I took my oral examination today for my conversation class. It went decently well. The reading part was not terrible. I knew some of the words, and I could pronounce all of the pinyin. I answered the questions with not too much problem. And the actual conversation example thing (which I totally ad-libbed) was ok. I pulled the prompt: "Give your classmate a phone call and ask him/her to tell your teacher you need the day off from school." Easy. I "called" (and I mean I made a phone with each hand and alternated back and forth) Chanelle. I told her I have caught a cold, my head hurts, I have a fever, and my nose is running! Could she please ask off for me? Also, I told her not to worry with taking me to the hospital. My roommate is accompanying me today, so if she'll just ask off, I'd be happy, thanks. No problem.

Yes, dear readers. I said all of that, no interruption, in Chinese. And was understood by an honest-to-goodness Chinese person. I'll probably get no better than a C on my overall final grades in these classes, but I'm fairly content with that. I know I could study harder. I know this. But I also know that there is not too terribly much I could do more. I only absorb so much at a time, and I really am learning very much, and fairly quickly. Next semester is going to be a contiunation, but I don't think it will kill me. I am planning to ask my professor at the beginning of next semester to set me up with a tutor, so that I can ask all kinds of questions about character structure and formation and whatnot. And so I can practice speaking Chinese.

Today I called my conversation partner because I'm having a problem getting a particular task completed in Chinese. She texted me later with the phone number of the Cowboy's roommate. I got a hearty kick out of that, really. Why I didn't ask him first I guess I'll never know. Actually, I do. I wanted to do it myself or get her to help. But his English is really good, and so is his Chinese. He's from Singapore, and there they speak both. Lucky... Even so, the task is not finished. This week it ought to be. No excuses.

Tomorrow we're going to the hutong (胡同) to have lunch and walk around and feel like we're in Old China. I do like the hutong. That's where I stayed when I first got to this city so long ago. Go here for stuff about the hutong and some nifty pictures. I've seen all these places and whatnot in the pictures.

http://www.thebeijingguide.com/hutong_tour1/hutong-tour1.html

Then, I think, there is to be a birthday party for Butterbean's brother. I bought him a toy train set. Don't tell! I told the Professor that I almost got us one, too, but that we didn't need it. He threw a fit like a baby, but that is nothing truly new.

Some of my friends are leaving after this Tuesday, and I very well may not ever see them again. They are going back to Australia and going into graduate programs and very responsible things like that. I wish they could blow it off and hang out in China with me another semester. Change is in the air, I guess.

T