Tuesday, May 29th
Yesterday was so exhausting, and it seems that all of our Chinese teachers let us have a comparatively easier day than normal. Perhaps the highlight of the day was when every class came together to learn a Chinese folk song called "在那遥远的地方" （"At That Remote Place"）. I was really shocked upon hearing the singer's version because he sings really high and I didn't believe we could actually hit those notes. Intermediate 2's teacher is a soprano and taught us all the tune of the song. She's a great singer, though it might not seem that way when you hear all of us sing.
When learning the lyrics of the song, we were all super surprised by the lyrics of the fourth verse. In Chinese the lyrics are "我愿做一只小羊/ 跟在她身旁/ 我愿她拿着细细的皮鞭/ 不断轻轻打在我身上。" Translated into English, this means that the singer wants to be a sheep (the Mongolian girl he thinks about is a shepherd) in order to stay by the girl's side. He's willing for her to use her whip to lightly hit his body. All that the teachers could say is that love makes people crazy. Huge shout out to my class's teacher, 陈老师actually quietly sang with my group thanks to our persistent persuasion.
This week is the main time for us to start working on our research projects, which means that we had the afternoon free in order to start working on our projects. Admittedly, many of us took this time to go out and shop for both personal items and souvenirs. A group of us went out to Chunxi Road and stopped by the bookstore (Fangsuo Commune). There are so many great underground malls in China, and there is a great variety of things you can find in them. For example, the underground mall with the bookstore is in a super luxe area, so many items are on the expensive side (think 900 RMB for one shirt). In comparison, I know that other people managed to find clothes that sold for around 48 RMB for a dress, so shop around in order to find the best deals. Depending on the place, you can haggle and bring the price down, so act confident and practice your Chinese!
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