I accomplished more today than I have in a long time.

I know it's not much, but I'm proud of myself anyway. Today I:

-survived a half day of standing in front of a class (and at one point the entire student body) of a local school
-made a successful hunting/gathering expedition by train to another town, acquiring a week's worth of vegetarian food and the tools with which to prepare it
-washed and hung up some laundry
-unpacked a bit
-had vaguely coherent conversations with a few people in Chinese
-made myself one of the more satisfying dinners I have had since coming here (fried "pork," creamed corn, bread and a glass of milk... not much talent involved, but it was excellent nonetheless--not to mention almost American!)

Now I plan to unpack some more, chill out, and go to bed. In that order.


On a different note, why does everyone here keep saying that I'm so young, I should be careful? Shirley even thought it was brave of me to take the train down here by myself, which strikes me as odd because it's not like the mass transit system here is infested with bandits (or hobos, as is sometime the case in NYC). I mean, my overall impression of Nanao is that it's pretty safe. Maybe it's just a cultural thing, and people think it's odd for a young woman to live alone so far away from her family? I wonder...