In Harbin!

So we all got into Harbin yesterday by train. The train ride was amazing and super comfortable, I slept like a baby. When we woke up we looked out the window and saw snow everywhere juuuust like Christmas morning. Fuuun! But then we found out that our train had been delayed 2 hours in Shenyang because of the snow. Oh well. When I did get off the train in Harbin it was super freaking cold. There's really not much you can do to prepare yourself for just how cold Harbin really is...unless you take cold showers for like 5 weeks prior to coming here. It's only been a day but my lips are already chapped, and I forgot to pack my long underwear in my carry on so it's been a bit cold.

Yesterday Cooper, Richard and I all decided to explore Harbin a little bit on our own. We started walking and within 5 minutes I couldn't feel my face and pretty soon none of us couldn't even form words. It was pretty funny but secretly we were all dying a little on the inside. We kept popping into little shops along the way for a reprieve from the weather. One such shop was loaded with weird "health foods" such as bear bile and some form of frog capsules that are supposed to be good for something...who knows.

We had the writing and speaking tests already. The writing wasn't too bad but I know I could've done better. Oh well... My speaking test went pretty good...I kept the two women who interviewed me laughing and they said my tones were good. Since today is Valentines day they asked what I normally do. I told them since I don't have a boyfriend I just watch movies, eat and cry. They thought that was pretty funny....little did they know I wasn't joking... :|....haha! Well, I'm supposed to meet my Chinese roommate tonight so that should be interesting. I went with some of the guys to the Sky bar last night to talk to some people. It was fun, there were some Americans there and I talked to a Chinese girl for awhile...my head hurt from that so I'm kind of freaking out about the whole roommate thing...it'll probably get better tho. All the CET students are trying to speak as much English as possible before the language pledge begins Sunday, so we all had a nice intellectual conversation about Obama, the economic situation, racism and I gave my spiel about how I hate affirmative action and everyone was pretty enlightened... :) haha!

I'm kinda freaking out about the language pledge, especially since my jokes aren't funny in Chinese. :( A bunch of the students have already said they're going to be sad when the language pledge starts because I won't be able to joke as much...sadness. :( Oh well, we'll see how everything goes...I'm gonna play on the computer a little and continue sipping my coconut coffee, wasn't the best choice I've made so far. Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes, it really meant a lot! :)

Zai Jian

Jessie