My Final Exam for my Chinese class is in two weeks and it's about time because I'm seriously going crazy studying so much. It wouldn't be so bad if I saw progress (like I see when I play guitar or piano) but I feel like my spoken Chinese has gotten much worse, while my listening and reading has improved. I do have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to go out and speak Chinese, but I'll wait to give details on that after things are finalized in a few weeks. If I can feel good about my spoken Chinese after spending a month "out there" I'll feel like I've at least accomplished something these past few months.
It is two months before we travel to Paris where I'll try to be a musician full time. My hands are holding up pretty well, and I'm able to play piano and guitar a few hours every day. It's a slow process, but they are healing up, if ever so slowly. I'm also finally starting to feel like I'm getting my guitar chops back. I don't know what the current "state of guitar" is in Paris, but that's where Django Reinhardt played, so if that's the standard, then I've still got some serious catching up to do.
