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I got lost on my way to Mass Sunday as I mixed up which bus to get on. Luckily the cab I used to get back on track cost only two U.S. dollars to take me a non-trivial distance. Mass itself was interesting. The only phrase I understood was the "Peace be with you" equivalent "Zhu ni ping an." Amen is just about the same in any language. After Mass I bought a Chinese bible from the attached religious store. It is not at all easy to read but I expected as much.

Later on Sunday there was a yoga/wushu demonstration set up in a nearby park. Unfortunately I got no pictures as the group participated in various exercises. We started with stretching followed by unarmed forms and then forms with two knives a piece. The instructor was very impressive and is also the martial arts instructor for Cet so I figure I'll give his class a shot when next week and the electives roll around. Returning to campus the martial arts were followed by a bunch of games with the roommates specifically invited and lots of group cooperation as well. A fellow student said it reminded him of all the team building in the army.

We have a lot of military sorts here with six members of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis and the army veteran I mentioned before. This is out of only fifty students. We also have six Japanese students most of whom ended up in 260 with me. The naval personnel are mostly higher level probably due to increased pressure in their military school. Most of them are pretty cool anyway though one is the resident loud mouth, it would be me but I'm slow to settle in.

Monday we all swore the language pledge to not speak any English until graduation in December. Violation of this oath more than three times is the end of you in this program. Not that that was an issue for me on day one when I faced my first three hour block of Chinese class and the accompanying three hours of homework. Which actually gives me more free time then when I'm at LC but puts me in a solid Chinese frame of mind.

Today after class I went to the Beijing Zoo which is in walking distance of campus. Most of the exhibits are good and some, such as the pandas, are genuinely impressive. Unfortunately the big cats seem to be housed primarily in small cages with only limited time in the two large expanses outside the artificial "mountain" they are housed in. One of the ostriches seemed to be missing some feathers but oh did they have a diverse supply of tapirs. Tonight I had dinner with my roommate and the ex-army guy whose Chinese name is Ge Wei. We got three delicious and spicy dishes along with rice at a nearby restaurant, along with a huge Yanjing beer apiece. Ge Wei is a level lower then I am in Chinese so I feel a lot less pressured speaking to my roommate around him as I seem knowledgeable by comparison. It also gives me a chance to review old stuff, they say teaching is the best way to learn.

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