Today I discovered why the box my sister sent me for my birthday didn't arrive when it was supposed to (last Friday). Of course, as it turns out, maybe it did arrive last Friday - but nobody told me. It was sitting out in the security guard's office out front, right where the postman delivered it - just nobody told me, and if my friend's roommate hadn't told me, "Oh! Your package is probably in the security guard's office," and hadn't gone with me to find it (and there it was!), I still wouldn't have it. I mean, basically, unless you know that someone is going to send you something, and know where to go look for it, you're not going to get it. Kind of an illogical system. But a lot of things in China are like that!
The box was worth waiting for, however. It not only contained a beer bottle cozy shaped like a Patriots jersey, and fun lip gloss from Trish McEvoy, but it had THREE trashy magazines and the most recent copy of the Economist, a bag of M&Ms, a bag of correctly-flavored Cheetos, and the Necco candy hearts that say "FAX ME" and taste like chalk. (As a result, I learned how to say "chalk" in Chinese). My classmates were all very eager to catch up on the latest Britney pregnancy rumors and Lindsay Lohan rehab drama - not to mention the Justin/Cameron split. Just to let you know how far out of touch the Chinese are from the latest US drama - my roommate, looking at the pictures of Justin and Cameron on the front of US Weekly, asked me who they were. I mean, it's Justin Timberlake! She did know who Britney Spears is, however, and also noticed that she'd gotten fatter. She thinks that Sienna Miller looks old, and that Germans are more attractive than Americans (of course, she was looking at a picture of Heidi Klum when she said that). Right now, she is in our room flipping through the pages looking at the dresses. I am in the computer lab, procrastinating. I have a very, very many paged review worksheet waiting for me back in the room, and I REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to do it. Of course, the only magazine I have left to read now is the Economist, and I'm worried that if I start it now I'll fall asleep. I have to be really awake to get through the Economist.
Tomorrow morning we have three classes of review, and then tomorrow afternoon I have to start writing my essay which I also REALLY REALLY REALLY don't want to do because it will be AWFUL. Of course, all I have to do is write 800 characters of horrible Chinese, muddle through a written exam, stumble awkwardly through an oral exam, and then I'm DONE! hooray. ok... doing actual work starts... now!
