Testing Times

Yesterday carried on the great tradition of Western Day. Becka and I, shortly joined by Daisy, spent the day in Starbucks drinking tea and studying. We managed to get quite a good deal done and then it was off to "Lisa's" for dinner. Chinese food and I are getting along fine these days- so long as I have a plentiful supply of these really tasty roll things- but my tastebuds started drooling with gratitude at the mere sight of a western menu. In the end I picked lamb chops and apple pie. The lamb chops were cooked perfectly and seasoned with rosemary and the fries were perfect and the salad was heaven- Chinese food is not big on vegetables. And the apple pie was one of the best I've ever had-although it was not as warm as it might have been...

I think I loved that meal a little too much...

We had a test in class today that I think I did pretty well in. I spelt the character for chopsticks wrong (I put 块 instead of 筷. They are pronounced the same, kuai, but unfortunately that doesn't matter. I'm hoping that 块子 doesn't mean anything rude lol...). Becka finally conceded defeat and changed classes to mine from the harder C class. She does not regret it. Although she wishes she hadn't done it just before we had a test but anyway!

Unfortunately today was a bit of a downer. A feature of life here is that there are not many English-speaking students here and as a consequence we are pushed very close together. You also eat out for every meal and it is natural when you eat out to all go out together. Thus there is no room to avoid someone if there is a clash of personalities. And there has been such a clash. Basically one friend ended up shouting at another which has led to a slightly awkward situation, especially as I completely agree with one side. The other has become very difficult to spend time with as they will happily talk constantly about themselves, themselves and then themselves. And this subject is only so interesting. So we have had a horrible situation in which, in order to save our sanity, we have had to hurt someone's feelings.

So tomorrow I am going to have to go into diplomatic mode and sort it out. It's annoying as this is not the kind of problem I had anticipated in China... And really not what I need right now. I just want to enjoy my time here and not worry about silly spats! *Sigh*