Nanjing, Day 7

Today is our second day in Nanjing and we are all learning to navigate our way around campus and survive more independently in China. Today was also the first day of Chinese Language classes. Waking up at 8am isn't as much of a difficult task as it had been at Northeastern, since we've been used to getting up early for the entire trip thus far. In addition, most, if not all, of the students were pretty excited to settle down a little bit and start their study abroad experiences after all the cultural and touristy encounters we've had in Beijing. After speaking to a few people from the group, there was a consensus that the language professors and their TAs were friendly and helpful. They all taught in Chinese, which I'm sure was a bit intimidating for some, but is a rather useful method to quicken the pace of our Chinese language proficiencies. After asking some of my fellow Dialoguers about their first day of class experiences, there was a general agreement that even though there's a lot of new vocabulary to learn, people are still fervent about this incredible learning experience.

In the Advanced I class, although it was rather lengthier than NU's standard language classes, the multiple breaks and enthusiastic professors helped make time pass by quickly. The four hour class consisted of a two hour lecture from our NPCR textbook and two hour drilling session from the complimentary NPCR workbook. Although this was the first day, the professors did not hesitate with giving us dictations and homework assignments. Each one of us will surely be busy preparing for class tonight.

After class, there was an hour of free time for those who wanted to experience their first calligraphy class. Around half of the group showed up for this activity and each person received compliments on his/her quick learning and elegant strokes. We learned how to write "Yun hai," which means "Sea of clouds" in traditional characters. After practicing basic strokes, the two aforementioned characters and our names, each person received a final piece of cloth-like traditional Chinese parchment paper, on which we perfected our new skills as best as we could and signed our names before taking it with us as a memorabilia of our newly acquired talent. The class was definitely a worthwhile experience and a wonderful way to practice and remember characters as well.

After calligraphy class, there was another hour's worth of free time until the second optional activity began. This activity was Taiji taught by the expert Taiji teacher, Yang Laoshi, who has had multiple generations of Taiji experience prior to her own. Taiji is all about the control of energy flow in your body. Those of us who attended the lesson today practiced the immense concentration, memory and grace that are involved in this martial art.

After Taiji, there was some more free time until 6:30, where we met our language partners. Our language partners are all college-aged and attend Nanjing University as English education majors. They taught us how to navigate around the city of Nanjing explained to us any confusing content from class and helped us think on our toes in Chinese conversation. Everyone was well into conversing with his/her partner until time was up and the language partners had to leave.

After the hour-long partnering session, the moment we've been waiting for for so long finally arrived. Our Chinese SIM cards were distributed, which means we finally have a means of communicating with each other and with our families back home! Those who do not have working international cell phones will simply have to wait until tomorrow morning.

The rest of the night included free time, which meant dinner with friends, preparation for tomorrow's classes and hopefully a good night's sleep. Successful second day in Nanjing? Check.

- Huong Nguyen