After two days of late nights and alcohol, I was pretty exhausted, but I take comfort in my routines. The French guy at the hostel is pretty amped to get in shape, and I’ve somehow found myself serving as his personal trainer. So, while I was trying quietly study in the morning, I ended up doing several sets of pushups and teaching him how to do shoulder presses.
I extended my stay at the hostel for a second time, but I needed to move rooms. I’m not quite sure if it is an upgrade or not. I’m downstairs now, so its more convenient to make coffee in the morning. I have a lower bunk, and there is enough room under the bed to slide my suitcase under (as opposed to be amidst a pile of suitcases. The bed also doesn’t creak and groan with every movement, but if anyone is staying up late watching a movie or talking, I can hear every word.
I decided to actually cook some proper food, sourcing a few ingredients at a neighborhood mart and making a simple kimchi-dofu soup. It isn’t exactly cost effective, but I feel at least it is healthier.
I did another run in the afternoon and spent some time in a brand new “Mega Coffee” (a budget chain here that advertises extra espresso, though I certainly couldn’t tell). After eating some tonkatsu for dinner, I came back to find When Harry Met Sally playing and ended up watching that.
So most of the people hanging around the hostel are at least nominally interested in learning a language. Obviously, Korean is the main topic, though one girl who already speaks Korean has decided on Arabic. Watching people study, or more accurately watching people trying to teach each other languages is driving me crazy. It literally takes only an hour to learn the Korean alphabet, yet people are approaching it like it is pre-Rosetta stone hieroglyphics. I actually had to force one guy to “graduate” from mindlessly studying Korean letters over a period of several weeks to looking at them in the context of real words. (“You still get to practice the letters, but you also get to learn a few practical words at the same time.”). He was teaching the Arabic alphabet last night when I was going to bed and — bismillah — I had some opinions, which I kept to myself. Is it mansplaining if you are actually an expert? Being a native speaker doesn’t make you an expert.
| Groceries | 12150 W |
| Mega Coffee | 2500 W |
| Tonkatsu | 9500 W |
| 6 more nights | 351 RMB |
| Power charger & chocolate | 10000 W |
| Total: | 557.6 RMB (USD 82.3) |
Running Total: 5042 RMB (USD 744)
Daily Average: 280 RMB
(USD 41.3)