My Daily Schedule

It has been quite some time since my last entry. I have begun my classes - 3 hours each day, Monday through Friday. I find that it is quite challenging for me. I am learning some basic vocabulary for daily life, grammar, listening & oral skils, in addition to learning to write & read characters. I find that I can study something, but that it seems like an eraser just wipes it from my brain. So this time is really challenging for me.

I have one hour of 1-on-1 instruction, one hour of 1-on-2 instruction, and one hour of tutoring each day. We cover a chapter about every 2-3 days which includes about 25 new words. I try to learn 6-8 characters each day. Overall, I am quite pleaased with my progress. I find that I can understand more conversational Chinese and I am slowly developing more confidence in my speaking too. But I still need to practice the tones. It is very easy to have a lazy tongue and incorrectly pronounce a character.

My basic schedule is to get up about 6:45 and commute to the school arriving about 7:45 or so. I finish by 11:30, then I take my lunch near the school before returning to Ben & Patrick's apartment for a short rest. I study then for several hours.

I have not yet located a place to stay. Right now it is the sofa, and I want to find a more permament location. This is causing some anxiety for me. It is hard to get into a groove until I feel more settled. Otherwise it is just transition. So this is still something you can be thinking about for me.

Otherwise, I am slowly adjusting to Beijing life. It is quite different than Xiamen life. I miss very much seeing some of my students in Xiamen, so I try to say connected either by chatting on MSN or QQ or by SMS on my mobile. I have met with some former students who live here which I have found to be quite good.