Graduation

So I know no one is reading at this point...four months after the fact...but I'm doing this more for my sake than for anyone else. Kind of just want to remember what went down while it's still semi-clear in my head. Anyway, I finished up the semester, and I figured my grades would be okay (about 3 months after graduation I found out my actual grades, which is a ridiculous amount of time considering Vandy is CET's biggest customer). It was really a great feeling to have all that over with and see the huge improvements. Some of the teachers gave speeches, as well as the head of CET Harbin, Ren Laoshi (in the first picture), and they were actually pretty meaningful. Ren Laoshi was awesome. I secretly had a crush on her...not really, but sort of. She was an awesome teacher--so nice about everything, and always tried to make every interaction with her a learning experience. But anyway, I usually tune those speeches out and stare off into space, but this time I actually listened. Maybe it was just because they were speaking Chinese and I had to listen closely, but whatever.

They brought the food out, which, for the most part was pretty horrible. Ding Lobi and I had this thing (not sure what it was), and it was probably the worst taste I've ever tasted. At the end of the ceremony--after receiving our diplomas--the language pledge was lifted, and we could speak English again. It was kind of awkward. Some people's voices sounded a lot different when they spoke English, and actually, at our table we continued to speak Chinese because at least half the people sitting there were Chinese, and communication was just easier that way.

But before all this, they gave awards for the person who most stuck to the language pledge, which was Hu Ketong. On the way to graduation he was drank a pint of beer...10:00 in the morning...that's awesome. That award was decided by peer voting, and a few friends and I wrote in Robbie Smith, aka Ding Lobi, who frequently--almost absurdly often--violated the language pledge. It was pretty funny. And there were other awards, such as Most Improved. I didn't get any of them--not really that surprised. It was crazy to think back to the time eight weeks earlier when I walked into the room with 30 odd people who looked like they were going to embarrass me back into 5th grade with their intense Chinese. At graduation this same group of people were (pretty much) all my friends, and some of them very good friends...In the second picture I'm with Huang Lin, probably one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He was always willing to drop whatever he was doing just to talk or hang out. I could definitely take a lesson from him. So yea, I definitely gained a lot more than just better Chinese in Harbin.