School Daze....

Well, as of this week I am officially a international student in China! School started on Monday, and things are going pretty well so far. Honestly, it's pretty slow. The school hasn't provided our text books yet, so the teachers are having to sort of come up with things to do. I'm feeling the double-edged sword of having studied Chinese all summer. On the one hand it's an advantage because I can understand most of what my teacher's say, and have a good handle on the sounds, syllables, and writing of the language. On the other hand, most of the students in my class can't speak a lick of Chinese, and so we've spent most of the week learning how to say "Ni Hao" and stuff like that. At the rate we're going, it seems like it's going to be a long time before I get back to where I left off at the end of the summer. I'm hoping for the possibility of another class that's a bit more with where I am. So- 16 hours a week- grammar, oral Chinese, and listening. I'm 31 years old, with a bachelors, a masters, a wife, and a nine-months old and here I am a full-time student again. Jenny told me this morning as I was going to class, hair disshelved and coffee cup in hand, that I look like the average American college student that just rolled out of bed before class. Ahh, school daze are here.