Hello all!
I can't believe I'm already back for a second semester! I returned on the 21st but but I have been catching up with friends and trying to get over jet lag, so I haven't been able to post anything. This semester will be a little bit harder, I am taking both Calculus and Statistics for my business requirements as well as 8:15 Chinese, and of course GPS. This semester in GPS should be especially interesting, because the university has made plans to have four guest speakers to come and lecture us. It will be really nice to mix it up in that class, and hear other perspectives.
In other news, Meichen just got back from a trip to Beijing and Nanjing where she was visiting her old classmates. In just three more weeks I will be going to Inner Mongolia with her. We are so excited! She told me that when she went back home to tell her extended family that I was coming, her cousin, who has been learning english for some time, now wants us to come and stay with her for a day so that she can practice her English on me. Apparently she has never met a "Foreigner" before, (that's a lot of pressure).
Today we are just going to enjoy our last day of freedom before school officially begins, so we are touring through Shanghai. We figure if we stay in our rooms too long we will fall asleep and ruin our progress getting over jet lag. The smog here has been pretty bad the last couple of days, and I can no longer see the Pearl Tower from my building. They say it probably won't clear up until after winter, so I have been wearing my mask pretty diligently since I arrived.
I cannot wait to see what this semester has in store for me!
love from Shanghai,
Maddie
