Speaking of Chinese

I forgot to write! I'm sorry! I had a long day yesterday, going to class and then travelling to Chicago.
I started reading that book I bought, the one about the history of Chinese. At least, that's what I thought it was about. It kinda is but it's also about the mechanics of Chinese, which I already know. It was also first published in 1975 and, although it was updated in 2001, they didn't look into the characters.For those who know a little about the history of China or Chinese, Simplified Chinese characters came around the 1970s, clearly after this book was first published, which made it a bit difficult to read. Although the history of Chinese is only covered in one chapter, the later chapters discuss modern Chinese and Chinese calligraphy so they should still be interesting. At least I hope so.
The other book I bought is a grammar book which I had hoped I could skim through and find pieces of grammar I don't understand in class. Unfortunately, the book uses grammar terms in the chapter names, instead of showing which characters are the focus of the chapter. It still looks like a good book and hopefully I'll find time to look through it more thoroughly.
Tomorrow is the Chinese New Year Parade in Chicago's Chinatown. I'm meeting up with my class there to watch it but I think my boyfriend and I will do our own thing. We saw it with friends last year and had a fine time. Afterward, I have to write a paper on my experience for my Chinese class. Oh well, at least I have a reason besides being lame to see it this year!

The book is Speaking of Chinese the 2001 edition by Raymond Chang and Margaret Scrogin Chang.