First Day of the Second Semester...

What was I thinking trying to go back to school again? That was the question one of my old classmates asked me today. Good question.

Our first class on Monday's is the Tingli (listening) class. It wasn't my favorite subject last semester, and it hasn't changed since then. Our class has a mixture of the other classes from the previous semester with many of them coming from countries in Asia. There are some from my old class, which was comforting to me to see familiar faces again. We couldn't wait until this class ended. We are starting on book 2. We didn't get through the first book in the last semester so there may be some disconnect between what we are now learning and what we should already know. Yup, this will be a fun class!

We came to a harsh realization later this morning in our Foundation class. We discovered that we will not have the same priviledge of having a teacher assist us in English when we have questions. It's amazing how many times I heard today, "we miss Chen Laoshi". All the classes will be held in Chinese, from instruction, to explanation of grammer etc and we are to ask/ answer questions in Chinese. Realizing this will only help us, we realized how spoiled we were with Chen Laoshi.

In the first week, you are able to change classes if you so desire and if you find your class is easy, you can take a test on Friday and move up to a more advanced class, and if you feel that this class is too hard, you can change to class below the one you are taking. Already, movement has begun. A couple of students are moving to the level below us, and the ones that are in the excelerated class will be joining us in our class, finding their class "way over our heads". It will be nice to see some old classmates again.

On another note, to my surprise, I was on the list for a partial scholarship. To determine if you are eligible, you have to meet a minimum of 80% for your final grade, have 80% attendance recored, a minimum of 26 credits and apparently be in good standing with your teacher. There is no mention of whether you actually get the scholarship or not. Your name is on the list and it's up to you to look for your name. Needless to say, I was shocked to see my name on the list, so I will have to apply for a refund of 800RMB.