So I think I've bascially settled into a routine. It goes something like this:  7:00 am: wake up and eat breakfast (I think I've finally adjusted to the time difference, since I'm not waking up at 3 am every night anymore, whoo!). My host parents are usuallly still asleep, so I either eat alone or with my host sister. If it's just me, food is left out for me on the table by the time I wake up. It's always good food; I've eaten everything from french baguettes to zong zi (a type of sticky rice dish wrapped in leaves)     7:30: head out the door for class. I have a fifteen minute walk to class. This would be absolutely fantastic if it wasn't for the 100 some degree temperatures. It's absolutely sweltering here, and the humidity and pollution doesn't help. By the time I get home from school, I feel like I'm dying. At times, it literally feels like you're swimming through the air. How some of the locals are still going around in long pants and shirts is beyond me. Still, I really enjoy my walking time, especially when my host sister Yan Yun walks with me.                                                                                                  8:00 am: Start classes. It lasts for four hours- the first two consists of learning reading and writing, the next two consists of learning to speak, etc. We watched a panda movie in class today in Chinese, it was pretty entertaining.  12:00: lunch. This is usually catered food from local restaurants 1:00: culture class: So far, this has included a class on Chinese Tea, Paper Cutting, Chinese Painting, and Chinese Folk Songs After culture class, school is dismissed, and we're free to do what we want. However, some days there are organized field trips, like the tour of Shanghai I posted about earlier. Usually, I hang out with friends for a while before heading home. We've hit up some Shanghai malls, and just generally explored the city.  6:30: dinner with my host family. Often, their relatives come over for dinner, which is always fun because they're an extremely talkative and entertaining group of people.  11:00: shower and lights out I'm really enjoying my host family, I feel like I'm already good friends with my host sister. Having an understanding of the language helps a ton- a lot of my American friends who don't speak Chinese well have said sitting at a silent dinner table is rather awkward. I'm not sure if I can pass for a native or not- while one lady stopped me on the street to ask for directions (which made me laugh), another lady at the jewelry counter finally came over to ask if I was Chinese after giving me sidelong glances for a while. She was shocked when I told her both of my parents were Chinese, because she said I looked like I had white features. Maybe it's my tan- I'm already pretty tan to begin with, even by American standards. However, here in China where girls carry around umbrellas to avoid the sun, my skin color kinda sticks out.  Tomorrow I'll be going karaoking for the first time. That's a huge pastime here. I've rented out a private room with some of my American friends, so we'll see how that goes. I'll be going again on Saturday with my friend Garett, his host brother, and my host sister.  Lastly and most importantly, I think my Chinese is definitely improving. Being surrounded by it constantly helps a lot; I'm excited to see how fluent I'll be by the end of six weeks!