parryblog . home . posts

Ligers, Tigers and Midterms - Oh My (Lady Gaga)!

travel china \ 2012-04-07

Occasionally Chinese people will say "Oh My Lady Gaga!" as opposed to things like "Oh My!" Your guess is as good as mine.

Anywho, I have learned through in depth study that American study techniques and Chinese study techniques are wildly different. Most Chinese students (engineering students in particular) will go to the library, work for hours on end and have most, if not all of the material memorized, ready to ace the test. American students (sample size: me) will buy a lot of snack food, spend too much time trying to decide if Ritz crackers filled with yogurt are the best things or the worst things (they're the best), and then take a four hour nap in the middle of the day.

This is not to say, of course, that I failed. Nay! I...think I did ok. Well enough, given the circumstances: second language and a recent, overwhelming desire to do literally anything else other than memorize Chinese vocabulary pairs. I had four tests: literature (words and bs analysis - these are my most essential personality traits), composition (not a lot of opportunity to bs - this was my hardest test), computer application essay/speech (speaking about computers? I got this.), and then pronunciation. Pronunciation is a whole 'nother ball game. As soon as I sit in that chair to read the passages I apparently lose all motor control of my mouth and all I can spew out are syllables that sound more like someone speaking underwater than "Chinese."

Actually, I just have horrible pronunciation all the time. Examples:

But enough about school and Chinese. You're probably here for the pictures of the ligers and/or tigers. Unfortunately, there aren't any good pictures of the ligers (the bus driver wouldn't let us get out, go figure).

Also, spring break's started, so I'm off to Shanghai and then Zhejiang - hopefully exciting things will happen this week. That's right folks, you might get another blog in the same month. Stay on your toes.