i pick a path through the bicycle carcasses that is our dorm parking lot. i find mine, unlock it, and rush to class. it is my first day. we watch eat drink man woman. i see a fish slaughtered by chopsticks down its throat, unhappy family dinners, rigid father. i mount my bike again. now my life is 206 rhymes and 51 finals, arranged under 36 initials, 4 grades, 4 tones, and empty circles with countless footnotes. i wish i could stay longer in this world--much longer--but it's 12:15 and i have to go. flying through the cold again, heading back. i speak my mother tongue. now food. now equations that i can barely understand. now rest.

we have dinner at 小李水餃. it's fat tuesday, which means i eat more in spirit, if not in reality. tomorrow, fast. i wish i had people to fast with. the evening is filled with reading, and too little time.