18 years of schooling to be illiterate and mute

So, things have been going pretty well here. I had my first class and dinner downtown with some friendly English majors.

Class went pretty well, after racing through my material (which I thought would last the entire 100 minutes of class) it all worked out in the end. The night before, I met with the girl who had been so nice to me the first day I was here and her two roomates. We had dinner at this place with a burner in the middle of the table with a pot with water and a few vegetables inside. They picked a bunch of random items to throw in to cook periodically. It was very tastey- I really liked the toufu that was in three inch long strips. But there were also potatoes and I even picked up a tiny boiled egg with my chopsticks (which cramp my hands by the end of a meal).

Today I have off entirely and really had no incentive to leave the apartment- except I knew I needed groceries. I finally headed out the door, but now that I was on my own I realized how little I could really figure out on my own. I'd completely lost my safety net. Not only was I incapeable of saying any more to people other than "hello" and "thank you" I could not read what anything was once I got inside the store. I had my dictionary, so if I really wanted to I could've pointed to "apple" or something (which in fact is one word I do not need to look up..) but there were so many people working there and I didn't want to try and say anything to anyone, I just wanted to attempt to figure out what enough products were so I wouldnt have to come back to the store for a few days. I bought milk- mostly because it said "milk" on the package. Some of the crackers had appealing wrappers. The egg noodles had English instructions on the back. But then I went a little wild. I bought dumplings, without even knowing how the steamer works in my apartment.. or even if it truly is a steamer. I bought toufu, with full knowledge that some is spicy and some is sweet and I really didnt want it to be spicy. Well, these crisp sandwhich biscuits with milk(?) filling are pretty yummy. I also got this very popular herbal tea in a can I see advertized everywhere and have had twice at restaurants since I arrived.

The bottom line: I am going to learn Mandarin Chinese this afternoon.