Slapdash Claptrap ON!

A quick post because my time is limited...

1) We found an apartment! It's really nice, relatively cheap (about 835 RMB, or US$105, per month), close to our new friend Jinpeng's coffee shop, near our school, clean, spacious, and has hot water. However, it has no beds, no refridgerator, no washing machine. We're working on the beds (we've got a sofa and a sleeping bag to work with), it'll be cold enough soon to store food outside, and we can wash clothes by hand.

2) We're switching down a level in Chinese. Our reasons are:
(a) It's slightly above our heads. We could get by with lots of intense studying, but that would be much less fun in the long run.
(b) Literally all of our classmates are Korean, and half the fun of going to an international school is getting to know people from all over the world, not just Korea.
(c) The East Asian, Confucian educational method of rote memorization and recitation is a drag, yet all of our Korean classmates are used to it. Today, our teacher even said straight out, "Reciting the phrasing of the book is better than summarizing the content in your own words." Thanks a lot, Confucius.

Otherwise, things are good. We've been hanging out with Jinpeng and another American who is passing through on his travels. We also met another Chinese person from Couchsurfing, Kyla, who may have a few leads for us as far as jobs are going.

One note on the apartment buildings. All of the hallway and stairway lights are clappers. You remember those infomercials - "clap on, clap off"? Well, it's that. Make a loud noise, and on goes the hallway light. I like it.

My time has passed. Goodbye for now.