I’m only able to post week 4 now as this entire past week I’ve been in Inner Mongolia and have not had a proper chance to sit down and reflect on/write about my experiences. While I’ll use week 5’s post to discuss my time in 内蒙古, I’ll use this post to discuss my final week of the “first semester” of HBA and my general thoughts on the program up until now. Largely, my outlook on everything has stayed consistent since my week 3 post. I am still loving the program and am always in awe regarding the speed at which my Chinese is improving. One thing I did find, however, was that this particular week I began experiences brief episodes where I felt an utter lack of motivation to continue studying. While I’m sure this is a normal part of any student’s experience at an intensive language program like this, I fear that if I don’t keep finding ways to make myself busy I’ll hazard slipping into such a mindset once again. Luckily, between preparing for Inner Mongolia and my midterms the end of the week was so hectic that I snapped right back into proper form and finished the week on a high note. Going forward into the second semester, though, I’ll try and incorporate some extra habits into my daily routine to ensure I can stay motivated and hungry for more knowledge.