Friday, January 19, 2007

Night, Nightmare

I felt better after some sleep. The clock showed 7 p.m. I took a shower. Mandarin class at 8 p.m. Dinner after class at 10 p.m. We ordered early. Rice, meat, egg, soup. There was something missing from the order. Veggies. That was weird. I am always a veggie eater, and eat little proteins.

We were a bit late for the class. We didn't miss anything much anyway. There was a sound discrimination test. I'm never good at it. I often failed to discriminate the pronunciation and four tones of Mandarin.

Lesson 4 - Taking a Bus. We started with learning some new words. Laoshi taught us the correct pronunciation, we followed. It felt like being in the kindergarten. But that's how things go. That's how Mandarin classes go. Sometimes I felt like I need some kind of private tutor who is patient enough to teach me. I still can't pronounce things right. Even with the kindie-like teaching method. We finished learning the new words, and moved to reading the dialogues.

I sat next to a classmate. He is good in Mandarin. I suddenly felt uneasy. I'm a total loser in Mandarin. He'll definitely laugh at my words. That's what I was thinking. Laoshi asked him to read some other dialogues. Other than what we were learning at the moment. Laoshi appointed him to be a Tutor in the class, to help her out every now and then.

A classmate came late. Very late. Anyway, Laoshi continued the lesson. The the class paired up and practice. Me? Bl**p, I'm dead! I was somehow scared if I were to practice with him, he'll laugh his bl**p off. Anyway, Laoshi asked Late Guy to practice with me. And yes, we had our own Tutor. Haha...

The whole tutoring thing was funny. Tutor was no good. He didn't actually stressed on the four tones. I know why. Getting Late Guy pronouncing the syllables right was hard enough. Tutor was practically stressed out. I tried to help, but just a bit. Anyway, we did have some laugh listening to Late Guy. Poor guy!

Laoshi was practically scolding Tutor. I listened. I didn't understand her words. But I knew what it was about. I told Late Guy that Tutor was being scolded for not teaching the language properly. He didn't believe me. What? Just because I don't know Mandarin he thought I was bluffing? huhu~

The class ended. Dinner! Everybody was hungry. We picked our order up. The small table was full with food. We ate and chatted and joked until it was late. Oh. The Queen treated us a hot dog each.

I didn't bring my key. At first I was thinking of waiting for my Roomies to unlock the door. Unfortunately, I saw some stuff parked in front of the door. Uh-oh... Bad sign. Nobody was there. I panicked a bit, up to the point of thinking of climbing up the window. Twice in one week, locked outside. A total nightmare. At least the last time my Roomies were in, they were sleeping. But now? Noooooooooo!!!

I walked around in despair. Suddenly a Roomie appeared. Luckily she DID bring her keys. She was somewhere else, she didn't join my other Roomies out. She unlocked the door. God! How I was damn glad to be in my room. I need a place to sleep and clothes for tomorrow's class, OK.

So much things happened in one day!

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