June 6, 2018
Today is the antepenultimate day of Chinese classes. After the hour and a half commute from my host family's apartment, I arrived at class somewhat fatigued. It was evident that the week's activities, compounded with treading the water of using Mandarin as our sole manner of communicating which we all have been attempting, had exerted a somewhat overbearing pressure and resultant exhaustion. No matter, for we have so little left to surpass!
Though all of our thoughts are occupied by the looming deadlines, nonetheless class manages to proceed in the routine manner. Tomorrow is the language course's final exam, though the reassurances of Gao and Cheng Laoshi have minimized anxieties related to this obstacle. Between class and language partner meetings, I grabbed some lunch with some classmates. Afterwards we rested in the shade of the Foreign Language building, sprawling over the concrete entrance.
After this final language partner meeting, during which we made use of Taobao, an online vendor similar to Amazon, to buy gifts for our host family using funds provided by the dialogue, I went to meet my host dad at the Chuanda sports field near the small north gate, where he was teaching an exercise class. I found the students with a different teacher, and left somewhat confused as to his location, but as I turned the corner he jumped out to surprise me.
We took the train back to the train station near their apartment where he parks his car, meeting my host mom along the way. They bought some bing fer, a delicious summertime desert consisting of ice, syrup, a gelatinous substance, and various nuts and dried fruit toppings.
At home, we chatted a little before I went to prepare for tomorrow's final. After studying, I practiced guitar for a little, while my host little brother drew in the same room. After dinner, we had cake to celebrate my host dad's birthday, which concluded in an impromptu watermelon eating contest, in which I gracefully came out as the victor, with a clean rind and all.
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