Final Wednesday

Halfway done with finals! Today was the speaking final I had to memorize eight sentences on the topic of “taste.” I then thought it would be cool to write them up in the blog with a translation!

我喜欢吃辣的菜。我觉得我喜欢吃辣的菜。。。我来中国以后，美国辣的菜不如中国辣的菜辣。上个星期我吃方便面。这代方便面好吃是好吃，但是太辣了！所以我要点清淡的菜。我喜欢胬肉盖饭因为又便宜又不辣。我每天都可以吃胬肉盖饭！

So that in English as close to literal as I can make it:

I like spicy food. I thought I liked spicy food...then I came to China. Last week I had some ramen. The Ramen was very taste, but too spicy! Now, I order food light in flavor. I like to eat beef fried rice because it is not only cheap but not spicy. I could eat beef fried rice every day!

Not exactly inspiring, but I used a lot of funky grammar constructs we learned! So that’s something. Anyway, the written portion is tomorrow and then I’m home free! Well, grade-free, for the rest of the trip. Tomorrow is also the day we find out of Brandon, Alec, and my international business idea placed in the competition so fingers crossed!

Saturday night was a little bit odd. We decided to do a little more exploring and ended up in an Irish bar owned by a Belgian man who is the distributor of Guinness in Kunming...and has also never set foot in Ireland. I personally just found it funny he decided on an Irish bar of all things, but he told me about how Irish bars are really an International brand without trying to be: and he’s right! We were drawn to this bar because of what we expected to be inside. No one sees Belgian bars far outside of Belgium and would be less likely to try it. His name is Tim and he’s been in China for seven years, only took him three before he learned Mandarin though! Anyway eventually he had to leave us and actually run the bar, but not before I drank a raw egg! That was an experience. But if you think that’s the weirdest thing I’ve had this week...stay tuned!

Sunday we visited this beautiful temple a few hours outside of Kunming called the “Anning Sanhe” Temple. It holds places of worship for Buddhists, Taoists, and followers of Confucius. We were only able to see the temples to Buddha and Confucius, either alone would have been worth the drive! The Buddhist temple had three massive incarnations of the Buddha and our guide was able to explain the differences between each. From right to left, they stand for Karma, the Head Teacher, and the ability for man to reach Nirvana. Moving over to Confucius I learned that a lot of Confucian temples are dedicated to education as opposed to just worship. Sure enough, just in front of his statue was a small library and classroom built to honor the father of Chinese education. After that, we learned how incense is made and headed back. I ate quickly so I could study for my test on Monday that Brandon and I had pushed back from last Friday in order to better prepare for our presentation.

Monday was relatively mundane, we took the test and class was focused on more review than anything for the finals coming up this week. In Taiji we were able to take pictures with our instructors as a sort of swan song and we finally completed a form! Emma, think like Tae Kwon Do forms, just…harder. I think I could perform like half of it well, and the other half was just making sure I was in the right position when the teachers looked. Monday night I studied for as long as I could, writing down my responses to all the possible speaking prompts...and then when I’d had enough, I blasted Viking metal and played Mad Max. Twas a good night.

Tuesday was very high stress for me. I’ve been far more worried about the speaking final rather than the written because the class has just been a lot harder for me. In some respects, not having to remember how to write each character is easier but at the same time, I have no safety net for pronunciation. So, I buckled down and every opportunity I could I looked over the materials I had written Monday night.

During culture class, we found out a little more about our time in Beijing although not much...I don’t think our professor will be with us for almost any of it, leaving us in the hands of a tour guide. I wasn’t filled with confidence when our professor told us “make sure to remind your tour guide about your flights on Monday!” But we’ll see!

Tuesday night...I ate duck intestine and cow stomach. So. That was interesting. More than anything, they tasted like rubber but the cow stomach was like this prickly gray thing and I had to close my eyes when I put it in my mouth. It started innocently enough, Alec asked his language partner if she wanted hot pot for dinner and apparently she responded with “only if we order weird stuff.” This stipulation was not made public when he convinced me and Brandon to go so we were completely caught of guard when the usual supply of beef and pork were substituted for...innards. I can easily say those were the weirdest things I’ve eaten this trip and while I won’t seek them out again. Should you ever find yourself in a situation where they are offered, there are worse things you could be eating.