More Pictures Deng Deng

Tiananmen Square. I didn't get any really great pictures because this was the same day as the park trip and by this time I was exhausted--also there was nowhere to sit down. It's basically just a huge open space surrounded by museum-y type buildings with lots of people milling around and a big ol' picture of Chairman Mao on the front of the Tiananmen--the building in this picture.
This is part of the gardens in Tiananmen Square built for the Olympics. They are really pretty, and the reason there are not a million people in this picture is that it is actually separated off by that yellow line. In other areas the yellow line was closer, so you couldn't get a picture without a million peoples' heads in the way.
This is St. Joseph's or the Dongtang Cathedral. You can read a little bit about it's history here. It was closed when we went but I'd like to go back when it is open sometime.
Okay this is a huge statue of Yao Ming on a building. Yeah. I am thinking it is just for the Olympics, but we'll see.
And these are the infamous scorpions (and sea horses) fried on a stick. No, I did not eat them. I probably won't. But you can buy these on a street where you can buy many kinds of food on sticks, like really delicious looking roasted corn.

Well that was pictures for today. We had our first test which wasn't too hard, and then I spent today mostly resting from the long week. I also washed my clothes by hand because it seems the washing machine will stretch them out or something, so it's only good for t-shirts and jeans. My digestive system hasn't been happy for like a week now, but it's not a huge problem. I am going to cook my own food for the first time tomorrow so I can start to get more vegetables in my diet. Oh! And I am taking two extracurriculars taught by our ACC teachers--Chinese cooking and taichi. Also, we met our Chinese host mom. She was very nice but communication is kind of hard. Hopefully I'll get to do some cool stuff with her family.

This week I spent so much time in my room studying that I barely realized I was in China. I hope there will be more time for interacting with people and exploring as I get more accustomed to my work.