CHINA! Week 1
I like walking in the rain when the weather is warm. Although the last time it rained here was Tuesday. I take back what I said about Beijing being humid. The last few days the sky's been mainly clear and sunny and baking.
I have a bike! I loooove to bike. The wind blows and the scenery is pretty and it's like flying. Bike was 140 yuan, which is approximately $17-18 US. (The exchange rate is about 8 yuan to $1US) I'm selling it back at the end of our stay in Beijing. I get a basket too (no speeds though)! Fun times.
Classes have been alright. I can already see improvement in my Chinese because I'm forced to communicate with the locals in the stores and restaurants and bargaining. Also, we all got language partners, whom are Beijing U students. I had to concentrate for such a long time when we met them on Thursday to make sure I wasn't missing anything when she asked me questions in Chinese. It made my head tired. I'm glad she talks a lot because that means I don't have to think of as many topics to talk about. I'm also taking Taichi and Chinese brush painting for extracurriculars. I didn't think I'd be able to wake up at 6:30 in the morning for Taichi (considering I usually wake up about noon at home) but so far it hasn't been too bad. We've had 2 classes. We'll see how next week goes now that I've more or less gotten over the jetlag.
Yesterday night we went to some kind of shady Middle Eastern/West China restaurant. The food was good, but the entertainment... kind of touristy, in a shady way. Oh well. You can dance on the tables.
Today was church. The Chinese government doesn't really allow the locals to go to church, so this one was only for foreigners. It was really cool though, because it was this huge theater full of people from all over the world. They don't let people be full time pastors here either, so our speaker for today was an English businessman.
I also bought 600ml of Shishedo bath soap today for around $7 US. Man, it felt so expensive when I was getting it because the other soaps were only like, $1 US and the Shishedo tag said 50 yuan. But, on the plus side, I smell so good I want to take a bite out of myself.
What a big update! I should go now, I still need to study and sleep. Greetings from China! I need to buy postcards. Have fun at AX y'alls.
I have a bike! I loooove to bike. The wind blows and the scenery is pretty and it's like flying. Bike was 140 yuan, which is approximately $17-18 US. (The exchange rate is about 8 yuan to $1US) I'm selling it back at the end of our stay in Beijing. I get a basket too (no speeds though)! Fun times.
Classes have been alright. I can already see improvement in my Chinese because I'm forced to communicate with the locals in the stores and restaurants and bargaining. Also, we all got language partners, whom are Beijing U students. I had to concentrate for such a long time when we met them on Thursday to make sure I wasn't missing anything when she asked me questions in Chinese. It made my head tired. I'm glad she talks a lot because that means I don't have to think of as many topics to talk about. I'm also taking Taichi and Chinese brush painting for extracurriculars. I didn't think I'd be able to wake up at 6:30 in the morning for Taichi (considering I usually wake up about noon at home) but so far it hasn't been too bad. We've had 2 classes. We'll see how next week goes now that I've more or less gotten over the jetlag.
Yesterday night we went to some kind of shady Middle Eastern/West China restaurant. The food was good, but the entertainment... kind of touristy, in a shady way. Oh well. You can dance on the tables.
Today was church. The Chinese government doesn't really allow the locals to go to church, so this one was only for foreigners. It was really cool though, because it was this huge theater full of people from all over the world. They don't let people be full time pastors here either, so our speaker for today was an English businessman.
I also bought 600ml of Shishedo bath soap today for around $7 US. Man, it felt so expensive when I was getting it because the other soaps were only like, $1 US and the Shishedo tag said 50 yuan. But, on the plus side, I smell so good I want to take a bite out of myself.
What a big update! I should go now, I still need to study and sleep. Greetings from China! I need to buy postcards. Have fun at AX y'alls.