The Fake Weekend, Arrived

First and foremost I want to say thanks to all of you who have read and/or commented. I read all the comments, I just can't really comment back (the censorship thing). And yes, Jeff, that was Ms. Key (our ridiculous middle school bus driver) up in the front.

Anyway, we just finished our first week of classes, or rather, mayhem. The main problem was that I agreed to go with a few classmates to the bank on last Wednesday (we're backtracking a bit). We arrived on the prior Friday. Thus I went more that 5 days on $25. Don't get me wrong, I love the exchange rate (8:1), but the lack of cash just makes living a little less...comfortable. Especially when you need money for a) internet access, b) a fan (no A/C, so you have to have a fan to sleep well), c) shower towel, d) cell phone and SIM card, e) sense of where everything is...oh yea, and f) food. Obviously something had to give--so yes, I bought the towel and the food for the time being.

What added to the stress level was the fact that I tested too well in my placement test. Every student had to take an oral and written exam a day after we arrived. Apparently I tested pretty well. So well I was put in classes I shouldn't have been in. This led to 7 1/2 hours of class on Tuesday trying out pretty much every other class offered. Let me just say that speaking a language you're not fluent in is pretty tiring. It's like being a translator 24/7. Thus, after 7 1/2 hours of turning my mind into mush, I just wanted to eat dinner alone, and not talk or think (I ended up getting invited out by a classmate...jeez).

So when Wednesday arrived , I was exhausted, poor, and worried that I wasn't going to make it out alive (might be an exaggeration). After paying a visit to the banker, I am now all settled in, with internet access (I no longer have to go to one of the smokey internet cafes, full of college students playing World of Warcraft), a fan, and my sanity. Thus, to me, Wednesday was the "fake" weekend.

Note: the first picture is my room in the early stages, behind that curtain is a big window that we leave open so that we don't suffocate/sweat to death. The second picture is where all of our classes, which are just under 2 hours long apiece, take place.