Because being sick is truly the pits...

I don't have any pictures to post, nor do I have any exciting outings to share, but I haven't hardly left my room in 3 days so I am running out of things to do to pass the time (there are only so many instant queue netflix films worth watching). This week started of quite stressful, in fact I don't know if I have ever worried about an exam or speech so much in my entire college career. Monday was spent studying if I wasn't in class or preparing the 4 minute speech I had to give in Chinese class on Tuesday for the oral part of my first exam. It was dreadful. I don't enjoy giving 4 minute speeches in English let alone Chinese. My speech had to be a love story and what better way to tell a love story than to tell one you have heard many times. I was fortunate to be able to tell the best love story I know, the love of my parents. Tuesday morning leading up to the exam I decided that the memorization was as good as it was going to get, so I spent the morning on Skype with the characters of my story. After the dreaded exam, which could've probably gone better and definitely much worse. I had a late night class moved from Wednesday for the mid-Autumn Festival. Mid-Autumn Festival is the beginning of the lunar calendar and a time to sit out with family, eat mooncakes and contemplate the moon... Since my family isn't here, I think mooncakes are awful, and I always like to contemplate the moon, I didn't think the holiday was that fantastic. Wednesday through Friday is off for all Chinese students for the holiday, but they have to make it up on Saturday and Sunday... lame. We on the other hand just had Wednesday off and had to make up our classes throughout the week, that way we could still have a weekend. Wednesday morning we decided it was probably time to make some decisions about our weeklong break. From October 1st-10th we have National Weeklong Study Break and we get to do whatever we want. The problem is the rest of the country also has this break... But we (Lucy, Emily, Lauren, and I) created quite the itinerary and regardless of the hordes of people, we will have fun. We plan to start the trip on Friday in Chengdu, Sichuan it is home to some of the spiciest food in the country and also to the biggest Panda reserve and breeding center. I kid you not, I am going to hold a baby panda bear in less than 10 days! After Chengdu we are going to head to Xi'an on Tuesday to meet up with Lucy's mother and grandmother who are currently doing a tour of China. We will get to see the terracota soldiers while we are there. After two days in Xi'an we are going to fly down to Sanya, China's Hawaii. It sounds cliche I know, but who can resist a beach when it is available. We decided to end our trip there in complete relaxation. Staying in Hostels along the way, the trip is going to be fantastic! After all the planning I was feeling exhausted and decided to take a nap, not realizing I wouldn't get out of bed again until Friday. Being sick in a foreign country makes you appreciate things back home, like mommies, and puppies, and comfy beds, and campbells chicken noodle soup. Spending 3 days in my rock hard bed has really started to wear on my joints! Tonight I managed to go to my one and only class for the day, but I was so exhausted after that short time that I postponed my tutoring session until Sunday, came back and took another nap. I woke up for dinner feeling like I could eat an entire cow (and here that it a possibility depending on what you order) so Lauren and I headed out for my first meal in days. It was fantastic. I am still feeling pretty great even though everyone else in the dorm left for a birthday party and I am stuck here with my netflix and a bottle of wine water. Luckily I have something to look forward to, tomorrow we are headed to Suzhou, which is supposed to be the Venice of the East. A water canal city full of beauty. I can't wait. Hopefully I will post again on Sunday with pictures from the trip.