I like fortune-telling

First Mandarin language class? Check. I ran into some difficulty getting language classes scheduled, which was frustrating. As it turns out, I will only have time to get in three classes before I leave. Bust. But with what I learned yesterday in class #1, I'm set.

Wo xi hua suanming.

Yes, I did just say I like fortune-telling. Clearly I'm on the path to being able to communicate while in Shanghai knowing phrases like this. My tutor, who is great, and I had to laugh at this one. We were practicing saying "I like" and "I don't like", and she pulled out a list of options to select from. They were just pictures and the Chinese characters. I had no idea what a few were, so I selected "suanming", which is apparently fortune-telling. Just let me know if you need any predictions about your life. And let me know if you can figure out basically any of these pics.

I'm definitely getting more excited now that I've spent more time packing and thinking about all that is to come. I predict that this will be a pretty amazing experience ...