Crime and Punishment

. . .No, I haven't read the book yet, although it also is written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I bought it at a bargain/second=hand bookstore, apparently affiliated with Shir Da University. Since it was used, I got the Penguin books unabridged version for $2.76 Canadian, baby! Ahaha. But I promised myself not to read it 'til I finished reading at least 10 Chinese novels. After all, that's why I'm here in Taiwan, right? To learn Chinese...
. . .Meanwhile, I had to do my report for school... ...read an 'interesting' memory from my childhood -- which was our theme. After I finished reading it, my teacher asked if the other classmates understood what I said. There was a resounding echo of "no..." So my teacher had to basically restate/rephrase basically everything I had said. Yarg. But I'm happy. After class, I asked my teacher what she felt my actual proficiency was. She said that although I didn't know some of the most basic grammar points, my proficiency was quite high -- around "upper intermediate 3", which would be 4/15 proficiency levels higher than my original assessment by the University.
. . .And after talking some more, apparently the university normally *does* have a written test for assessing proficiency, but for some god-forbidden reason, I was 'exempted' from it... ... it's such a big farce, in my opinion... Professionalism at the University level, I mean.
. . .But yah. Test on Monday on some crazy essay. Gotta memorize and learn weird archaic Chinese again. (yay me!) It's been one freakishly hot week since Sunday cuz of the typhoon. (yes, I blame it all on you, typhoon!) But weatherman said it'll be cooler on Sunday... *crosses fingers*