Two-Week Break

Now that Cortne (see her blog) has recommended my blog and I haven't posted in two weeks I feel like I should write something really interesting and bitingly satiric. Hmm...not so much comes to mind, as we just started classes after a two-week break due to "swine flu prevention," but I can give you a little update on my life.

I stayed in Harbin for most of our break, which was incredibly relaxing. I was one of about 10 students left in the dorm, and we finally had an opportunity to live in Harbin without the overbearing burden of studying and homework. I really am happy that I didn't decide to travel and sleep on hard train beds and in youth hostels, although I'm sure it was interesting for many of my classmates to see other parts of China.

Many days I walked to HIT's front gates and hailed a taxi to go to Zhongyang Dajie, which costs less than a one-way fare on the L, especially with the CTA's new price increases (the Tribune has such stimulating articles these days). But back to Harbin, when I actually think back on it, I'm not sure how I spent that much time on Zhongyang Dajie, but I can say that after the last two weeks, I am quite familiar with most of the places on Harbin's "Central Avenue," as the Chinese call it when over-translating in an attempt to put as much English on their signs as possible. Okay, enough with the run-on sentences. Really, it's quite easy to find myself regularly going to Zhongyang Dajie since it has some of the best coffee shops in Harbin and the only place I can buy real bread. Of course, there's the added benefit of there being no honking cars since it's a pedestrian street.

After waking up to the sun shining through my window for two weeks, the sound of my cell phone alarm on Monday was not pleasant to say the least, and two days in a row of almost solid classes have left me exhausted. However, I'm starting to get used to the routine again. Up for next week: preparing for midterms on Thursday and an oral report of my one-on-one paper to a panal of professors on Saturday...yikes!