The First Week of Classes

I'm happy to report that, as of today, I officially know 200+ more characters than I did a week ago! Success, you taste so sweet. My core class,  聚焦当代 (Talk of the Times), meets twice a day - one is a one-on-one lesson in which we focus primarily on the new vocabulary and the other is a three-on-one lesson in which we practice the new grammatical structures. I skimmed through the table of contents, and the topics all seem very interest and relevant especially to China's current situation. The chapters range from foreign immigration to sexual education to reconstructing historic areas of Beijing. My other individual class, the one geared towards helping me improve my reading and writing abilities, consists of me reading elementary school textbooks (in Chinese, of course) and practicing the characters that I'm not familiar with. Today, we read a very insightful story about a little rabbit running home to his mom to tell her that it is going to rain. This texts that I read are adorable (and slightly humiliating). My last class is Business Chinese for Success, which is a two-on-one class. This class dissects real cases of international businesses investing in China (and vice versa), which I find to be really interesting to read. So far, I'm very happy with all of my classes! 

As summer students at Tsinghua, we don't get student IDs, which means we don't have access to the libraries on campus. So what about homework?! Where can it get done?! you ask? 

Because a lifesize wooden giraffe is a much more interesting picture than one of my coffee and pens

Behold. The wonder that is Zoo Coffee, a zoo-themed cafe located conveniently down the street from my apartment. My classmates and I have had a great time cafe-hopping in the name of education. Aside from your usual cafes, there are various other hangouts that seamlessly transition from daytime study to nighttime bar. One such place is Windows, located even more conveniently down the stairs and to the right of my apartment. Probably the best place to go after class and do some homework while munching on a burger. 

And admire some Maoist artwork, of course.

This weekend, I will be going off to Tianjin to visit family. It will be really nice to see everyone again!