Saturday, November 22, 2008

I'm Getting Closer to the End of a Semester

Sorry, it's been a little while since I've posted. Things have been going well lately. I feel as though I have gotten to a point where I'm actually adjusted to living here. It's too bad that it's taken three months to get to this point though. I am happy though that I will still be here for several more months because I'm starting to get the hang of things. My semester is quickly coming to a close. I have three weeks left before I have to back my bags and leave the city of Harbin for two months. This semester has flown by. Before I know it I will be writing my 2500 character essay and preparing for all my finals. In the three months I've been hear I have learned so much. My language proficiency has definitely gotten a lot better. I've gone from not understanding a word of what people say, to generally being able to understand at least the main idea of what people are saying if not fully understanding. In about a week or so I will start decided what classes I will be taking next semester and getting things for the next semester arranged.

As soon as the semester is over I get a two month Christmas break, where I have an incredible opportunity to travel China and see a lot of the sights. I'm really excited. The plans for where to go and who to go with and for how long are starting to fall together. It's definitely a new adventure though because traveling in China isn't really the same as traveling in the US. Here you can only buy one-way train tickets and you have to be at the train station you want to leave from in order to buy them. Also, for part of my break I will be traveling during China's New Year. It will be excited to celebrate my first Chinese New Year but it definitely makes traveling a little more interesting. I'm hoping to be able to get a chance to post blogs while I'm traveling to keep you all updated.

Winter is officially here in Harbin. It has been snowing for several weeks. It has snowed twice in the past two weeks. The temperature generally doesn't come above freezing anymore, with the exception of today. It's pretty crazy to go outside in November and have your breath taken away because it is so cold. I'm looking forward to the ice skating rink though. During winter here every college makes there own outdoor ice skating rink. I also found out that the Songhua River freezes and you can walk out onto the river.

I went roller skating today with my program. It was lots of fun. I think the last time I went roller skating I was still in elementary school; maybe at the oldest I was in junior high. The only bummer was that they only had skates, no roller blades. It took me a little while to get used to roller skating. I'm proud to say that in a dark roller skating rink that often had traffic jams and people falling, I only fell once when someone ran into the back of me. The people here are all very nice though, because when anyone would fall, or even start to fall sometimes, someone would help you back up. Another interesting thing was that in the middle of the skating rink there were people dancing with disco lights and loud music. It was pretty interesting to watch.

This week I'll get to have a Thanksgiving dinner with everyone else in my program. I'm excited that I will actually be able to celebrate the holiday while I'm here. I look forward to telling you how my Thanksgiving is. The only sad thing is that I don't get a day off for it, but such is life. Love you all. Till next time

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