Hey everyone! This past week was very, very cold. We've had some rain on and off for the past few weeks, but this past week we finally ended up with some snow. It wasn't much, but it was wet enough that using my umbrella in the snow didn't feel as weird as it should have. Luckily there wasn't too much snow, but it did mean that the bus to school was way more packed than usual. And usual is so packed that you're pressed up against at least two other people, so instead of being packed like sardines, it was more like compacted brown sugar. I almost missed my stop that day because I was having so much trouble getting to the door. At first, the attendant woman (most of the buses have a ticketing person ... read more

Hey everyone! This past week was the week of midterms, so it was filled with lots of late nights (later than usual, that is). Also I will admit that there was the normal obligatory last-minute studying involved. After the exam on Friday morning, though, we all breathed a collective sigh of relief, and celebrated by going to get 15元 burritos. Friday night, I went with my music class to a concert. A Mongolian alt-rock concert, that is. Originally, we were all a bit wary of what it would be like, especially since we found out about it super last-minute (Wednesday evening). It was actually super fun, though! Mongolian alt-rock is very interesting as it is an odd mix of traditional Mongolian instruments and sounds with western instruments and more modern rock sounds. One of the prominent ... read more

Hey everyone! This past week we took a plane and met up with some of the Shanghai kids in Qinghai. Qinghai is much farther north than Beijing, and is also at a much higher elevation (on average 9,800 ft above sea level). However, because we left early Sunday morning, we had half a day to ourselves so we ended up visiting a Tibetan medicine museum. Inside was the world's longest thangka (a traditional form of painting on a cloth tapestry) that at 618 meters took 100 people 3 years to complete. Thangkas are traditionally painted to tell stories about the Buddhist religion, and they are always super detailed. The next day, we met up with the Shanghai kids from the Intensive Language and 21st Century City programs (apparently they have a total of 40+ kids spread ... read more

Hey everyone! I guess I should start off with saying that the most interesting part of my week was getting a tattoo. Yep, a real tattoo. I've been planning on getting this tattoo for a little over a year now, so it wasn't a on-the-spot thing at all, but I had been originally planning to wait until after graduation to get any tattoos. Yeah, that didn't quite work out. It started when Ian mentioned that he wanted to get a tattoo (紋身 wénshēn) while in China. I thought about it, and figured China would be as good a place as any to get my tattoo, since the style I wanted is originally Chinese (see picture). So on Tuesday Ian and I went to a couple of nearby tattoo shops to inquire about prices/safety with one of ... read more

Hi everyone! First off, I would like to report that Tanya (and Sabrina) made it safely to Japan! It sounds like they're in for a fun semester! (Unlike me, studying my butt off at all hours of the day here in Beijing...) Anyways, Friday marked the end of our first two weeks of classes! Us intensive students celebrated by having our first of many biweekly tests... so much fun, you know? The students not in the intensive language program only have the midterms and finals, but as an intensive student, I'm in for a lot of tests. The test was broken into a speaking and a written portion. The speaking portion was relatively easy, because we were allowed to choose a topic from those we have studied so far (four; one for each chapter we've completed) ... read more