Routine

I might have gone crazy. My schedule was originally supposed to include my one-on-one class, Kunming Studies, Minorities in China, and Contemporary Issues in China. Sounds like my kind of classes, hm? I don't really know what got into me, but I decided I wanted more of a challenge....so I switched from my minorities class to CHINESE BUSINESS.

My schedule goes like this:
Monday: 8:30-10:30 Kunming studies (15 people)
                1:15-2:45 One-on-one
Tuesday: 8:30-10:30 Business (5 people)
                10:30-12:00 Contemporary Issues in China (5 people)
Wednesday: 10:30-12:00 Kunming Studies (just 4 of us)
Thursday: 8:30-10:30 Business (5 people)
                 10:30-12:00 Contemporary Issues in China (5 people)
                 1:15-2:45 One-on-one
Friday: Test (or nothing at all)

My Kunming studies class on Wednesday is going to be awesome! It's Alyssa, a Middlebury Student named Nick, a Yale graduate named Eli, and myself (some of the coolest people in the program if you ask me ^_^).  My one-on-one class is a research project on Chinese education problems, policy reforms, and ethnic minority education issues. My teacher is way indie, and he has a purse that is about ten times more fabulous than mine. He is going to take me to minority schools in villages outside of Kunming as well as some schools within the city proper! I'm super excited.

More exciting things: Last night I went with my roommate and her boyfriend to eat Kunming's traditional noodles. It's very similar to hotpot. I'm going to plagiarize (wikitravel is wonderful) to explain: "Over-the-Bridge Rice Noodles (过桥米线; guoqiao mixian) is a typical Yunnan local flavor that could only be tasted in some parts of Yunnan. The Over the Bridge Rice Noodles has along history and it carries with itself a vivid love story. This famous dish consists of several courses and a big bowl of chicken soup with very thick oil on top to keep the heat for cooking the food items, including raw pork, cooked chicken pieces, pork liver, slices of squid and slices of carp for the first course to be dipped into the boiling hot soup. Vegetables are then added afterwards as the second course, and the rice noodles follow as the last course."

Alyssa and I have enjoyed exploring the area surrounding our dorms/classroom building. I'm currently sitting in a French Cafe, drinking a Diabolo Menthe. Though I came here a few days ago to get my BEERLAO! There are a ton of great Indian and Thai restaurants, and I can't even begin to explain how good the western food is in my area. I will gain 5 million pounds this semester...in a good way....maybe. Also, I had watermelon bubble tea for three kuai the other day (three kuai= forty-four cents). !!!!! Kunming dialect is the most ridiculous language I have ever heard...I don't know what it sounds like...but it certainly doesn't sound like Chinese.

Also: RICHARD IS COMING TO VISIT IN 23 DAYS! It will be a wonderful reunion: Tingting, Richard, and myself. The weather here is way better than Nanjing :)  Bibba and Danny are visiting a few weeks after Richard! I love that I can meet up with a bunch of friends in the middle of nowhere China. 

My roommate and I are supposed to be going on a weekend trip in two and a half weeks. It's going to be awesome!

Love and miss you all!