Spring dang Sprung

大家好!

Well, I promised to update you on this past weekend's dumpling-making extravaganza, so here are some beautiful photos for you to enjoy.
That lady is the wife of the teacher that volunteered to host this lil' get together, and she can bao jiaozi like a bamf (mother/foreigner translation: is truly exceptional at wrapping dumplings). I have some skills myself now, or at least some theoretical knowledge...if you premixed all the ingredients and conveniently laid them out before starting the actually cooking process (you know, like the pros do), I am pretty sure I could make them all by myself. Sorry I didn't take any in-progress photos; my hands were a bit dirty at the time. Let's just say that one on the bottom with green filling leaking out is not mine, but that cute fat one two dumplings to the right is a product of yours truly. Mmmm.


Dumplings aside, my time here is still passing fairly pleasantly I suppose. My one-on-one teacher (the aforementioned Mr. Tang) is happy because I am progressing quite quickly. I like to measure my progress by the examples he makes up in class:

Week 1: 史凯灵 (that's me) doesn't understand Chinese culture or language.
Week 2: 史凯灵 needs to study hard in order to advance her language skills.
Week 3: 史凯灵 is making progress in her study of Chinese.
Week 4: When 史凯灵 came to China, she studied with Mr. Tang.

I'm hoping week five will be like, Mr. Tang actually admits this class is sort of fun. On the other hand, some days I have experiences that make me realize I know so little about this language I don't even know how little I know. Even looking back over assignments from three weeks ago- assignments I thought I had a pretty solid grasp on- makes me realize how far from comprehension I really was (am?). This is moderately depressing, because it feels like no matter how hard I study and how quickly I remember words and how frequently I practice, if it takes me two minutes to remember every new word I will never, ever achieve fluency. Gosh darn it (friend translation: #$%* my life).

But, hopeless as the process is, I am here for another two and a half months and will study diligently because I bloody well don't have any other options now do I. This notion is actually comforting more so than depressing.

As a final aside, I would like to brag that today's weather has been absolutely marvelous. A nice warm breeze (36 degrees baby), open windows (so I left my jacket on for class), and ice melting (at least 40% gone). Awesome.

Wo shasi Mufasa,
China-Cat