25

This week was a little hectic. Megan, my roommate, broke her ankle in gym class on Monday which meant we had to help her brave the quite disabled-unfriendly battlefield that is the Chinese high school (no elevators to our classrooms which are all on the fourth floor, squat toilets, etc). To make it even worse, it rained all week (her cast, which she is going to have to change every week for two months, is totally un-waterproof). 

We have gotten pretty creative using raincoats and plastic bags though, and making the extra 15 minutes it takes to make it to the school as fun as possible. 

I am pleased to act as her willing servant and run out to the post office or hole-in-the-wall shops for delicious noodles and the like. 

One plus is that she doesn't have to attend night study (our daily self-study time in the classroom 6:30-9:15) and I get to stay in the dorms with her to help her with homework questions and keep her company, which is awesome because I was not a fan of night study (I never needed the structure of sitting in a classroom to get all my work done and so although I got the chance to experience an important aspect of Chinese high school, I can now do my work in a cozier environment for the next couple months). 

Despite everything though, Megan is such a trouper, and her endlessly positive attitude and strength is so inspiring. 

In other (less exciting) news, in order to save time so I could escort Megan to school, I switched up my breakfast routine this week: instead of my daily noodles, I started grabbing 包子 (baozi: steamed buns filled with chopped greens, mushrooms and tofu) from the second floor of our school's 餐厅 (can ting: cafeteria). They are actually so tasty and filling and I am happy to mix things up. 

Even though there are countless things about Stanford's dining options that I look forward to, I think I will definitely miss the Chinese breakfasts of noodle soup and steamed buns. 

Another happening: our class started an official rule this week where we are only allowed to speak Chinese (not Japanese or English) when in the classroom. If we are caught doing so, we have to put one 块 (kuai: "Chinese dollar") in the newly-made box at the front of the classroom. 

It won't really be that difficult (although we already have a couple kuai in there). Honestly, I'm not sure why we are just starting this now and not at the beginning of the year (I suppose some of our levels were quite basic at the beginning), but better late then never!

Finally, on Friday I made my first official (two metro lines / two bus) commute from school to my host family's apartment in 南桥 (Nan qiao: a suburb of Shanghai) where I'll be spending my weekends for the rest of my time here. I did so by myself because my host sister had a night class that she had to attend. It took three hours (rush hour of people returning home for the weekend), but I was proud to have mastered at least this basic step of transportation navigation. 

I had dinner at home with my host parents and grandparents for my host granny's birthday. I had some interesting conversations with my host granddad, one in particular about the horrible state of the (factory) farming industry, while being so grateful to be enjoying such delicious homegrown/homemade grub.