Well it has been much too long since I last posted, and this will be short, but I wanted to say hi anyway and let y'all know what I've been up to:
I tried to post pictures twice but failed twice.
This is our last week of classes but thankfully it is almost all just preparation for finals and finals, no new lessons. Preparing is not too hard, so I am not stressing out about things, and might even actually get normal sleep!
Because of that I spent this whole afternoon on the internet reserving rooms for travel I will do over the break: one week with a fellow student, and two weeks with Jake. Places to see: Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shanghai, Beijing (yes I know I live there but Jake doesn't so we are going to check out the sites for a while, and go to the Great Wall), Qufu (Confucius's hometown), Tai Shan (a mountain) and Qingdao, a place I have already been to and really liked. So if I am a good blogger I will let you know how all of that stuff goes and send pictures.
This past weekend was a lot of fun because I sang karaoke with new Chinese friends, who I met through a fellow student at my program. They are really awesome and I am looking forward to hanging out with them more next semester, practicing Chinese and learning a little bit more about what life is like for Chinese college students, as well as hanging out with cool people, which is the most important. I sang "My Heart Will Go On," by Celine Dion, "Baby One More Time," by Britney Spears, and "Girlfriend," by Avril Lavigne at their request, and some Beatles tunes of my own choosing. It was a great time, but we were there for five hours!!!
Well that's all, back to studying for finals...miss you all!
Well I thought I'd try for pictures once again, and this time achieved success! (sometimes phrases like "achieved success" that sound weird in my English are probably direct translations from Chinese). I think afternoons are the best time to do internet uploads and downloads without interruption. Here are some people I hung out with a lot this semester who are leaving Saturday and I might never see them again. We paid maybe 2.00 US to use this mast to hit this bell 6 times each. It is usually fifty cents or so for three hits--maybe they liked us? This was in Xi'an.
This is a garden at the temple near that crazy building in one of my last pictures. The temple was one of the most peaceful places I have been to in my life.
"Huge wave is dangerous. Don't be closer please." Silly sign posted by request from Ben Gudorf. It was a beautiful day.
Someone asked me once if there was lots of evidence in Beijing that the Olympics were going on. Huge posters like this were everywhere; there are fewer now. They'd often hide construction sites or future constructions sites. Beautification I guess?
The park pavilions often have people hanging out playing music and dancing. I think this is awesome. This is Beihai Park north of the Forbidden City. You can see the lake in the background. That is North Lake or Beihai. Hai is actually sea--I'm not too clear about water names and how that works out in translation...Yao?
