Here, there be 龙

DID YOU KNOW THAT CHRISTOPHER PAOLINI'S BOOK, INHERITANCE, THE FOURTH BOOK IN THE INHERITANCE CYCLE, IS OUT NOW?!

READ AN EXCERPT HERE 

I would buy it here, but I think I might have told my mom I wanted it, and it would probably be the same price as it would be at home (yes people not everything is dirt cheap here, there are some things that are super expensive. I know I'm always talking about cheap things, but I happened to buy a tea cup yesterday for 150 yuan, which is 30 US dollars), and I'm starting to run really low on room in my carry on... so this will have to wait til I get back. Can somebody please read it for me, so I can vicariously live through you. Thanks.

I also tried to see if any of his book signings would take place after I came back to the states... but that's a negative. Why can't I be nerdy... wei shenmeeeeeeee?!

Speaking of dragons, although the western version of dragons looks cool, I think asian dragons are waaay cooler. They're like air snakes or something, and sort of more believable. If dragons are real. Were real. Could be real. Did anyone else see that special about dragons on discovery channel ages ago? Oh you didn't? Me... neither.... *cough*

Regardless, to be completely honest I should really be doing 我的功课(my homework)，but I don't feel like making a sentence using the word "to interpret" or looking up the difference between "有点儿“ or "一点儿“ (they're basically the same thing, just one is used before a noun instead of after). It's just so much wooorrrkkk I'm too lazyyyyy. And we have a dictation tomorrow bleeehhhhhh.

Have I mentioned the difference between Chinese teachers and American teachers? Let me give an example. In school, when I took German, I remember that even though I got the genders wrong on words (like "die" instead of "das") they would still give me credit for having the correct noun after it.

Chinese teachers: if you have the wrong tone mark above the word, it's completely wrong. One stroke is missing from the character? Wrong. Don't have a period 。after your sentence?! 不对！你是不好留学生！FAILURE. YOU ARE A FAILURE TO YOUR COUNTRY, AND YOURSELF. BUT MOSTLY TO CHINA.

I've realized that although I can understand what people are saying, I feel like a little kid who knows how to talk, but doesn't want to. Unfortunately, to get better at Chinese I need to talk. Especially since I only have 二十五天( 25 days) left. Apparently having a Chinese significant other (boyfriend in my case) improves your Chinese vastly. But how do I expect to get a boyfriend in the next 25 days when I never got a boyfriend in the first 21 years (Almost 22! My birthday is in a week!) OF MY LIFE?! HOW?! WHY MUST LIFE BE SO DIFFICULT?!

为什么？！

In other news, I've had this song stuck in my head for like five days.

I keep trying to use this program on my computer that takes the audio from youtube and turns it into an MP3 or 4 or whatever... but it keeps saying file is invalid (MAYBE I'LL INVALID YOUR FACE STUPID PROGRAM).

Whatever man. I wanted it mostly for my playlist I'm already starting on for my trip back to Houghton College, because my OTHER playlist that was TEN HOURS LONG got deleted when they re-imaged my computer. You want to know how long it takes to make another 10 hour playlist?! For-FREAKING-ever! So far, I'm only up to 6.8 hours. So close....


In other other news, yes I managed to celebrate Thanksgiving. And since none of us study abroad students are made of money, and didn't feel like spending a bajillion dollars on turkey (an 8 lb. turkey was over 100 US dollars. To be more exact, 800 kuai. Dudeman. There was like, 12 of us.) we ordered chicken from KFC. We also made pasta, and mashed potatoes, and corn. Since there weren't enough forks, we ate with chopsticks and a giant spoon. I felt like a mixture of cultures as I ate my "American" food in China and cut my chicken with my spoon like I was Thai. Kind of weird.

Also, I'm at that point where, when I'm watching a show, and see the characters making breakfast, or pouring coffee... I lose all focus on the plot and just stare at what they're eating/doing. I miss english muffins. I didn't even realize this until today. I miss being able to blow my nose and my snot not being grey. Flushing my toilet paper. Daylight savings time. The stars.

But when I leave I also realize there will be things I will miss about China. Like Baozi. Or chopsticks. Bus rides. Especially when you take the 79 back from the night market and your bus driver seems to think he's a cab driver and there are no shock absorber things on the wheels, so essentially riding the 79 is akin to riding a roller coaster. Dumplings. With vinegar. So much vinegar. Matuan. Oh matuan I love you. Agh. I'm not ready to leave China yet. NO 25 DAYS. WHY HAVE YOU COME SO QUICKLY. I DON'T WANT IT.

DON'T WAAAAAANT IT.

So have fun with your life and stuffs peoples. The next time I post, I will be 22 years old. The same age as Scott Pilgrim.

How to count to ten on one hand!

Here is a blogpost in which I try to be informative. Hopefully you learn something. If you don't, I apologize. I'm a little off today cause I can't seem to buy the November 2011 issue of Q Magazine with Muse on the cover. It's in honor of their 25th anniversary, so they have 25 different issues for November, each issue with a special on the band that's on the cover. Or maybe it's 25 stories on 25 different bands. I forget. But it doesn't matter cause it's not like I'll be able to buy it.

This isn't really the cover of said magazine. Cause I couldn't find it. The epicosity level of this picture though is far greater than the epicosity of the cover I couldn't find. Unless this is actually an excerpt from said magazine which would be AWESOME.

Muse aside, I'm actually listening to K-pop right now. If you want some Cpop, here you go. Secretly, this song is really catchy. At least I think it is.

Also can I just say it should not take five hours to do my laundry. Yesterday when I dropped it off for the laundry peoples to clean it at 10, I figured it would definetly be done by 2, especially since there were only like 3 other baskets of laundry. Well, it wasn't done at 3 when I went. So when I went back at five, my clothes were really warm but also wet, and they all smell weird. Like they're burnt or something. D:

Oh my word I meant for this to be INFORMATIVE.

I think I have a right to say Chinese is one of the hardest classes I have ever taken (except a class I took on John Milton. Yikes dudeman. I think I had a nightmare about it a few nights ago actually). It's one thing to learn a language and be like "oh yea, Buch in German means book. That's easy." Chinese is... cool to learn. But very difficult. To help you fully comprehend my pain, I've compiled a two lists. 

Things I like about Chinese

• Words don't have a gender. So in German you would have different endings or whatever if a word was masculine, or feminine, or neuter (der die das). Chinese doesn't have that (THANK GOD). Sometimes, when I re-remember Latin, I want to fall into a coma.

• Verbs don't change. So if I were to say "you go", "ni qu" (I'm not gonna bother putting in tone marks, but they have tones, just be aware.) "I go"= "wo qu" "she/he goes"= "Ta qu". I forget what the word for they is, but you'd still us "qu". It never changes.

• "Ta". It means "she" and it means "he". In written form it's not confusing, but I think this is nice.

• Sentence structure is simple. And they don't have a lot of filler words like "of" or "an" or "the". "Ni hao" literally means "You good". "Wo qu fandian ma?" literally means "You go restaurant?"

Things that are horrible about Chinese

• So first, you learn the word in pinyin (written form). Then you learn its meaning. Then you learn its character. Japanese also has a lot of characters, but if you know at least 1000 you can read a paper easy. Korean has 26 characters. Chinese? Well you need to know at least 6000 characters to read a newspaper. It's said that there are over 80,000 Chinese characters, but many of them are rarely used. What's even more difficult is the amount of strokes in some of the characters. Egh.

• Tones. Are. Awful. "ma" with a dipping tone means horse, while "ma" with the same high tone means mom. I would like to take this chance to mention that apparently there's like 8 tones in Thai. I will never learn Thai. Ever.

• The way English speakers would pronounce some things in English, isn't the same in Mandarin. zh=j, q=ch, r=sh (although to be perfectly honest I'm pretty sure they pronounce the r differently everytime they use it. Sometimes it sounds like "shr" other times "r" or just "sh". I don't understand.) c=ts, x=sh, er= sounds like the "ar" in a pirate-y "argh!", yi=ee (as in eek), wanr= the n is silent so it sounds like you're trying to say "water" without the "te" in it. 

• Remember earlier how I mentioned that "book" in German is "Buch"? Well, there are practically no words in Chinese that sound like English... except for tea which is "Cha", and coffee which is "Kafei".

Now for another informative section, in which I will tell you how to count to ten in Mandarin. Not only in Mandarin, but also with ONE HAND. WHOA.

一 yī (one)
二 èr (two)
三 sān (three)
四 sì (four)
五 wǔ (five)
六 liù (six)
七 qī (seven)
八 bā (eight)
九 jiǔ (nine)
十 shí (ten)

You can do "3" the way it is in the picture, but another way is by making a sort of "ok" sign by bringing your thumb and pointer finger together, creating a circle, but leaving the three other fingers up.

I was really excited, because the day we learned how to count up to ten on one hand, me and Guiliani (another girl in my group) went to Pacman to get dumplings. Well we had to pay and I had given the guy 10 RMB but he didn't know how much my food was, so I excitedly made the sign for "8" with my hand, but like an IDIOT I said it in English. I was so mad at myself. I mean he understood me, but I keep saying things in English when I can just as easily say them in Mandarin.

Well, that's it for now. Next week is the national holiday, so I have no idea when I'll be posting things yet. I will also be going to Xian to see the Terracotta Army. We're taking a 20 hour sleeper train ride, cause it's up by Beijing. We'll only have a day and a half there, then have to take the 20 hour sleeper back, but will it be worth it? YES. 

TOTALLY.

WORTH IT.