Second Semester Senior Part 2?

The last few weeks have been pretty busy as we've been figuring out our second semester schedules. The biggest change for me is that my Chinese class moved from 10-12 every day to 8-10. I live pretty far from school, so it's been an adjustment waking up around 6 every day to get to Wenzao. The 6:56 train has a lot more high school students and a lot less old people than the train around 9. My host family gave me a bike for a Chinese New Year/Birthday gift, so I've also started biking to and from the 岡山 train station rather than walking or waiting for a ride.

This semester, my schedule looks something like this:
Monday-Friday: 中文課， 8-10am. My new class has lots of native French speakers (two from Belgium, one from France, and one from Canada), two Japanese girls, one Spaniard, my Mexican classmate from last semester, and a student from Vietnam. It's also really early.

Monday: 1-3, 成語課/idioms class, 3-4 Spanish history, 4-5, Spanish-English language exchange

Tuesday: 2-4, "Fitting in in Chinese", (This class has gotten really great reviews from other foreign students and is similar to our morning Chinese class.)

Wednesday: 1-3, my year long Spanish writing class, 3-5, year long calculus class

Thursday: 1-3, auditing a Spanish grammer class taught by one of the best Spanish professors at Wenzao. Brandon's also taking this class, and many of my Taiwanese classmates in this class took other Spanish classes with me last semester, so it's cool to already have some friends. The professor has been really engaging in the last two classes, and she's my first female Spanish professor I've had whose from Spain.  Then, from 3-6 on Thursday, I'm taking "International Political Economy" with Nora. This class is my first (and only) 文藻 class taught in English, and the professor seems very good. He's a joint professor at Wenzao and the London School of Economics and has a very British accent. The class has some foreigners, but there are also a lot of Taiwanese students, and I'm amazed that they can follow his lectures on topics like mercantilism, political liberalism, and civil society. My group will eventually do a presentation on BRIC later in the semester, and we'll cover topics like transnational corporations, Sino-US relations in the 21st century and its implications for Taiwan, the rise of the Chinese Middle Classes, and the January 2012 elections in Taiwan during the semester. I'm quite excited to learn more about Taiwan outside of studying the language, and I think this class will be quite interesting (though a bit long). These sorts of classes were my jam in high school, and it will be cool to get a European perspective on United States' and China's political and economic relationship. I'm also excited to be expected to speak English in class.

Friday: 1-3 year long Spanish conversation course

I think it's a great schedule, and I'm especially excited about adding new Chinese classes and a political science class in English. With my new free block from 10-12 every morning, I've been trying to get my ACL physical therapy/work out done early in the morning, and I've been getting it done so far. Public service announcement: morning workouts make you feel great for the rest of the day.

Also,
I'M 19!

Thanks for all FB and real life birthday wishes. Last weekend marked my first beach birthday party, and we ate cupcakes my family sent from America. Delicious and very sweet.

frisbee

Me and Nora

我愛台灣！