你好，好久不见!

Taking an intensive language course is definitely an interesting change of pace from my usual computer science stuff - especially after a whole semester of nothing but numbers and lines of java code.

Thinking quickly on the spot is not something I'm been used to. When the professor asks a question in Chinese class, in a split second you're expected to put together all the relevant vocabulary, arrange them in the correct grammatical format, and then pronounce them as accurately as possible following their tone marks. I still speak sentences in a choppy manner, but I'm getting there.

Speaking of tone marks, holy crap Chinese people are super sensitive about that stuff. I tried speaking the little bit that I knew to some of my friends, and they ripped my pronunciation apart over the smallest things. Tone marks are some hard shit, I don't think I'll ever get them right in my life.

It's nice and all that I'm finishing off my arts credits in a month, but it not any good that I hardly have time to work on my Android project. The thing about languages is that you're never done studying. There's always something more to work on, there's always some aspect of the language, whether it's speaking, writing, character memorization, etc. that you're not quite up to speed on. My little Android apk remains an app that only displays a white page, with no functionality yet. I thought I'd be able to take on both Chinese and computer science at the same time like a champ, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

The very least I can do is work out the preliminary planning for my app and think up possible problems I'll run into beforehand to make the actual coding part as smooth as possible.

In other news, my mom will be going to Korea for a week or two. Her dad has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's, so she wants to see him before he is unable to recognize her. Nothing's stopping her, not even the $1200 + tax round trip ticket price and living expenses - understandable, as she wasn't able to see her mom before the passed away.

And also in other news, my sister has decided to go to UBC Okanagan and become a nurse. Not bad, not bad. The Okanagan nursing program has been pretty competitive over the past year or so, so it's nice that she got in. She's not the most academically driven girl I've seen, but she's some strong drive. She took over her high school's MUN club and turned it into something with reputation, as opposed to the shitty, poorly-managed club that I attended when I was in grade 12. It's always fun to see her kick out a member who hasn't been regularly attending meetings.

That's it for today's blog post. 再见。I'll finish it off with a link to one of the most magical songs I've ever listened to in recent memory. Brought to you my the one and only Daft Punk.