Shorter days, longer nights...

Ok, after this short hiatus, I'm back. I think I have crossed another threshold here, though I'm not sure exactly what it is or when I crossed it. Or maybe the days just started getting shorter and colder. Not that they were that long to begin with. Not that they are that cold now. But something feels...different.

You know the feeling, when you start a new life somewhere and at first you have no obligations and it's like a walk in the park. You go to school and then come home, take a nap, and have the rest of the day off. Then you decide to do tai chi, to start writing for the school newspaper, to start working out and getting in shape. Then school gets harder, the newspaper asks you to correct some extra English articles, people want to do language exchanges and you don't want to be unfriendly so you say sure, why not? Stuff starts piling up. And then you say to yourself, you were here to study Chinese, remember?

OK, maybe you don't know the feeling. Maybe the life I just described is none other than yours truly's. The point is, I need to do some ménage, as they say in French. I have to clean up all the non-essential things in my life so I can focus on what I came here for- to learn Chinese.

Speaking of which, the new quarter just started, and I chose the three-hour intensive class (yeah, now I'm really going to be busy). There is a lot of homework (more than 3 hours a day). There is a lot of talking. Though it's three hours long, the class seems to go by quickly, as we cover more ground than the regular class. At the same time as being hard, it's challenging and fun.

Good night.