This last week it’s as if I’ve been living in southeast Asia during monsoon season. I’ve never seen so much continual, heavy rain over the span of a week. Even in Hong Kong, where it can rain every day during typhoon season, there would at least be breaks with some sunshine. But not this past week in DC. Thanks to Tropical Storm Lee, it rained every day. It was a gloomy week weather-wise to be sure. When I walked up the hill to go to campus, it was like there were sheets of rain coming down at me, reminding me of a makeshift current or something. I don’t even want to get into what a mess commuting was when it came to leaving the Tenley area! However, it’s nothing compared to what some counties in nearby Virginia and Maryland got, not to mention the instances of coastal (or flash) flooding in the mid-Atlantic and northeast regions.

But hey, right now it seems that good ol’ Lee has passed over the DC region for good. The sun is out as I’m writing this and I’m glad it’s decided to grace us with its presence. Sun, I’ve missed you.

Last night I went out to KTV with a group of friends. It was fun, and probably the closest thing to KTV in China I’ve found in the US. (Not that I’ve searched a lot of places, but I was a little surprised that the Maryland suburbs offered more “authentic” KTV than Chicago’s Chinatown.) It made me miss China a lot, though; it was so similar yet it wasn’t the same. But what can you do when you’re not actually IN China? You take what you can get

Well, the first week of the semester has come and gone. (Someone on Twitter said we only have 35 more weeks until graduation – but I am NOT going to think about that.) I’ve gotten through this week without mishap and have really enjoyed everything I have on my plate for the semester. This is excellent because I am really busy, so if I didn’t like what I was doing I would probably just give up and start crying or something.

Here’s a rundown of all that I’m doing this semester:

• Five classes (a full course load of 16 credits comprising of two comm-related courses, a marketing class, a science GenEd requirement, and a Chinese class)
• Working in the Career Center as the Lead Peer Adviser (roughly 11 hours a week)
• Interning at Amnesty International’s media relations department (two days a week)

Busy, right? Luckily I have most evenings free as well as weekends, so I am managing to find the time for homework, sleep, and a social life. My schedule this semester actually reminds me of my schedule as an immersion student in Beijing. I have the same time commitments; the only difference is that now my commitments spread across a variety of things rather than just class every day.

Still, I’m glad it’s the weekend, and a long weekend at that. While my plans aren’t that exciting (they mainly comprise of catching up on sleep, homework, readings, cooking, and cleaning) it’s still nice to be able to relax and unwind at my own pace.