More trips? Really?

Yes. Yes. More trips!

This winter for 3 weeks I will be going to China... AGAIN! I am the most excited!

This time I will be in Guangxi province. In Guizhou University, I will be studying Mandarin, and I will also be studying the culture of China.

Guizhou is a lot more rural. It is in the south of China (think Texas in the USA, Guangxi province is in the same location, but in China), so it isn't as populated as Shanghai or Beijing (there is still a LOT of people. No worries).

I am really not sure what to expect, but here is two photos I pulled from the internet.

Kevin will not be joining me on my trip this time. He has to study for his MCATS and what not. So, I know he is raging about that. He really doesn't want me to go, but he understands that if I don't go I will be even more upset at him. I am hoping he will accept to have more Skype dates from now on :]

Hopefully, I will have a proxy, so I can still update you about my trip this time! If not, I will have Kevin upload it for me. Hopefully!!

Anyway, I feel like the luckiest person in the world about this trip!

Wuzhen- China

We also took a day trip to Wuzhen. It is about 1h30 mns away from Hangzhou. Wuzhen is a preserved city from the Song dynasty. It is a water city, and therefore you have to get there through boat transportation.

Once we got in the city itself, we are left alone to explore. There is a lot of tea shops, and magistrates' houses where we first got off. The city is divided into 6 districts. After walking a little bit, and crossing a couple bridges, we arrived in the shopping district. You can find a bunch of little stores that can sell handmade China dish or tea, or pointless little toys that you can find cheaper in Hangzhou. I didn't buy anything that time, expect for fish food to feed the massive amount of fish before entering the working district.

As you can see, they swimming ON TOP of each other to get the food. It was like no one had fed them in ages. The kids (and Kevin) loved it! It was the highlight of their trip. Shortly after that, we got to make little snack. Unfortunately, I didnt catch the name of the dish. It was mainly flour mixed with water, created a goey substance that they rolled in some light brown powder. It tasted like peanuts.

Here is Kevin beating the flour into the gooey mixture. The snack was actually pretty good! We had some iced tea afterwards, and walked some more. We visited a factory of soy sauce and of rice wine. I hate calling factories, because they are so old school. I took a couple pictures of the soy sauce "factory". It was interesting as we could actually touch and open the soy sauce jar.

There was a lot more to see, but Kevin's little cousin got tired quite fast. So we decided to go back by boat. We did a quick tour of the little town (The west side is still under reconstruction) and went back home.

Next stop: Mt Huangshan!

Updates on my goals

So. I got two of my goals done.

Application to the University of Pennsylvania.

I got rejected. I am not as sad as I expected to be. I did not expect to get in and frankly, I wouldn't fit at the prestigious university. It is not "me" enough. The girls there are different, and the atmosphere there is too prestigious for me. I don't mingle well with people like that. (Even though Kevin goes there. Opposites attract?)

Grades

Got 3 As, and 3 B+s. Now before I go crying because my B+s were SO close to an A it hurts, let me just say that I am still proud of myself. My grades were going downhill, and so was my GPA (which was worrying me). Now next semester, 4 As, and 2 B+s?

It is all about the baby steps...

I still need to:

- Finish editing Fatal Kiss

- Finish my script

- Finish my novel in progress

- Get ready for France/ China

- Finances (arghargharghargharghdontmentionthatword)

- Continue with my Chinese

- Continue with Korean!

So, I still have a full plate of stuff to do!