So, to begin, as you always should, at the beginning, today is June 6, 2013, and my subscription to TrainChinese has run out. TrainChinese is a company that maintains several useful applications for reviewing and learning Mandarin, among them, writing practice, listening practice, flash cards and more. However, more important than the company or what it does is the fact that I originally purchased a 3-month subscription around the middle of March. This really emphasizes to me that time has passed, without me even noticing it. Friends back home have graduated, my nephew has grown up from a newborn to a thriving 4 month old toddler, and my fluency with Mandarin has improved enough that I almost can't believe that before I was so confident, despite knowing so little.
3 months turns out to be a long time. I came here with the intention to improve my Mandarin as much as possible, and though it has improved beyond my expectations, I know I can still push my limits, and if I'd spent more time studying, and less missing home or goofing off, I would be even better. At the same time, focusing on studying for such a long time, on top of 7 hours of class daily, with organized trips to famous places on the weekend, and frequent meetups with language partners and chinese friends, the result is that I am almost always tired.
Add to that that almost every day of the past week has seen me waking up for no evident reason between 4AM and 5AM with no real desire to go back to sleep, and I suppose it's no surprise my focus is slipping.
Anyway, that's enough for today, I think, look forward to my post tomorrow.
-Ben
聪聪, my new internet name, because I'm certainly not 本本, although I am Ben.
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