Well, we’re here (in Xining) for another year.  (Hooray?) I think so.

We recently had our student visas renewed (good through August 2007) and we started classes this past week.  Christa and I both have Tibetan teachers this time (different ones) teaching us spoken Chinese.  Crazy, huh? 

I am pretty happy with my spoken language teacher.  She’s very helpful and challenging without being brutal AND she speaks Chinese at a normal pace and clear enough that I can usually follow.  It’s always a little scary getting new teachers each semester.  My schedule is pretty good, too, except for the fact that I have back-to-back classes (grammar and then spoken) on Friday mornings!  That’s my toughest day so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

I’ve been marveling lately at the language learning process.  The fact that our minds were created in a way that we can learn to process and produce another language beside our native tongue is pretty astounding.  The way I would describe it now (at this very basic and elementary stage) is that my ears seemed to have finally started to open up to the world around me.  Instead of incoherent  mumbles and sounds, I can catch words and phrases here and there.  I can understand questions (some questions?) and I can even ask questions myself or make statements that usually are understood (in part or in whole).  These days I can even read some of those crazy slash marks (they call Hanzi ) on the street signs around here.

It’s still frustrating (always to some degree), but looking back to last year I can really see that progress has been made.  I have inched my way into this world I am living in–centimeter by centimeter.  And now eavesdropping is suddenly in the realm of "the possible" once again…

Not exactly sure what this next year will hold for us, but it already feels a lot different.  It’s like returning to high school after your first summer.  You know where the cafeteria is and you know which bathrooms are safest and cleanest to use.  You know how to navigate the halls and you know which classes or teachers not to take.  You know what to expect, even if it is just to expect the unexpected (which is usually a good idea here.)  Thankfully, we’ve moved out of the cellar of the freshman year into the slightly more elevated status of sophomore. 

And at least now I can get my locker combo open when I need to (and that’s saying something.)

p.s. I don’t really have a locker.  That was just another metaphor.  FYI.