Yes, it was up to 88 degrees Fahrenheit today, and yet it's November. It wasn't that hot during ministry tonight, but was hot! It's hot a lot here, often. I assumed it would get cooler in November, and I guess it did. But that's OK, because I might not like the cooler weather, my body has acclimated to heat and humidity. Pu Jiemei harassed me about my "too big" back pack, which only contained a folder, a bible, and a 2 liter bottle of water. The water was too heavy she said. But by the end of ministry, after two hours, it was almost entirely gone. That's how I've acclimated to this weather, by sweating profusely. It seems to be working.

I'm becoming a common site in the third floor lobby at school, I sit closest to the elevator, almost blocking the door, studying my lesson, reviewing and previewing. I like to use my little green 0.28mm ballpoint to write short little definitions in the margins. I draw little numbers next to the words in the dialog that I have trouble with. That way if I'm reading it I give myself the chance to remember the word, give my brain a chance to do it's job. If that doesn't work I can quickly look over in the margin at the numbered list. The teachers and students that know me still like to say "Jiayou" which as far I can tell means "Add Oil", which is an encouragement to keep working and studying hard. Usually 2.5 hours after class a little signal is sent from somewhere in the recesses of my brain to the conscious part that it's about to lose consciousness or most of it. So I pack up my books and my collection of fine point ball point pens, hook my umbrella to my shoulder strap and push the little button pointing down, waiting for the elevator. If my eyes aren't too tired I'll watch the flickering segments of the what floor the elevator is on display. At least one of the lamps in the seven segment display is completely dead, but sometimes it's fun to guess which floor it's trying to tell you it's on, or guess which lamp is dead. I have a bad memory so the game never seems to lose it's excitement from day to day. Sometimes I accidentally get on an elevator that's on it's way up. But I've seen other people make that same mistake.

Today our second hour teacher returned from her Macau vacation (In case you don't remember, Macau is a small island country less than an hour from Hong Kong, they speak Portuguese and it's a popular place to gamble) The substitute teacher we had yesterday was pretty cool, she was an older lady who gave very good explanations. Many of us are late to the second hour of class, sometimes our ten minute break isn't quite long enough to run to 7-11 or one of the nearby vendors and buy some coffee and breakfast. Three of us had food halfway to our mouths when she turned to us and said in Chinese: "Yes you can eat in my class, I have a relaxed class." I don't know about the other two but I felt embarrassed about eating without asking, as our other teachers are used to seeing us eat, and sometimes even partaking in our mini feasts. I tried to finish my little meal inconspicuously after that, which is not really very inconspicuous as you might hope. One of the other students commented later that he thought she was a good teacher, that she explained things very clearly. I tried to reach across the table to hand our regular teacher who had returned her books and tell her that we had decided to replace her with the other teacher, but my Chinese faltered and stuttered and the joke was lost.

So now that I have less than a month of classes left, unless I sign up for a partial quarter, I'm finally getting the hang of studying well for class. I think that's one of those constants in the universe, that things start to go better and better right before you have to leave someplace. Even so, even though I'm far from feeling like I've accomplished my mission of learning Chinese, I do look forward to seeing old familiar faces and eating old familiar things. (I'll spare you a detailed list of the things I look forward to eating.) (edit 478) Permalink