I feel like every blog post should be titled "Random Thoughts"

Today
Class as usual, although I understood the entirety of what my professor said in reading class today. Speaking class is entirely the opposite though. I grabbed a quick lunch at a Western-style deli (a little over $2 U.S.), and then worked on homework.

We had a quick orientation for our culture class at 4. We went over stuff such as how to take it when people stare at you and say certain things to you. An interesting fact I picked up is that men with a long nail on their pinky use it for "routine hygiene." I can only imagine the possibilities.

Finally finished my homework at 6. My Chinese roommate should be showing up around 7, so I'm going to go wait in my room for him after this.

Going to the beach!
Tomorrow at 2 p.m. everyone in the program is getting on a bus to go to the port city of Lianyungang until Sunday.

Some information on Lianyungang:

• It's a 5 hour bus ride away in the northern part of Jiangsu province (the same as Nanjing)
• It is one of the four original ports opened up to foreign trade in the 1680's
• It's still a major port and is on the eastern end of the New Eurasia Continental Landbridge
• The population of the city proper is around 500,000 with 4.65 million in the metropolitan area

In addition to visiting the beach, we will visit the mountain which is described in the story of the Monkey King. The story is pretty much a myth based on the true story of the monk called Xuan Zang who brought back some of the first Buddhist scriptures from India. I read one version of the story in my Chinese Civilization class, which had pulled together the many different folk tales to try to create a narrative. The area near Liangxungang is described in the early parts of the narrative as the place where the monkey was born out of stone and chose to set up his kingdom.

The Blog
I managed to view my blog through a proxy with the help of a friend of a friend who I practiced Chinese with in Madison. I still can't view the comments, but at least I can see how it looks.

KTV
If I have time tonight, I'll write about my karaoke experience a few nights ago. For now I'm off to wait for my roommate.