One week to go for fall semester

I have officially had my first Thanksgiving outside of the country. I have to say it didn't really feel like much of a holiday though because I still had class all week and there was no family get togethers, etc. However, my program did provide a very nice dinner at a very expensive hotel. The dinner was an amazing buffet, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, ham, pumpkin pie, and plenty of other amazing foods. Our roommates and teachers were able to come as well so it was a lot of fun to celebrate the holiday with everyone. I had fun explaining to my roommate all the Thanksgiving traditions, and what is generally eaten with what, i.e. mashed potatoes and gravy.

This last weekend my one-on-two class had an activity where we got together with HIT's retired. We had a list of questions to ask them concerning the elderly population in China, and the affect on them etc. It was lots of fun to listen to some of the stories from there life. Particularly from 1966-1976 (google the time period). One of the teachers I talked to was a very accomplished teacher at that time and he was accused of having wrong thinking. He was sent to go work underground in Harbin with everyone else who was accused of the same thing. He said that it was a very difficult time, and that he knew a man who was working underground with him that commited suicide. They were very direct in saying that life now was far better than then. I only wish I could have heard more detailed stories.

I've got a week to go before I'm done with my first semester! I'm thrilled that I've made it this far, and happy to see the amount of progress I've made so far. Next week is finals, and I have to finish writing a 2,500 character essay and prepare an eight minute oral report on the paper for my one on one final. After all my tests are over I will have break for two months. So for two months I pretty much plan to travel to as many places as I can. I'm so far going to 14+ places. I will get the chance to celebrate the Chinese New Year at the home of a Chinese friend of a friend. I hope to be able to post some of the stories from my travels on my blog. Internet will be intermittent though because I don't really know how often I will find internet. I look forward to sharing some stories though.