Eh, I'm Bad at Titles

So technically, I can still count and could entitle this post Weekend 2 aka the Weekend after Week 1, but that seemed boring. So I came up with a better one, you know, or not. I'll work on it, I promise. Ok let's see, on to the actually (maybe) interesting things: on Friday, I had my first test, language practicum and Chinese table. The test went well and was out of the way by 10am so the relaxing part of the weekend started nice and early. After everyone finished the test, every week we have a different activity for the Chinese language practicum (语言实践), which is in essence just a school organized outing to practice using our Chinese with real Chinese people. Anyways, this week we went to a Chinese university to talk/interview and have lunch with Chinese college students. I and a group of five other ACC students ended up, funnily enough, at McDonald's with two really nice Chinese student s.  Originally we were going to go to a Korean restaurant above their school's cafeteria, but since it was closed they took us to Mickey D's since it is apparently not only a popular place to go study and talk with friends, but it is also about ten times more comfortable than anywhere else they might have taken us. I don't know if this was true or not, but it was funny that they figured we wouldn't want to get Chinese food.  We talked for a couple hours about the World Cup and food in general, and then they taught us some Chinese slang, hopefully going shopping with the girl I talked to more sometime after they go on summer break next week.  Usually lunch on Fridays would be Chinese table (中文桌子) where you eat with the teachers, but since we met with the Chinese students that was our replacement meal.  Friday after getting back from the other university, I took the subway with Faith and Julia to Hou Hai which is the district roughly surrounding the Drum Tower that has tons of hu tongs (胡同) -- which are little alleyways with lots of shops and places to eat, they're also really old so have that great old architectural style -- and is really fun to poke around.  We basically just walked and talked for awhile going in and out of the many alleyways.  That night, I met my Chinese host family with Adam, the other ACC student who shares a family with me.  Actually, it was only the mom who came since the dad was working and the son was playing basketball.  At some point we're supposed to grab a meal with all of them, but the son has class every day (including Saturday and Sunday) so so far no plans.  Later I went with some friends to the expat district to watch the last half of Brazil-Netherlands game which was particularly exciting and full of goal shots and goals. All the Chinese people in the audience got super excited anything interesting happened which made for a really fun atmosphere.

Saturday: Despite the intense heat, since I had woken up relatively early (meaning my roommate was still asleep) I decided to take the day to explore a bit and took the subway up to Yong He Gong (雍和宫) which is the Chinese for the Lama Temple in Beijing. The temple is really beautiful with some great Buddha statues and the sweet scent of incense. I too took the opportunity to burn some incense and pay my respects - it was a very calming experience even if it was also a crowded, hot and humid one. The last temple of the long stretch had a 18 meter tall Buddha that also extended 8 meters underground carved from a single piece of sandalwood. Unfortunately, no pictures allowed, so you will all just have to go see for yourselves :) Afterwards, I walked over to Kong Miao (孔庙), the Confucius Temple, which was much smaller and less crowded than Yong He Gong, but also an interesting place to wander around. Almost faded stones with the writing of Confucius and his followers that are hundreds of years old are scattered throughout. There's also a massive three-doored gate and large main building with the memorial/monument (not sure what the technical name is) to Confucius surrounded by smaller ones for his main followers/fellow scholars. Last stop for the day in that same area was Di Tan Park (地坛公园) which gave me some time to sit down and relax in the shade for a bit; I even got a little homework done.  Di Tan has a really beautiful garden that is oriented around healthy living so it has four sections (wind, water, earth, fire (think feng shui)) and information everywhere about what is good for different parts of the body - I don't remember much of the information but it was also just great as a garden in and of itself, lots of locals hanging out with families and friends.  When I got back, I ended up with eating dinner, talking and laughing with Kirsten ( a fellow Williams ACC student) about all sorts of random stuff while drinking some chrysanthemum tea. A nice physically relaxing end to a mentally relaxing day. (And this time I remembered my camera so as soon as I find/buy a camera cord I will post pictures.)

Sunday: Technically this should have been an all work no play kind of day but since I actually didn't have too many vocabulary words to learn for Monday and got a large chunk of my essay done during the morning, I had plenty of time to spend with an aunt (not actual aunt, close family friend) who is in Beijing for six weeks teaching English and studying Mandarin. Since we were coming from opposite sides of the city, we decided to meet at Oriental Plaza which the Wang Fu Jing subway stop exits right into.  After walking around a bit trying to find the Food Court area, we decided on getting some hot pot - my first of this trip. Ah, so delicious - lots of different kinds of veggies and tofu plus a little bit of spice. Having probably eaten too much, we decided to take a walk before coming back for some of the delicious looking shaved ice.  At the far end of the mall from where we had been we stopped for a bit to watch a soccer juggling demonstration before walking towards the back end of the mall for a stroll outside in and out of some of the hutongs back there. Since the heat was fairly sweltering (although mitigated slightly by shade and an occasional, very nice breeze) after being out for a bit, we went into a little coffee shop for a rest (got my first milk tea of the trip, also very yummy).  Having stayed in the nice air conditioned, comfy seats for awhile sipping our "small" (read, quite large) teas, we went back into the heat for a short 'nother tour 'round the neighbor before heading back in for that shaved ice (mangoes with green tea ice cream).  All in all, it was a great day - lots of delicious food and it was great to get to talk (from learning Chinese to grandparents to Taiwan and back) and spend time with Auntie Donna, who I usually only see a couple times a year (note to self: remember to ask her about restaurant recommendations when I get back to the States).  Ended the day with finishing up my homework (not nearly as fun) and listening to some new Chinese music (have yet to look up the lyrics so I have no idea what they are singing about...it's fun) and writing this.

The end. (Phew.)