Slowing down and settling in

Before reading on, humor me and check the 5 day weather forecast for Shanghai. Miserable.


Now that I have started classes life is slowing down here and i'm begining to get into a routine. Unfortunately this means that my posts may be a little less frequent (I will try to post every day) and will probably not be as full of excitment/pictures as they were during orientation.


Chinese is going really well so far-

I hate to brag, because i'm sure I will jinx myself, but my teacher, Yi Laoshi, asked me if I have ever taken Chinese before because my tones are very good for a beginner. Apparently having a musical ear is really beneficial in learning and speaking Chinese (thanks dad), as you can more easily pick out and imitate tones, similar to recognizing musical notes and finding them on the guitar or piano. Though my tones may be good, the memorization will surely kill me. I will be learning about 20 new characters a night which is a pretty daunting ammount especially given how alien the characters look (fluency is considered knowing atleast 9000 characters - yikes). Between my 8 hours of class a week as well as tutoring I will hopefully make quick progress, and I've already made a lot since arriving.

I'm no longer an infant in this country, probably more like a toddler. I can eat, go places, and find/use a bathroom by myself but still need a little bit of help with it all.


Thats all for now...