun:

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn’t matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember! (And if you only know me through blogging, then leave your favorite post and why you keep coming back! :) )

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It’s actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I’ll assume you’re playing the game and I’ll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don’t want to play on your blog, or if you don’t have a blog, I’ll leave my memory of you in my comments.

It's been a month

I have made it about a month. I am now phase III. I have some liberties. I am kind of like a person in that I have a certain amount of say in what I do with some of my time. It is great!

I changed rooms this weekend. I now have a roomate. I would prefer not to have one. What can you do? He keeps to himself a bit. I haven't been around much though.

I am needing every extra bit of study time possible (eventhough I don't always use that time the most effectively) I am headed over to the Chinese Speaking Club in a few minutes. It is a chance to get into small groups with teachers or tutors and really get down to the grind on problems. It is also a good opportunity to hone studying skills.

I went to the shopping center this weekend and watched the new mummie movie. The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. It features a chinese mummie. I actually understood a few (very few and very simple) things!

I also have been able to pick out a couple of basic things on the coverage of the 2008 summer Olimpic Games in Beijing China. I have only been able to watch the games during meal times because I don't have a TV. I did enjoy what I have seen! Go USA!! go china or chile.

Testing is more a part of life than sleep

In the last three days I have taken 4 tests. Monday I have another test. The re-take quiz went fine. I got higher. We took a test today and I did ok on it. Not amazing. I was so tired last night I went to sleep early at midnight. I tried something new. I woke up early. 0430 is awefully early. It was nice to take a minute and text David though. I appreciate David's hard work to get up early and support me in my early morning endeavors whenever the occasion arises.

Wednesday we had another walk through for the room inspection war. We get them nightly but because there were zero demerits and we blew away the competiion (which didn't even exist honestly) we did not have to get them yesterday. Today we don't have them because it is the weekend. Basically Wednesday was the last phase II room inspection! I will only have to have it done on sundays and wednesdays from now on since monday I will "phase up."

I am really excited about this weekend I don't have anything planned. Awesome huh?!? Normally I think it would be good to have a plan but apart from some homework/study I can waste some time! It ought to be great! Cheers!

Random update

So here it is wednesday. I slept 4 hours last night. I had a vocab quiz today right after a lesson test. I felt good about the test but the quiz didn't go so well. I will retake the quiz tomorrow with half my class.

I am glad I don't have to worry about certain complexities with Chinese. For example, to learn to roll my R-s in spanish it took 23 months. The problem I have now is that I try to say something simple in chinese like the word for Japan is Riben. I keep rolling my r. That is kind of funny. The teacher just laughed and asked if I speak spanish. Good times! Phase III on monday!

What class is like

First of all for anyone who knows I had a quiz yesterday and our first lesson test today. My scores were as follows respectively: 72.5% and 87.5% I was up until 12:30 studing with two other people last night I had better have improved right? I even studied the night before for several hours. Can you imagine what what I would have got without studing for hours? Amazing huh? This is only the first week. 1 down only 62 to go!

I have converted to the 50-10 standard. My attention span is only 50 minutes. I can do anything for 50 minutes as long as for the next 10 I am free to stop. I can do class for 50 and bathroom/ excersice/ or talk for 10. I can wait for the bus for 50 minutes then ride it for 10. Actually I can also walk up the hill but it feels like I am hiking for 50 minutes. I have a different teacher for for each class period. They rotate between the three different groups. There are 6 people in my class. What a ratio. 1:6! Amazing huh?!? The opportunity I have is really a silver platter one. After 3 periods we go to lunch for an hour then do three more. For now we are doing an extra period at the end of the day for extra study. The only qualm I have with it is that it makes getting to P.T. (physical training) at the Hilltop Field very difficult. I have a stack of books that literaly are like a foot and a half tall and that is only for the first term. There are three terms. And half this material is taken up with english. This is also the smallest stack I will get. I have a lot of chinese to cram into my head! I am so excited! I was also issued an ipod. I will hopefully get my tablet PC within a month. Hard to say at this point. There are in the process of ordering some new ones so I will have to wait for them to get in!

Today after the test we started with chinese grammer. Up til' now it has just been tones and sounds. Although we have learned about what you get out of a high school term in this week we really ought to take off from here. It is very fast paced and I am certainly not the quickest pony on the track. I will require a lot of study time and hard work. It makes it worth it though right? I will have that extra bit of bitterness for those who will get an easy ride stored up for when I have to fight the "bad'ns" like good ol' James Bond!