Wo Shi Xuesheng

I think my two hours from 8am to 10am are the best hours I've ever had at that time of day. Unusually early for my standard lazy schedule, my Chinese class is totally ridiculous, complete with a stellar cast of characters to keep things interesting. We are six Koreans, one American, and, increasingly rarely, a French woman. The oldest man enjoys muttering words resembling Chinese while another elder fellow belts out his phrases loud enough to drown out the mutterer and everybody else. The rest of us muddle along, struggling to keep up with our teacher. I shouldn't complain though either, I'm sure my Chinese is just as comedic for the locals. More than the fun in class though, it's wonderful to finally be able to communicate with people, who seem astounded that I could possibly learn even a little of their cryptic tongue. I think I mentioned this before, but it's worth repeating; learning another languange feels a lot like magic, it's that cool. It's making me wish I could stay longer.

I'm still working on posting my photos (this one's from an internet cafe, pretty low quality by Chinese standards), but in the meantime, you can check out these pictures, some of the coolest travel photos I've ever seen. He even makes East Texas look interesting.