口语演讲: Kouyu Speech

I may not be caught up, but here's something else to Google translate!

圣诞节

圣诞节就是我最喜欢的节日。一般我和我的家人一起去塔霍湖过节。在那里又放松又很好玩。塔霍湖是一个非常美丽的地方。在美国的西部，在内瓦达和加利福尼亚的钟面。塔霍湖很有名因为有一个大大、蓝蓝的湖。湖水很清也很凉。那儿的环境特别优美。山上有很多绿绿的松树。在森林里边，一点儿噪音也没有。冬天的时候常常下雪。

十几年以前，我家在塔霍湖买了一间房子。当时我们住在香港，所以我父母要买在美国买一间房子。从此每个寒假我爸爸，妈妈，弟弟，两个妹妹和我都住在那儿。我非常喜欢放松，我躺在沙发上，一边看我的书一边喝红茶。在晚上的时候我们喜欢听圣诞音乐和做期盼游戏，尤其是做拼字游戏。我们都很喜欢比赛。在客厅里我们总有一棵大大的圣诞树。有一年圣诞树有十六左右英尺！听圣诞音乐的时候我们一起唱，一起跳舞，很好玩儿！在那儿，整个时间我们都非常快乐！我们常常看电影。我跟我妈妈一起做拼板玩具，喝红葡萄酒，聊天。

圣诞夜我跟我爸爸和弟弟一起滑雪。可是我是家里用滑雪板的人，所以我爸爸常常开我的玩笑。我妹妹还觉得圣诞老人是真的。所以圣诞夜，她把一些小吃和胡萝卜摆在壁炉上。这是为了让圣诞老人和他的驯鹿吃的。她常常激动的不睡觉。圣诞日孩子们都起床很早。我们做茶给我们的父母，然后一起过圣诞节。真是完美的一天！

       塔霍湖是我世界上最喜欢的地方，圣诞节是我最喜欢的节日。

第二次作文： 2nd Hanyu Essay

爱丽丝梦游仙镜 

（Alice in Wonderland）

               人们说起爱丽丝梦游仙境的时候，常常觉得是迪斯尼的电影。可是作为您可能已经知道，这个小说有很多的历史。刘易斯卡罗尔是这个小说的作家。当时他是牛津大学的一位教授。牛津大学的校长叫 Henry Liddell，他有一位女儿叫爱丽丝。实际上她是我家的远亲。有一个夏天他们一起在英国旅行。爱丽丝有点厌烦。为了给她娱乐，刘易斯告诉她一个小说，是关于一个叫爱丽丝的小女孩的。然后他把爱丽丝的故事写成了这个小说。同一年他终于写完了，后来很快地发行了。从此爱丽丝梦游仙境成为一本很有名的小说。刘易斯卡罗尔对英国文化有很大的影响。

           在电影和书上爱丽丝有金色的直发，有一双大大的蓝眼睛，还是双眼皮。真正的爱丽丝的皮肤也是雪白的，可是她的头发是黑色的卷发，并且有一双大大的棕色眼睛。两位爱丽丝都有很好奇的性格。她们都喜欢学新的真相，也喜欢探险。她们都是好女孩，尤其是真正的爱丽丝。她的中间名字就是友善的意思。爱丽丝常常跟她的姐妹一起绘画，素描和捏造小的表演给别人看。

             刘易斯卡罗尔和爱丽丝的关系有很多争论。人们常常觉得他们有不相宜的关系。但是从来没找到根据。我觉得他们的友情挺奇的，爱丽丝比他小二十岁。他却从爱丽丝那里得到很大启发。

           爱丽丝梦游仙境是一本非常有名的故事。小说被翻译成125不同的外语。还被拍成电影和电视。还有这个小说改写的剧本。小说里有很多难忘的角色，他们包括红心往后王后，经常露齿嘻笑的猫，一对笨笨的双胞胎，还有一个只总迟到的白兔子。为纪念刘易斯卡罗尔写的小说，在纽约城的中央公园立了一个塑像。

The Rest of the Week

Some highlights of the week:
- Imogen's friends are mean.
-Registered for Spring classes, so far they are: Psy 32, Seminar on Autism, Seminar on Developmental Psychopathology, Confucianism and Modern China, and Chinese. Going to try and add yoga!
-Went to dinner with Heather's dad in HoHai. We went to the Pass By Bar and had Italian food, so yummy!
-On Friday afternoon we learnt how to make dumplings! It was fun but much more difficult than it looks!
-Then the best surprise ever happened!

Class

We got our grades back for out Tingle exam today, that was probably the most exciting thing that happened in class. We did have a thrilling debate on whether money or love was the foundation of a family.

Skyped with Marco who was super nervous for his test.

Grabbed rice and shucai baozi for dinner. We had our Intercultural Communications class. It was pretty interesting because our teacher explained to us Hukou's- which are basically the Chinese form of Social Security. There is tons of problems with it though because you're Hukou is determined by where you are born, and the city HuKou's have many more privileges and opportunities than the countryside Hukou's. I'll explain more about them later once I've caught up!

Came back home and studied for Hanyu then went to bedddd.

Catch-Up Time!

It's catch up time on my blog, I apologize for being so behind and for the following, very brief, explanations of what I did each day.

Sunday 7th

-sent Beenus + 8 an amazing postcard- they better appreciate it, Katie and I worked hard on that poem!
-watched some Ugly Betty

-Katie and I went to the Bridge for our favourite Ceasar salad. I also got Early Grey tea- so delicious. I did some work and skyped with my lovely parents. Tried to say hi to Deeva, but she just ignored me, as usual.

-Soon after we headed home and had a lazy rest of the day, semi-studying, but mainly watching When Harry Met Sally (or When Sarry Met Hally as I mistakenly said).

-Had some white rice with ketchup and the closest thing to a peanut butter bagel, for dinner.

YaShow and LaBamba Round 2

Spent the morning relaxing, chatting etc. At 2pm Heather, Rachel, Katie and I walked to the subway. We were going to go to the dirt market (an antique market in Beijing) but we decided to go to a clothing market in SanLiTun instead. I have never seen so many westerner's around! It was so strange to see so many! As Katie mentioned,

 YaShow Market (photo by KLotz)

Excited to go shopping (photo by KLotz):

The market was crazy, just floors of stalls filled with clothes, shoes, bags etc. I wanted to buy everything of course. Luckily I knew that would happen, so I only brought a certain amount of money with me. I bought two pairs of 7 jeans- that ironically enough had tags on them saying "Beware of Imitations." Katie and I also found these cute Tod's flats that we bought. Mine in black, Katies in pink/brown- always the more colourful one!

After shopping around for a little longer we went to the only Coldstone in Beijing. Since it was the only one, I obviously had to get a really big ice cream! It was delicious.  So, so  yummy. So after that little afternoon excursion we headed back to Beida to relax before the night.

We ended up going back to LaBamba for dinner, this time with Katie joining us. I had chicken quaesidilla's this time, so yummy. We played some cards then decided to head back to school. There we met up with some friends and actually played pool! We were awful of course, but it was a fun relaxing night!

Katie and I at LaBamba (Rachel's photos):

At pool:

798 and LaBamba Round 1

I went to class and then made a run to the bank. At 1:00pm people that wanted to go to 798 met outside of Shaoyuan. 798 is the art district located in the Northeast side of Beijing. I was pretty grumpy so just kept to myself on the bus ride there. You know those moods where you just don't really feel like talking to anyone?

So we arrived and had a couple of free hours just to wander around. The area consists of art galleries, cafe's, and little shops. It's a really funky area and has some very strange art. We went back to the 'Factory' where our Halloween party had been held. It looked much different during the day. The art was very odd. I took a few pictures of some things. Everyone wandered off while Katie and I were in a store, so we got separated from the group. I bought a bottle opener and this bird cage thing- I felt like it was such a grownup purchase! I was so proud of myself.

Map of 798:

Signs to all the galleries:

Katie's new car!

Wolves outside of the 'factory'

Creepy baby

HAHA

Normal man/toad combination

There's a high chance I'll look like this after China:

Beastly

Hanging on the beach!

So scandalous!

Ahhh! dinosaurs!

So at 4pm we took the bus back to school. I was completely exhausted and had to opt out of going to all-you-can-eat-and-drink in SanLiTun. After resting for a little though I was willing to go to Wudaokou for some Mexican food and strawberry margaritas. Mmmmm. Katie stayed in after her busy week with her parents, but Rachel, Heather, and I went. It was delicious and we got home pretty early.

My purchases (don't you love my great comments?):

LaBamba Round 1:

Thursdayyyy - Test Dayyyy

Spent the morning in class, and distracting myself from studying. Rachel took the test at 8am and said that it wasn't too bad. That killed any glimmer of hope I had of studying some more. I listened to the texts while editing photos, that totally counts right? (Wow just had an image of my British cousin EJ reading this aloud and completely making fun of how silly American I sound in this blog, OMG!). Katie bought some bread roll things for part of lunch, but then they had this weird filling in so she didn't want them. I tried a little piece, it was not good, and then there was a piece of black wire in it!!!!! So disgusting!

The exam really wasn't that bad. He repeated everything twice, and the texts were all ones we had seen in class/were in our textbook. We had to listen to 10 sentences and write them in characters, listen to a brief dialogue and answer a question, and then listen to two longer passages and answer questions about them.

After class I had some Bailey's and hot chocolate, so yummy. We all got dressed up because we had dinner with Katie's parents at a peking duck restaurant- the best.

So we took the subway to Wangfujing, which was where the duck restaurant that we went to with Rachel's parents was, but turns out that was the wrong place! We assumed it was that one because 1) the name was the same as the place we were going, and 2) Katie's parents were staying at a hotel near Wangfujing. So we had to take a cab to this completely different area, and we were about 45 minutes late, ooops. Apparently there are 15 duck restaurants in Beijing with the same name, how are we supposed to know that?

The meal was absolutely delicious of course. I love eating the super fatty pieces, so yummy. Plus they had Kongpow chicken, green beans, and all this other delicious food. Katie had to say bye to her parents when we left- sad! They're off to Xi'An and Shanghai next. When we were getting in the cab to go back home (very kindly payed for by Mr. Lotz), an old lady came up to me asking for money. I really had no money on me, and was in the process of providing everyone with gum, so I gave her a piece of gum. I thought she was going to be super offended, and immediately regretted doing it. However, she was really excited and three of her friends came over. I gave them all a piece and they were so happy! It was by far one of my favourite moments in Beijing. They were just so curious about this tiny pink square! It made my week.

Wednesdayyyy

Had Hanyu class in the am. We got our tests back, I didn't do as badly as I expected. Don't know how that happened. I grabbed some lunch and spent most of the afternoon just studying for Tingli- so nervous! At some points I hit my studying maximum and just had to take a break. I ate a lot of chocolate- the necessary studying snack. I wrote a piece about happiness for our Kouyu class at 3, but then we didn't even have to say it, oh well.

In the evening Katie and I took a cab to Wudaokou. We went to the Bridge Cafe to study. Had hot chocolates which were delicious, as always. I payed with my card and the waiter kept asking "mi ma?" "mi ma?" "mi ma?" We were like 'we have no clue what you're saying.' Luckily a girl at the table next to us did, it means pin/password. Will never forget that word again!

I did some Hanyu homework and at 6:30pm Katie walked over to the subway stop to get her parents. Only thing is she was gone forever! She came back around 7pm and said she couldn't find them! She went back once more just to double check and luckily they were there. When using the subway in Beijing, you have to allocate sooo much time. Their day had been very busy- Temple of Heaven, Forbidden City, and Tiananmen Square, they seemed to really enjoy it though! Katie and I happily ate our chicken caesar salad's- such a luxury in China!

After dinner I was totally not in the mood to study, luckily Katie wasn't either so we shared a cab home. Skyped with Marco, talked with R+H, ate some more pumpking bread and Reese's, then went to bed!

Tuesdayyyy

For Hanyu class our teacher gave us a review sheet, with new material, that was going to be on the quiz later that class. So yeaah, the test was just swell! After, Katie went to the subway to meet her parents at the silk market. I came home, made notecards, and watched Ugly Betty. I started studying for my Tingli exam- my goal of the day was to get through lessons 1-4.

At 3pm Rachel and I actually went to the gym! We were so proud of ourselves because usually Katie is our only motivator- we never go when she's not there! We did pass a guy who had been hit by a car while riding his bike. He was just laying in the middle of the road with a bunch of people around him, hope he was ok! The rest of the evening I spent doing work and finishing up other odds and ends.

Mondayyyyy

Had Kouyu and Tingli class, we have our only Tingli exam on Thursday! So scary. Katie went to meet her parents to show them around campus.

I came home and caught up on a few things. I found out I win the Tufts Traveler Marketplace Photo Competition, exciting! It's a photo from a Cambodian market from Siem Reap. Katie came in with her parents, it was so nice to see them! There's something so comforting about having parents around! They had brought pumpkin bread and reeses- delicious. They then left to go see the Olympic buildings.

I took a nap before heading to our Intercultural Communications class. Ate some baozi, super yummy. It was a long class and I was happy for it to end. It's just hard to sit there knowing I have a Hanyu test tomorrow!

Sunday Mundaneday

Spent the morning catching up with people (and not on my blog). Katie went to go see her parents who had just arrived in Beijing. She was super excited since she hasn't seen them for 3 months!

I made a trip to Carrefour since I needed to stock up on a few more items. It was a busy day in Beijing and Carrefour was super busy. Oh great. After lugging everything home, Rachel, Heather and I went to starbucks to do some studying. Unfortunately we got there around 5:30pm, and it closed at 6:30pm. Oh yay. I went home after, Rachel and Heather went to scope out another cafe. Katie came home after a great day with her parents, and I went to bed around 10pm.

Temple of Heaven and Halloween

So in the morning our program took us to the Temple of Heaven. I really liked it, despite how touristy it was. There were three main sections to the temple. It was so strange because at the last part I was completely having deja-vu from when I came when I was 11.

Frank the tourguide:

By a very big door:

The main temple:

There were a lot of locals who were hanging out in the area. It was so adorable. This group of 20 or so elderly Chinese were all dancing to this techno song! They were all completely synchronized and it was the best thing ever! There was this little old lady doing it, I don't think I've ever seen anyone so cute. On the long corridor, heading to the East gate, tons of locals gathered to play cards, mahjong, etc. There were also tons of people playing the Chinese version of hackysack. Katie bought one so we had a big game in the parking lot while waiting for the bus.

The synchronized dancing (look at the tiny lady in sunglasses- she was adorable!):

The long corridor:

Some locals hanging out on the corridor:

The Chinese version of hackysack- loved this woman's outfit:

I spent the rest of the afternoon just resting, and around 6pm we went over to Korean BBQ- 48 kuai all you can drink and all you can eat. It's the one where you go get a bunch of raw meat and then just cook it right in front of you. I wore my big coat so I could smuggle out some baijiu to give to friends back in the U.S. - I wanted to get my money's worth! So after eating lots of food, we came back to the dorm to get changed for Halloween and all just hungout before we left for the night.

Katie, Mariel, me, Rachel and Heather:

We went to a big Halloween party in 798 - the art district of Beijing. It was held at this big factory- and was a really cool building. There were some crazy costumes- the three people were dressed as air stewardess', I thought they were women, but no, they were men. We didn't stay too long because everyone was getting pretty tired, but it was definitely a cool event to see!

The Factory:

Pizza/Wudaokou/Glee Off

In kouyu class today we had to give a speech about our dream. I was first. It went okay, afterwards our teacher was like 'you're chinese would be really good if your tones were better!' Oh yay.

After class us four took a cab over to Wudaokou to eat some American food. We went to Pyro Pizza, all you can eat, from 12-2pm, for 39 kuai. It was delicious, but not quite the all-you-can-eat we were looking for. You couldn't order whatever you wanted on the menu, instead the gave us each a small salad and would occasionally come around with pizza and gave us each one slice. The thing was, there were more people than pizzas so everyone kept trying to get it and it was gone in about 2 seconds. Oh well.

After eating Rachel and Heather went to Carrefour, Katie and I stayed in Wudaokou to do some shopping. We went back to a market we went to during our first week in Beijing. It was completely overwhelming then! This time it was much more bearable. I bought a pair of silver leggings which was so exciting! I've always wanted a pair but they're always so ridiculously expensive at American Apparel. After wandering around for a bit longer we took the subway back to school.

Watched some True Blood and painted my nails. Heather and Rachel said they had a surprise for us. They came in and lip-synched to two Glee songs. It was hilarious. Katie and I made them start watching Glee and they are total Gleeks now. So of course we had to challenge them to a Glee off. Katie and I performed Telephone by Lady Gaga ft. Beyonce. I'll try and add the video up but don't know if it will work. It was just a fun, silly night.
Here the link, don't know if it will work: http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1271938722170

Monday-Thursday: Highlights of the Week

Monday:
Monday was a rough day. Not only was I super tired from waking up so early but I came home to bad news. Also I had forgotten to warn my family that I was away for the weekend, which didn't help. I spent most of the day laying in bed and getting sorted. I did go to my evening class, which ended up being one long history lesson, not great. Talked to Mum, skyped with Dad. I did download Taylor Swift's new album, which is amazing and has been on repeat since I bought it!

Tuesday:
Got my exam grades back and did pretty well which was exciting. Still didn't get our Kouyu (speaking) grades back, that's the one I'm really worried about. She gave me tones homework that day in class, not a good indication. I went to the gym, did homework, watched True Blood. Grabbed fried rice for dinner. Received an email from the Chinese departments at Tufts. They're being difficult, as usual.

Wednesday:
Had class, came home, wrote in my journal, took a nap, had noodles for lunch. At 3pm went to Kouyu class. Had a yoghurt- they're so good here- but would be much better if they didn't have chunks of dry fruit in them. Katie and I watched the Rocky Horror Picture Show- Glee version. I watched more True Blood and skyped with Marco before heading to bed.

Thursday:
Got to sleep in till 9am. It is by far the best morning of the week. Went to Hanyu class, then went to the gym. Grabbed some orange chicken for lunch but it was disgusting- so cold! Went to the CIEE office and grabbed a note for not going to class on Monday, Marco had sent me another card. Went to send some postcards, then realized I hadn't written the addresses on them, ooops. Went to Tingli class to discover we have our only exam in the class next Thursday! So scary! Came home and wrote a speech about my dream. Oh and did my laundry (almost forgot about it till I was in bed about to go to sleep).

我的梦想

我的梦想是每个国家旅行。小时候我常常到别的国家旅行。我出生在英国。我的父母都是英国人。我的家人都住在英国，所以我去英国看他们。在美国我在一共三个洲住过：科罗拉多，弗吉尼亚，和佐治亚。我曾经呆在香港七年。香港不仅很有意思，而且离别的国家不太远。住在香港的时候，我和我家人常常旅行。我觉得了解别的文化非常重要。我的爱好就是拍照片，所以旅行的时候我很好玩儿。我喜欢看别人怎么生活，有什么希望和理想。每个国家不同。我对别的国家很感兴趣，所以到每个国家旅行是我的梦想。

第一文章：我的假期

(Hanyu Essay: Fall Break)

放假的时候我呆在北京，后来我跟我的朋友们一起去内蒙古。在北京我去看看名胜古迹。首先我去过珀尔的市场。那儿有很多人，尤其是外国人。 由于美国的东西不如中国的便宜，我买了很多的东西，由于美国的东西不如中国的便宜。另外买手袋，我也买礼物送我的家人和我的男朋友。我还买了一条裤子，裤子上有我男朋友的名字！

我和我的朋友们参观奥林匹克公园。我的朋友－严悦－的父母来北京看他们的女儿在北京生活过的怎么样。他们也跟我们去看奥林匹克的国家体育场，还有鸟巢，也看北京国家游泳中心。我觉得这个楼比鸟巢好。不但楼的建筑很漂亮，尤其是在晚上的时候，而且现在楼还有用。如果你买一张票，就可以在游泳池里游泳。那儿也有一个水上游乐场。有很多滑梯和喷泉。人们又玩儿又锻炼了身体。以后我跟别的留学生要一起去那儿。后来看着两个楼我饿死了！所以我们去了一家中文的饭馆，麦当劳。很好吃！我们四个人跟严悦的父母都回他们的旅馆。太漂亮了！我们坐在旅馆的酒吧，喝很多白葡萄酒。后来我们都有点儿醉了，很不好意思！

我们坐出租车到了一家北京烤鸭的饭馆。除了包子以外，北京烤鸭是我最喜欢的中国菜。不论怎么油了，我都吃了。我知道它的营养不很丰富，可是太好吃了！在我们桌子的旁边是一个中国家挺。除了一位男以外，大家都没醉。这个男的太醉了！一个女的告诉我，他喝了三瓶白酒。他疯了！结果他和他的家人不得不离开饭馆。

呆在北京的时候我也参观了北京植物园。玫瑰园是我最喜欢的地方，太漂亮了！我拍了很多照片。在内蒙古我和我的朋友们在草原骑马，也在沙漠骑骆驼！骆驼很可爱！骑马以后我腿疼了！我们在毡帐里睡觉。我穿了所有的衣服，因为晚上的时候冷极了。这个放假我和我的朋友们玩得特别好！

Nanjing Day 2

We grabbed breakfast at Cafe 85, it was yummy, they even had coffee! Then Mariel, Katie, and I took a cab to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. The cabs in Nanjing are so much cheaper than in Beijing- it's calculated on time rather than distance, and the traffic is a thousand times better.

The memorial was very intense. It was built where one of the massacres itself happened. They had this whole area which was a mass grave of about 10,000 people. Then they had excavations showing real human skeletons buried in the dirt. 300,000 people were killed in a period of weeks. It was during the China-Japan war, when Japan gained control on the old capital.

The sight of the massacre:

Outside they had fountains and a statue of peace. People kept asking Katie and I for photos, I agreed but felt like it was just such a strange thing to do in such an intense place. There was a whole exhibit inside with first-hand accounts of what happened during that time. I found them so interesting, just hearing the terrible things some people endured and lived through. It made me feel very grateful for my own life.

Notes to the victims:

Lots of records:

We took a cab back to the hotel to meet the others (the sleepy ones who didn't wake up in the morning). Our cab driver dropped us off miles away so we had to wander through Nanjing, guessing our way to the hotel. We were planning on going to DimSum for lunch, but unfortunately that's more of a morning thing and we were a little late back. In the end we ate at this restaurant close by. It was really good! Pumpkin cakes, spring rolls, rice, beef, etc., and only 26 kuai a person!

Lunch:

After eating we wandered along the old streets. I loved Nanjing. It had all these rivers with bridges over them. The buildings were built Chinese style, and the city was just laid out much more practically. It was so much easier to navigate. I bought a bunch of movies. We went back to the hotel around 4pm because we had rented the room until 6pm.

So famous:

At 6pm we checked out and left for the streets again. A guy in our program was sitting in the lobby with a cage of 4 birds? He had just bought them, interesting. We went back to the Cafe 85 for dinner- had a cheese sausage roll- it was delicious. Then I ate Rachel's fries from McDonalds, again. We then wandered around the market for a last time. I was very good and didn't buy any more movies.

The rivers in Nanjing:

At the train station we made lots of friends. We had about an hour to wait. This little Chinese boy was making these loud noises with some wooden toy. JiaHua was very annoyed and made a huge X with his arms telling him to stop. Then the boy used those hole-puncher things- but in the shape of an animal- to give us all paper animals! There were turtles, dinosaurs, frogs. He was so adorable and got so excited another every time we signaled for one. Then these 15-year-old Australian boys on a school trip came over and talked to us. They were so cheeky and totally trying to flirt with us all! So we finally boarded the train, had some wine and went to bed.

Heather, Mariel, and Rachel on the train: