Hey sleep, it's been real

We're only on our seventh lesson of 32, and my mind is already fried. Immediately after my one-on-one session with a 老师 (teacher), I trekked over to a cozy coffee shop I discovered a little ways from the university. It attracts an interesting mix of local university students and foreigners making their home in Beijing. Better yet, it makes coffee... excellent coffee.

So being in such a cozy place, with a cup of caffeine in front of me and the rest of the day ahead of me, I was feeling pretty good about tackling tomorrow's chapter... until I flipped to the vocabulary list. Today's new characters, to be memorized by tomorrow:

逛 - stroll, ramble, roam

京城 - capital of Beijing

头 - first...

多的是 - there are many of them

胡同儿 - lane, alley

街道 - streets

建筑 - building, architecture

皇帝 - emperor

时代 - times, era, epoch

留 - leave, remain

王府 - prince's mansion (<- why do I need to know this?)

建 - build, establish

无数 - innumerable, countless

保留 - keep, retain, reserve

古老 - ancient

集中 - centralize, put together, gather

朝 - towards, to, facing

排列 - arrange, put in order

整齐 - organized, in good order, neat

划 - delimit, divide

方格子 - square

照相机 - camera

拍 - take (a picture)

照片 - photograph, picture

寄 - send by mail

打的 - take a taxi

故宫 - the Forbidden City

后门 - back door

北海 - Beihai Park

人力 - human labor ( ...umm, hi China)

三轮车 - three-wheeled rickshaw

落后 - backward, less

先进 - advanced

专门 - specially

游客 - tourist

提供 - provide

交通 - transportation, traffic

工具 - tool

纽约 - New York

费城 - Philadelphia (what about Kearney?)

观光 - sightsee, tour

马车 - horse-drawn carriage

蹬 - pedal (a bike, etc.)

冲 - towards, to

嚷 - shout

游 - tour

日记 - diary

阴天 - a cloudy day

东安市场 - Dong'an Market

燕莎 - Yansha Department Store

蓝岛 - Landao Department Store (product placement?)

购物中心 - shopping center

大同小异 - largely identical with minor differences (read: fake)

秀水街 - Silk Market

雅秀 - Yaxiu Market

自由 - free; freedom (oh Mel Gibson)

箱包 - suitcases and bags

齐全 - fully stocked, complete

名牌 - famous brand, name brands

物美价廉 - excellent quality at a low price, bargain buy

并 - actually

杀价 - to bargain the price down

上当 - be taken in, be fooled (<- the fact that they teach this is a bad portent)

受骗 - be deceived, be cheated

酒吧街 - street with bars

酒吧 - bar

据说 - it is said that, they say that

凌晨 - before dawn

灯笼 - lantern

亮 - shine, become light; light

沿着 - along, following

边 - edge, rim, margin

岸 - (river) bank, coast

灯红酒绿 - feasting and revelry, scene of debauchery (<- wait, what?)

弹 - pluck, play (musical instrument)

吉他 - guitar

打麻将 - play mahjong

谈恋爱 - date someone

And that, friends, is today's list of new characters. I wish that was it, but I also have two pages of new grammar structures, written homework to complete, and a dialogue to memorize.

Thank the Lord Almighty I'm not taking this class for a grade.