我的宿舍（my dorm）and language partner

The building at the center of this picture is my dorm, where myself and the rest of the DSIC kids live, along with some Chinese and alot of other international students. I don't know what I really expected to have here, but this place was not it. We are basically living in a hotel: we have a minifridge, a tv, A.C, a bathroom, and even a screened-in porch. Yesterday I was even surprised by two women coming in to change my sheets. The surrounding area that you can see basically feels like a college town: Beijing is so spread out that the neighborhood is pretty self contained.

In our textbook, we've just finished a few stories about how Americans and Chinese are not alike in their habits, mannerisms, etc. Its interesting how that has lined up for me in some ways but not in others. The students here all have the basic experience that I have had: moving from your hometown to come and live at a college with other people who share your age and interests. However the way the way they approach college is nothing like i've seen before. I know many western students that work hard in their respective spheres (cough cough premeds) but for people at 对外经济贸易大学 (the University of International Business and Economics), the switch doesn't ever turn off. My language partner, a German major from Hebei, all but laughed at me when I suggested taking one weekend off from studying to go out and have fun. He told me very simply that the 压力(pressure) of achievement here is huge: if you don't have the scores for an A level college(of which there are few all in very high demand), you're stuck in a low level job. And if you don't have the college scores for a high level job (of which there are also comparatively few in high demand), you're also stuck in the bush leagues.
Every day we're given questions to ask our language partner to practice our Chinese, and a large amount of them gear towards daily life and attitudes towards America, the world, China, etc. So far I understand that this is the typical life of a student: class from 7:30 or so until 5:00ish and then homework. When thats done theres a chance to review (right now theyre getting close to exam time) and maybe call their parents. If there is TONS of free time, they can maybe wash their clothes or grab a bite to eat with their friends.
As a side note on family--the one child policy is still very much in effect and I have yet to meet someone with siblings. This generally means that parents pin all their hopes on their single child to succeed, often getting extremely involved in their lives (so 贾斌 is very happy to be away from Hebei for awhile). If I ask my language partner what he does for fun, he'll tell me a variety of things: he likes to play basketball, watch tv, go out and have fun, and other standard answers for a young person. The difference is when I ask him when he does them, the answer always involves some degree of transference (I like to play but I'm too busy now, I wish I could do this more, etc).

Gotta go, more later