Classes, KTV, and Chinese Roommates

So, I've had two weeks of classes so far and things are going great. My Silk Road class is really interesting. I especially like when we look at how the construction of history affects modern identity and politics (someone in an earlier semester actually did a capstone on how history is taught in China, which sounds really interesting). We had a discussion on the Terracotta Warriors and how aspects of this popular Chinese symbol might have actually originated from the Western world (Alexander the Great), and, of course, how this idea challenges the notion of Chinese history as a very centralized and continuous development of culture that has had little or no influence from the rest of the world. Which kind of ties into stuff I learned about last semester, but I don't want to ramble on too much.

My history class is great too. As is Chinese. I had my first test yesterday, which I think I did well. I think. I'll find out I guess.

Then, I got to meet my roommate!! Although I did not know I had met her initially. Let me explain; Darren introduced us to all the roommates at once and said that he was not going to tell us who our roommates were until after KTV (karaoke). Of course, Crystal is the only other girl here, so I had a fifty-fifty chance of guessing the right roommate. Anyway, I just started talking to Xie Miao (who did end up being my roomie), though she had to leave for class instead of coming immediately with us to KTV. I really like her though, she's from an area famous for hot springs and said we should look for some good ones around Xi'an which sounds realllyyy good to me.

So, KTV was interesting too. Generally, I think of it as an evening activity but we went in the afternoon. Ah, well. Anyway, the singing was...well, let's just say I'd heard enough from people singing in their rooms to know how things were going to go down. I mean, I thought I was pretty off tune but...haha, I didn't sing much (because of how few pop songs I actually know) but I did join in on Bad Romance (Lady Gaga) and Yesterday (Beatles). And Vertigo (U2) although it doesn't make the best KTV song.

After everyone had sung a bit we played Mafia (love that game!!!) and then roommates were introduced. Everyone seems really happy with their roomies, which is great. Actually, some of them seem quite destined to be together. Upon their introduction, Sean's roommates opened the bottle of beer Sean had offered him with his teeth. I've never seen anyone do that successfully. It makes me wince every time someone tries it. It could end so badly..

Anyways, Malcolm's (or Marshmallow, as he's been renamed by Angel, a Chinese roommmate from last semester) roommmate has turned out to be a guitar genius, which is awesome (Darren purposely put the two guitar players together). He played a local song in the Xi'an dialect and it was amazing!!

We had dinner after KTV and I stuffed myself, of course (the food was good and free). Then played UNO in the hotel hallway. I won the first round. Sean won the second. And then we started the most horrible, longest game of UNO in history. It just wouldn't end. I actually ended up with about twenty-something cards. We eventually just let Chris win because he had the least amount of cards.

We also went out to a bar that night. Played Mafia (I'm so glad this group is as obsessed with that game as I am...this reminds me of the Poland days!). Then walked back, found out we had been locked out of our normal gate. So Chris, Sean, Joe, and Malcolm climb up over a broken up part of the wall. Crytal, Mi Ting (Crystal's roommate), Gao (Chris's roommate), Patrick, and I decided it was best not risk breaking our necks and just walked around. We found an open gate far sooner than I thought we would, so it worked out okay.

Today, we're going to the Muslim quarter. I'm very excited!