i dislike this type of situation, because while getting super excited for my trip, i am also stressing about my test. my mind is just running in every different direction. anyways, i figured i'd take a little break from it all and write some quick notes about this week.
on monday, caroline mallory and i had dinner with a few thai friends that i made in the dorm. like i've said, BLCU is practically a united nations and you can meet anyone! i met "benz" (english name?) at the campus cell phone store early in the semester. i helped him buy a phone card and we stayed in touch after that. he and his friends were charming, SO excited for our trip to thailand, and wished they could come along. we left dinner looking forward to meeting more people like them :)
this week we've generally buckled down for school (an essay for econ, a presentation in sociology, and the chinese midterm tomorrow) but another fun outing was our class trip to sanlitun village for film class. thanks to our superstar professor who has co-directed films with chen kaige, we got a VIP tour of a chinese film poster exhibition. the famous, hong kong-based collector has tons of posters (domestic and international) from the 1940s onward. here's some old school bruce lee...
...and a german poster for zhang yimou's "red sorghum" (i think). red sorghum features my favorite chinese actress, gong li. ironically, i first encountered her as hatsumomo in "memoirs of a geisha," which was her first english film, but takes place in japan. i read her biography because we keep coming upon her in class. she has played hugely important roles in modern chinese film, thanks to her guanxi with director zhang.
another event that has dominated this week is the philadelphia phillies playoff series with the san francisco giants. those of you who have skyped with me know (by the excessive phillies paraphanelia on the walls), my roommate jen is a die-hard phanatic. she has been getting up at 4 am or 7 am daily to watch the games live-streamed on espn.com. i admire this and am downplaying my california residence out of sheer fear... eeyore, bear, and the phanatic might strangle me in my sleep.
so that's it for this week. boo studying (ok not really, because everything continues to be really interesting). yay thailand! i can't wait to share stories and pictures next monday. hope everyone has a safe and fun halloween at home! eat chocolate for me because there is a severe lack of it in the chinese diet!
Ah, time for candy corn and snicker bars, indeed. We will be thinking of you as you beach it in Thailand and small ninjas come for tricks&treats!
ReplyDeleteSafe travels to you!