Day 9

Today, it was incredibly difficult to get up. I'm not sure why - I'm not getting up before 7, but it may have something to do with my dreams. I vaguely remember dreaming of training in the PE hall. Endless push-ups and running. That'll make anyone tired, even if it's just a dream.

First thing up was the much awaited second Chinese lesson! I had fun and I'm very happy that the teacher, today FT's Chinese wife LH, kept trying to ask me questions in Chinese. I'm just disappointed that they still catch me so off guard I can't answer much more than "mhm" and "yes". Well, at one point I was desperately trying to explain to her about why Red Cross wasn't feeling good today, but saying that she slept horribly because she had a spinal tap some time back and that area had been painful recently isn't something I know very well in Chinese. It was mostly me jumping up and down, pointing and going "She has pain here!!!!!"
Speaking of Red Cross, she wasn't feeling well today so she left the lesson early to go to see the doctor. She had meningitis before (see spinal tap) and understandably is now careful when she feels ill. She also had some random bruises, and red spots where she had her spinal tap. Luckily it wasn't anything too serious - a fever and some sort of inflammation somewhere, but she was absent the rest of the day regardless.

We also started thinking about our Chinese names today. LH gave us pieces of paper and asked us to write down any words or things we'd like to have in our names, and she'd make them for us later. I wrote up my first name which I had in Hong Kong, Jia Wen, and asked if I could use that to which she said yes. Later I figured maybe I should've written the family name too... Now, instead of being family name Wu, first name Jia Wen, I'll be family name Jia, first name Wen. I guess it doesn't matter in the long run since I can still call myself Wen Wen for giggles, and I'll still be called Jia Wen by anyone else, because nobody uses just the first name if it's a two character name, unless you're watching a really sappy soap opera. Well that's me, but the rest of my class had a tougher time. In the end they started having fun with it, and I'm not sure if I really am going to spend the rest of my school year with Raging Fist and Wet Noodle, or if they wrote down something else in the end...

I managed to.. well I don't know the English word, but I over-stretched my right leg during the training after lunch. I wanted to stretch out some after, but could only do it on my left leg, because although my right leg (thigh in particular) doesn't HURT yet, I can still feel it was over-stretched and I don't want to make it bad. I'd rather just give it some rest and non-stretching until it's better so I can go all out again later. Dinner today was pretty amazing. Since we were just released from training when it started, I sat down all sweaty on a table with 3 other martial arts students and one more. Stinky table, though I didn't really smell anything~
We had sausage (in a tomato stew) with rice (that contained vegetables) and some crunchy salad. I would've had so much more than I did, but I couldn't possibly eat more. They can make it again any day!

Now, I'm going to relax for a while. Just sit in bed and half-sleep. I'm tired, and luckily I have no more physical exercise until Thursday afternoon, when I start with horse riding lessons. Woo!

3.9.2013