The big news today is that as of tomorrow, I am no longer living at the Zhangs’ apartment. When I was taking the bus to Nanluogu today I got a call from the homestay RA, who I’d talked to last Friday about being unhappy here, and she just flat-out told me that I’d be moving out tomorrow. Well, then.
The Zhangs haven’t been awkward about it at all, thankfully; in fact, they hardly seem to have noticed, since they’ve thus far only mentioned it in passing once.* I’ll be living in the international student dorm starting tomorrow, and when I get back from my trip to Yunnan (I leave very early Thursday morning and get back sometime on the 24th) I’ll have a new Chinese roommate, fresh from Paralympic volunteerdom, and hopefully someone I can talk to and make friends with. I’m a little nervous, given that my first living situation sounded so cool but then didn’t work out, but I’m happy to have more freedom and live close to people I know. The Chinese students I’ve met here seem very cool, especially my student tutor, who is the most patient and friendly person in possibly the entire world. I swear my listening skills have doubled since I started talking to him last week. At any rate, I move out tomorrow afternoon after I finish classes, and hopefully will be moving on to a better living situation.
*Another odd quirk: last week I brought home this snack bag of delicious shrimp-flavored crackers and left it in my room about half-full to eat later. I went to my afternoon class and came back to find my host mom feeding the crackers to the dog. I must have had a really befuddled look on my face, because all she said was “He likes to eat them.” I have figured out why the dog is as pudgy and waddle-y as he is. It is because his diet consists half of various table scraps and half of Slim Jims. In the words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up. I’m not mad about it or anything, and I pretty much laughed it off and went to study, but it was definitely a bit out of the ordinary.
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