Classes

Well, Classes have begun!

After taking my placement exam last Friday, they saw fit (in their infinite wisdom, I guess) to put me into the 102 level. This is one above 101 and just below 201. This was where I fit based on an exam I left mostly blank, excepting the essay portion (it's easy to fill 100 characters when you know how to make basic sentences).

I got to class on Tuesday (Monday having been an 'off' day for some reason...) and attended a confusing day of being spoken to in rapid Mandarin. My classmates, about 12 of 'em, seemed to have a grasp of what was being said, but I felt like something of a fool for catching about 2 in every 10 characters; not enough for comprehension much less learning.

I sat in that day on a 101 class during the afternoon. This class was for people who had zero experience with Mandarin, meaning that they started absolutely bare bones; pronunciation and pinyin learning that we did in the first 2 weeks of class at home.

A couple days later, I'm WAY out of my league in 102 and a significant amount ahead of the 101 class. I've been told varying things by varying people. From 'stick it out and catch up!' to 'go with the one where you'll learn _something_ instead of wasting time'.

I'm going with 101, I've decided. I spoke with my teacher and there's another guy from another 102 class in the same predicament. Both the professors at the 101 level said to stick it out until Friday (when we have to 'lock in' whichever class we will stick with), then make the decision. They also said they would be happy to help us figure out where we were in terms of the curriculum and they would try and make sub-lesson plans for us to work on while the new students caught up. That and it's interesting to be one of those students other kids (I use 'kids' loosely here) can ask for help.

Anyways, in other news, my trip to the Fireworks City of Liuyang is in jeopardy. I have lost all contact with Matt Palazynski of Pyro Innovations. As Matt had previously agreed to help me make travel arrangements, hotel arrangements and host me on a couple factory tours I had been counting on him HUGELY to help make the trip work. I know nowhere NEAR enough Mandarin to comfortably go to another area of the country with no English and communicate complex ideas without the support of a University behind me.

I have e-mailed a number of other fireworks companies here in hopes of getting some new arrangements in place. This includes Dancing Fireworks, if anyone from the industry in Canada is reading, and I hope especially to visit one of their factories.

Who knows what's happening. The holiday begins on Saturday though, so I need to figure out if I'm going or not and make those arrangements.

Wish me luck! Thanks for reading and thanks for the e-mails. Miss you all!

Love and regards,

Nathan

P.S.: Mayan, no Tiffany stuff in sight yet. I'll still keep an eye out whenever I'm in a market.