Overcoat!

Today was the first day of class. We started at eight and were done by noon, but there's no getting around it: that's a lot of Chinese. Some highlights:

Teacher: In winter, we celebrate ...
Emily: Overcoat!

Teacher: When she opened the door, she was ...
Emily: A vegetarian! (Chi su, rather than chi jing.)

On the whole I thought it went very well. I had Liu laoshi for conversation drills, and she's very nice; she was one of my group's tour guides when we had the tour of the school and neighborhood.

Certain people have expressed concern that I am

1) Going to get fat
2) Not going out enough.

In regard to the first concern, I think it unlikely. I am getting better at ordering, and am finding a lot of very nice dishes that do not contain pork. Moreover, I joined the gym yesterday, so starting today I can exercise to my heart's content.

As for the second, I go out all the time - I go out for every meal, after all. I'm meeting a good number of very nice people and we have a nice time together, pointing at things and laughing, talking about whatever we are doing at that moment like toddlers, and so on. I just haven't been to San Li Tuanr (the bar district), preferring to go to bed at a reasonable hour. I'm having fun, I'm going out, but I'm not much of a lass for the night life these days.