1 week away

i go back and forth being excited about my birthday and being bummed that i'll be away from my family for the first time. i haven't said that to anyone here except keith because it's kind of insulting to insinuate that hanging out with friends here might not seem special enough, but i'm a family-oriented girl and that's just how it is. birthday cards came in the mail today from mutti, aunt margy and uncle john & aunt kathy, thanks guys :)

jerry and i went to chinese lesson #1 with bobo this morning. we learned the pinyin system which is the english spelling of chinese words. i learned it at work, so i was a little ahead. we also learned a few words/phrases. joyce sat in my lap for part of it which was cute.
learn chinese with megan:
zao is the pinyin (zow) - good morning
ni hao (nee how) - how are you?
xiexie (shay shay) - thank you
duibuqi (dway-bu-chee) - sorry, excuse me
meiguanxi (may-gwan-shee) - don't worry about it, not a problem
bi (bee) - pen
guo (gwo) - dog
wo xi huan (woe she hwan) - i like ...
...i don't know the others well enough yet to officially post them. flash cards this weekend. after that, we'll be in business.

went to lunch at latini's with serena, who had never been. she's been here 3 weeks longer than me. we split pizza, lemonade and an espresso with ice cream. danny noticed that i was using more chinese than usual so i told him what i learned today.

class was in a secret room that no one knew existed.
mr. kuo/huo/? and mrs. chan were happy to see me. also told them what i learned.
while i was waiting for the bus, some weirdo guy tried to give me a ride and told me the bus doesn't come this late, i told him that it did, and it came 20 seconds later.
saw a guy on the bus with 'ASS' written in pink and purple on his hat.
chatted with jeffy for a bit on skype.
watched project runway season 5, episode 4 (why didn't they send daniel home?)
andd now i'm going to bed because i have to leave the dorm at 9 to go to a workshop that you'll hear about tomorrow.

p.s. did you see hillary's speech at the DNCC? did you see michelle obama's dress? gooo obama!