I stayed up too late reading and as a result my whole day yesterday was out of whack. I did poorly in Chinese class. The truth is that I've gotten to the point where I don't know as many characters as I should to be able to read the dialoge practice we have in class. I keep going out of compassion for the other student. I wouldn't want her to be the only student in the class. Also, I do still learn bits and peices each time I go. It doesn't matter if I learn the characters or not since I'm only auditing the class. However, my teacher expects me to study and learn as if I were taking it for credit. Today is our midterm exam and both teacher and student want me to take it. Sure, whatever. I tried to study last night but I had no interest or energy. I was asleep before 9:30. This morning I plan to try and memorize my oral presentation before I go to class. After all, I'm only interested in learning how to speak, not so much how to read.

Yesterday afternoon Chris went to play basketball with some of the students. They go up to the courts here on campus and pick up games with some of the Chinese students. Basketball is very popular here and the courts are always crowded. On to the point of the story: Chris came home with a black, swollen-shut eye. He bashed heads with another guy and came out for the worst. This morning his eye is still swollen shut, puffy and purple. Looking at him, you think of "Rocky" and the "cut me, coach!" scene.

And of course, tonight we are having company for dinner. I met a neighbor who can speak really good english. It turns out that she is an ecology professor who works at Nanjing University. The wonderful part for us is that she is part of the history department. I told her about Chris working on his dissertation, etc, and she said she'd be happy to help him gain access to the history departments private library. This is a huge deal! I'm sorry Chris will be slightly disfigured for the meeting, but hopefully that won't matter in the long run:)