Yes Mr. Pavlov, You Rang?

Week 3 at Harvard Beijing Academy is almost complete.

It's amazing how quickly we've all settled into our routines...

6:00 AM: cell phone rings; wake up, shower, study new characters for today's lesson, finish last-minute homework issues, eat something.

7:30 AM: get ready to leave

7:40 AM: leave dorm for classroom building

7:45 AM: arrive at classroom, find a seat and review characters until...

8:00 AM: 听写 tingxie, or "hear-write;" our teacher dictates a sentence using about 3 of the day's 50-70 new terms, and we write out the characters --must hand in immediately along with last night's homework-- then class follows

9:15 AM: a 老师 laoshi (teacher) walks down the hall ringing a bicycle bell; break!

9:25 AM: bell rings; back to our small diction class

9:50 AM: bell rings; break!

9:55 AM: I buy a cup of tea/instant coffee and a pastry for about 75¢

10:10 AM: bell rings; small class begins, we review grammar structures like crazy

11:00 AM: bell rings; break!

11:10 AM: bell rings; back to those grammar structures

12:00 PM: bell rings; class dismissed!!

12:10 PM: arrive at the cafeteria; order chicken fried rice, kung pao chicken, or chicken with broccoli, along with a bottle of water

12:50 PM: return to my dorm; begin memorizing today's lesson recitation

2:10 PM: walk to classroom building

2:25 PM: bell rings; one-on-one with a 老师 begins by reciting today's snippet from the lesson

3:15 PM: bell rings; class dismissed for the day!

3:30 PM: return to my dorm and study tomorrow's lesson/ (Mon.) learn Chinese karaoke songs/ (Wed) listen to a speaker/ (Th) learn Chinese calligraphy

5:00 PM: return to dorm and continue studying*; eventually go grab some dinner *note: sometimes, when I'm feeling particularly energetic, I'll make it all the way to a coffeeshop to study... this normally occurs on a weekend morning/afternoon

7:00 PM: pretend to go back to studying but mess around on the internet

8:00 PM: actually go back to studying

12:00 AM: pass out until I hear the cell phone ring, then do it all over again

I might never be ok with hearing a bicycle bell ring again.