Week three, plus laundry strife

I figured I'd write another entry before the list of things I have to blog about got too long.

Last Sunday was fun. After church, a couple fellow DSICPers and I met up with Susie, Carol, and Cole in Wudaokou--home of Peking University, Tsinghua University, and, most importantly, many many delicious Korean restaurants. Carol took us to a nearby Korean BBQ restaurant for a delicious and long-forthcoming meal that included 삼겹살 and 차돌, two types of meat that I've been craving ever since I left LA. Afterwards, I went to a Korean bakery/cafe called Tous Les Jours near the subway station and ordered a huge (like, really really huge) bowl of 팟빙수. I also bought several types of bread (they have a Totoro roll!), which I originally intended to save for breakfast but couldn't resist eating that evening. This happens rather often, actually. Someone needs to invent a food safe that only opens in the morning. Yes, that would be good.

Anyway, after that Sunday and until today, my week passed by rather uneventfully. One notable thing to mention is that my Chinese has definitely improved from before. Not that I believed it wouldn't, but I never expected to be able to converse freely (albeit about simple topics) just three weeks into the program. Surprisingly, the most useful tools for my language acquisition haven't been classwork assignments, but rather the language pledge and the daily conversations I have with my language partner. It makes me wonder, with this rate of improvement, how fluent will I be by the end of summer? Hmm...

Today, I went to a huge Korean restaurant near campus with my roommate and two of his friends. While their beef and eggplant fried rice was quite delicious, the 불고기 left much to be desired. I'm willing to give the restaurant another chance though. Perhaps next time I'll try the 갈비. Afterwards, I was still a little hungry, so I went to the convenience store and bought a snack called Pejoy (百醇) which resembles Pocky, except it has cracker on the outside and filling on the inside. Absolutely delicious. More on Pejoy in a later post, when I can upload photos of the experience.

One more thing to mention before I go. I've discovered that doing laundry here is a huge hassle. At Yale, I only did laundry about once every two or three weeks because I had better things to do with my time, but here that is not an option, since I only have about a week's worth of clothes. So this is what I have to go through every time my sock supply starts running low: I pile up all my dirty laundry on top of one of my towels; gather up the corners and carry the entire load thusly; walk up and down the stairs looking for a free machine; realize I forgot to bring detergent and go back to get it (I've done this every time so far); stuff all my laundry in the machine and pour in the detergent; start the machine and head back to my room to study; come to pick up the laundry an hour later only to find that my white clothes have turned un-white; carry the load back to my room; lay out the (dripping) laundry on any and every open surface I can find; cry myself to sleep because I won't have dry clothes to wear the next day.

Okay, so I don't cry myself to sleep. But rawr! Anyway, I should go to bed since we have our exam tomorrow. Good night, everyone.