Enough about construction. I know that what most of you want to know about is how the final exams went. As I've mentioned before, this was the final week of classes, much of which was spent in preparation for the cumulative exam. Just this summer, we covered 15 chapters, which is just slightly more than I covered in a full year at USC. The examination itself started Thursday afternoon when we each had to give a 2-3 minute speech. My speech topic was rather bland, but not too difficult to talk about: "If you wanted to go to Shanghai, would you choose to go by airplane, train, or bus? Why?" Of course, my slip of paper was in Chinese, so it read "如果你想去上海,你会坐飞机还是火车还是汽车?为什么?" I blathered on longer than I actually expected to, but I know I made at least a few mistakes. However, Liu Laoshi told me I did just fine, but it's hard to read her a lot of the time. I don't have much of an idea there.
Friday morning we had the big 2 tests: Listening & Grammar. The Listening Test was first, and I think I did well. Of course, when it comes to listening, it's very hard to double check. Like the speech, it's difficult for me to forecast. The grammar section, I feel rather confident about. Grammar is usually my strongest point because it's also the only section that involves writing. By now I know that my biggest strong point in Mandarin is writing, including both characters and grammar. That's not to say I'm shabby in other areas, but I know my strengths and weaknesses. My biggest weakness: TONES. To be fair, every friend I have who speaks Mandarin predicted that this would be my Achilles' Heel. I think it's probably the case for most Westerners. Still, I firmly believe that most any weakness can be turned into a strength. The worse I am at tones, the more I focus on and study tones. Thank you, GSSM, for teaching me that just because something doesn't click right away doesn't mean you can't understand it with hard work. I learned that lesson my junior year of high school, in Chemistry 201, while studying for the "Equilibrium" test. I never studied so hard for a test, before or since, and I still have Dr. Wagner's victorious "chemistry pencil" as a reminder--although I have yet to have it encased in gold and mounted on a plaque to hand down to posterity. In other words, I think the Grammar Test went just fine.
The last exam standing between me and my freedom was the oft-dreaded Oral Test. Unfortunately, after completing the grammar section, I still had a good 3 hours to kill before my individual appointment with Zhu Laoshi. During that time, I finished the last few chapters of "Tai-Pan," which was an amazing book that I highly recommend. I returned it to Chung Chi Library and went to check out another book. The night before, I had predicted that I would probably finish "Tai-Pan" soon so I went ahead and used the online card catalog to find another book. Unfortunately, the book I wanted was all the way in the United College Library. Having a lot of time on my hands, I just walked there and successfully found my next fodder-for-thought: "The Right Stuff" by Tom Wolfe. I don't know what motivates me to randomly find these books, but I just usually go with whatever I'm in the mood for. So I checked out the book and grabbed lunch at the Benjamin Franklin Student Canteen, since I was in the vicinity. I caught the train back to the Chinese Language Center and hung out in the Student Lounge reading until my appointment time, 2:30pm, came around.
Zhu Laoshi called me in right on time and our conversation began. The Oral Exam is strange because you hardly ever know much about it before going in. To make it simple, you just get stuck in a room one-on-one with a teacher for about 15 minutes and you talk. She asked me a lot of questions, some of them complicated and others just as simple as verbal cues for me to keep talking, but I'm so glad I didn't have to ask her to repeat anything. I hate having to ask that because the teachers always assume that means you didn't understand when, in fact, it sometimes means they just didn't speak loud enough. Zhu Laoshi speaks at a medium volume, very clearly, and slower than most of the other teachers--that makes it a lot easier to understand what she says. I answered her questions, making sure to be very thorough. In fact, I was so thorough that, every time, she had to cut me off to ask the next question. Afterwards, she told me I had spoken very clearly and had done well on the Oral Exam.
While I was there, she brought up the topic of Chinese classes for the semester. She wants me to move on to Level 3, which means that I've learned about a year's worth of Chinese in 2 months. That Chinese Language Center really knows what it's doing, I'd say. Apparently, at Level 3, you generally focus on either writing and grammar, or on listening and speaking. As I said before, my writing and grammar is fairly good, so I decided (with Zhu Laoshi's approval) that I should focus on listening and speaking. I really want to learn those tones. I know that, no matter what, I will always speak Chinese with an accent. However, I want the flaws in my speech to be just that, an accent, not actual mistakes. Realistically, I will also always make mistakes. For goodness' sake, I still make mistakes in English. My main goal is to understand and be understood--the more fluently the better.
And just like that, the summer classes ended. It's still hard for me to believe because right now it just feels like a regular weekend. I have just a little over a week off before hopping a train from Shenzhen to Guilin--my first venture into Mainland China begins August 24th and I can hardly wait. I decided to celebrate my well-earned break with a little cooking. I found this delicious-looking recipe called "Thai-Style Beef, Cashew & Basil Stir-fry." While I was cooking, Richard came into the kitchen. He's this guy, also from the States, who's also taking CLC classes this summer. Unlike us, though, he had to move out...today. So he was packing up and getting rid of stuff while I was browning veggies in oyster sauce. He came up behind me and put something on my head, saying "Happy Birthday" or "Merry Christmas"--I don't remember which. Anyway, the item now laying atop my head was this hat:
It seems he (or a friend of his) had been to a charity fundraiser for the China Aids Foundation, and had received 2-3 of these little hats. Not knowing what to do with them, he decided just to randomly plop them onto people's heads. Just as a hint to anyone who likes free stuff, hang around the dorms where the international students live right before they have to go home. Everyone's frantically giving away everything they don't absolutely need. Yesterday, Richard not only loaded me up with a free hat, but I also got 3 giant bottles of water and a roll of paper towels. If I can use it, I don't like to turn down free stuff.
Anyway, I finished my cooking and the result was delicious. In a later post, I might publish some of the recipes I've picked up so far, but not right now. As for today, my plan was to go to Tai Po Market with Kelso around lunchtime, but we had a last minute change of plans so I decided to just chillax.
It seems I'm popular on my day off, too, because I skyped with Sarah for an hour this morning, then with Mom and Dad for another hour and a half. I took a quick lunch break and, as soon as I checked my email again, Mike wanted to facebook chat me. I facebook chatted with him for quite a while then decided to do something I haven't done in a while: DRAW! The picture, of course, doesn't look so great here, but my subject this time was the deceptively difficult legend of 1920s urban blues, Bessie Smith. I'm proud of the result, but I just can't shake the feeling that something doesn't look right. I think I drew her eyes too small.
The thing is I have to look at a picture of the subject while I'm drawing, and the only source of these pictures is the Internet. So I tend to draw with the Internet up on my computer. Just as soon as I finished drawing, Rainbow, one of the CUHK cohort students, wanted to chat with me over IM from Vancouver, where she's having vacation. I talked with her for maybe half an hour before Sara also IMed me. I got off the chat with Rainbow and skyped with Sara.
Sara dear, it's scary how long you and I can talk about both nothing and everything. I'd say we went on for close to 3.5 hours, but I enjoyed every minute of it. It really means a lot to hear from friends and family, especially when you're all so far away. I know I'll feel the same way when I'm back in the States and missing all my friends in Hong Kong, but there's something about those old GSSM friends that nothing else comes close to. All I can say is hallelujah for facebook, blogs, gmail, and skype.
Finally, I know many of you are curious about my plans for this week since I don't have any class. Unfortunately, it's difficult for me to really say right now. I'm treating tomorrow like any other Sunday, although I might do something in the afternoon. As for Monday, I need to go back to PCCW to insist that my phone be enabled to receive service messages in English instead of Cantonese. This is a problem that one of the workers claimed to have resolved for me already, but I'm still getting messages in Cantonese. While I'm in Shatin doing that, I'm also going to resume my quest for random items I didn't find on my last shopping trip. I ought to have more time Monday since I have the entire day. Lastly, very close to all the stores is a Hong Kong tourist attraction I've been meaning to see. It's called "10,000 Buddhas Monastery," and I plan to go while I'm in the area. On Friday, I have a briefing with Yammy Lai regarding the Shanghai trip, so I really need to go to that. I'm probably going to Ocean Park on the 23rd, which is like Hong Kong's Sea World/Six Flags/Zoo. It's another one of the big attractions here. I don't have a date set yet, but one thing I really want to do is go to Victoria Peak, Hong Kong's #1 attraction. Of course, I'll want an entire day to do it, but I'm "testing the waters" to see who all might like to come with me.
A lot of my plans now hinge on a very important (but as of yet, unresolved) issue: moving. You see, normal move-in time for students is while we're in Mainland China. Therefore, we either need to move into our new respective dormitories sooner or later. Previously, Yammy Lai had said that we would have to move in as soon as we got back from Shanghai and, in the meantime, store our belongings in a storeroom at our current dormitory. However, today she sent out an email saying that maybe we can move in earlier. The only problem is that right now she still doesn't know. Everyone's living in different dormitories so some might be able to move early while others can't. There's a chance we can all move in early, but also that no one can. Unfortunately, this means that I need to keep my schedule pretty flexible this week because if/when Yammy Lai says "move," I'd better be ready to get on top of things and do it. I just hope it pans out.
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