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I just got back from a bathroom trip to the mezzanine level of harper, which mostly consists of bathrooms and phones and two dingy lounge-style rooms that haven't been cleaned or decorated since the late seventies. Except it's not, anymore. There are still bathrooms, and phones, but the rooms have been cleaned and polished, and there are webstations (a bit unnecessary right above the harper computer lab), a nice conference room, and currently plates of Christmas sweets. So I just finished a piece of chocolate-chip fudge, and I have a bottle of water with me now, and my mood is improving by the minute.
I'm feeling pretty good about my Chinese oral exam, too, though that feeling is mixed with embarrassment. I didn't do that well- I was five minutes late, I said 因為 twice instead of 因為．．．所以, misundertood one question and needed several questions repeated. Plus I was nervous, so all my tones started to become first tones and I didn't produce the palatal consonants with enough palatalization. But, I corrected myself most of the time, was eventually able to answer everything, and can produce a reasonable approximation of every sound. Apparently that's fairly rare among my classmates, because I was told that I'm doing very well, with only a few minor tone problems overall. Though my professor was a little taken aback when I said "我沒有男朋友。有女朋友。" he took it in stride once he'd ascertained that I did indeed know what I was saying. The oral exam was very unlike the ones in Japanese, where the two sensei stare at you impassively until you answer the question. 蔡老師 isn't really capable of being impassive, and kept stopping the interview to explain various cultural notes and implications of whatever I had just said. I don't think he can help himself.
I just got the email from my bio group that I'd been waiting for, so now it's time to head out across the quads to the other library, where we will finish our paper, and turn it in, leaving me about a third of the way through finals. The hardest final is tomorrow, and after that the only major thing will be my phonetics paper, since the Chinese written final shouldn't be too bad, Natsu's final paper looks to be eminently doable, and my final performance might even be fun. There are busy days ahead, but overall I'm feeling fairly okay, thanks to unexpected chocolate and the remarkable patience of Isaac and Sushu.
I'm feeling pretty good about my Chinese oral exam, too, though that feeling is mixed with embarrassment. I didn't do that well- I was five minutes late, I said 因為 twice instead of 因為．．．所以, misundertood one question and needed several questions repeated. Plus I was nervous, so all my tones started to become first tones and I didn't produce the palatal consonants with enough palatalization. But, I corrected myself most of the time, was eventually able to answer everything, and can produce a reasonable approximation of every sound. Apparently that's fairly rare among my classmates, because I was told that I'm doing very well, with only a few minor tone problems overall. Though my professor was a little taken aback when I said "我沒有男朋友。有女朋友。" he took it in stride once he'd ascertained that I did indeed know what I was saying. The oral exam was very unlike the ones in Japanese, where the two sensei stare at you impassively until you answer the question. 蔡老師 isn't really capable of being impassive, and kept stopping the interview to explain various cultural notes and implications of whatever I had just said. I don't think he can help himself.
I just got the email from my bio group that I'd been waiting for, so now it's time to head out across the quads to the other library, where we will finish our paper, and turn it in, leaving me about a third of the way through finals. The hardest final is tomorrow, and after that the only major thing will be my phonetics paper, since the Chinese written final shouldn't be too bad, Natsu's final paper looks to be eminently doable, and my final performance might even be fun. There are busy days ahead, but overall I'm feeling fairly okay, thanks to unexpected chocolate and the remarkable patience of Isaac and Sushu.