I stayed up late last night chatting with my friend Chandler on MSN. I proposed my idea of recording ourselves reading native texts and then sending them to each other, so we can both develop our listening comprehension skills. I’m pretty excited about the possibilities.
This morning I set my alarm thirty minutes later than usual to compensate for the night before. Springing from my bed at 645, I showered, went to the Russell House for my daily ritual, and then walked over to the library to continue reading the book Encountering the Chinese: A Guide for Americans. Encountering the Chinese is a pretty useful book; like the title says, it delineates some of the major cultural differences between Chinese and Americans, focusing especially on collectivism vs. individualism. The Chinese word for Individualism is Ge4ren2zhu3yi4 个人主义, but besides meaning individualism it also connotes selfishness. The word for Socialism is she4hui4zhu3yi4 社会主义; 社会 means society. Capitalism in Chinese is zi1ben3zhu3yi4 资本主义. Obviously 主义 means -ism. Another word I learned was tong2zhi4 同志 which means comrade. However, I probably won’t use it too much because Chinese frown upon foreigners using it as a form of address.
Lately I’ve been really nervous about my prospects in going to China. Most likely the government will award me with the NSEP, but even if they do, there are still so many things that could go wrong. I technically won’t be a student at whatever college I end up deferring admission to, but the NSEP requires that a student be matriculated in a four year program at a university. No university, no NSEP. Similarly, the CIEE program, from what I understand, requires me to enroll at Nanjing University as some sort of part time student, but most colleges will not let me defer if I’m concurrently enrolled somewhere. Therefore, Duke or Swarthmore or Pitt or wherever I go will not let me enroll, and I wouldn’t receive the NSEP. Jesus what a mess. I really hope it sorts itself out.
On a lighter note, I’m really happy to be finally writing this blog. It will be a nice place in which to dump all of my thoughts, anxieties and Chinese characters. 
I am preparing to record my first audio sample for Chandler. More updates to come about how that goes.
