On and On and On

I've been trying to cook at home as much as possible, but a little pricy here. Depending on where I eat, it might be cheaper to eat out then to stay home and cook.

I just finished my first week with a full class load of 20 hours a week, that translates to 17 CSU units.  I'm meeting a lot of foreigners in my class.  I never realized how many people knew how to speak English; Denmark  Switzerland, Norway, Korean, Japanese, etc. people know how to speak English and they speak it fairly well!

I went to HouHai Park in Beijing! This was a map of it.  It's a park with some of it's traditional buildings still standing.  Some parts were touristy.  You could rent bikes to ride around the lakes and look at things.

This is a guy fishing.  Look at how long the pole extends! 

Theres a tiny yellow dot by the boat in the lake.  It's someone swimming in the lake.  It's really dirty in the lake. I can't imagine anyone swimming in this lake!  That's also a traditional building.  You can't even enter the building.

This is at one end of the lakes at HouHai Park.

The girl with the green backpack is one of my roommates. We were still walking along the lake on one of the bigger paths.

Milk tea on campus?! Yes please! 

Two of my roommates. The one on the left is from SF state and the one in the middle is from CSU eastbay. 

This is my other language partner! She's a first year graduate student at PKU.

I was waiting in line for my egg waffles and this guy had a cool khaki leather backpack with a message on it. It was so odd! I think it's a bad translation of a great Chinese poem.

Sunsets are different in Beijing.

Seasweed salad! so good! Beijing has different flavors which are mainly used.  There's vinegar, salty, or spicy.  This was a cool, refreshing dish.

I went to San Li Tuan District and this is the SOHO area.  It is so modern and full of foreign brands! There's Nike, Birkenstock, Coldstone's Creamery, Lacoste, etc.

Another picture of San Li Tuan and a few of my new friends from Cornell!

Along the stairway, there was an interesting water staircase with pebbles. I found it interesting.

A few of my friends from Cornell!

Two roommates and I getting our dinner on! 

My roommate tried to squeeze my eyeball.

I was at Master Kong's Restaurant.  The side dish is a refreshing cucumber salad.  It has become on e of my favorites in Beijing.  There's also a lack of veggies and meat served when ordering any dish here.  The noodles was a spicy pork noodle.

A quick photo of a mini night market by the mall.

I drew my classmate in the Chinese book.  He's a monk from Thailand! His name is Pai.

In an alleyway by my home, there was a movie being shot!  

This is a night shot from my friend's apartment.  He lives on the 27th floor.

My friend Tony Mac is a photographer and he helped out with an advertisement with the HTC phone a while ago. Guess what? his face is still in China! haha

A lady had her goose tied by the leg.  She was just walking it around! 

I joined a few clubs this past week! I joined a guitar association, drum club, volleyball club, and calligraphy club.  This was calligraphy club! These guys were a little shy with taking this photo with.... since i just met them!

There have been many things whirling around in my life, especially new Chinese, words, phrases, and grammar. It just goes on and on and on. My goal for the year's end is to speak as if I'm a native! 

The End of the First Week of School

 The first week of class is coming to an end and I'm just about to apply for the second half of my classes. So far, my classes aren't too difficult. My body is finally adjusting to my new surroundings. I had the runs for a while and  I was extremely glad my doctor prescribed me medicine for just in case. (: I'm about to start out on another week of school with my elective classes! The CSU coordinator planned a trip for the National Day Holiday (we get 9 days off) so I'm excited for that! 

Some more pictures for you all to see!

Xia Bu Xia Bu Hot Pot. You're not supposed to take a picture but I snagged one! (: There are Xia Bu's everywhere here! Normally with others I end up eating about $7 USD.

A couple of my Chinese Books for class.

I realized there are basically two flavors in China, spicy or salty.  These dishes were definitely salty!

Studying at an expensive cafe! I had a royal milk tea! It was so interesting.  It had a hint of zest in the milk tea with honey on the side.  The honey definitely made the milk tea taste good.

The sun was just setting in my neighborhood.

This is a statue right by one of the buildings for my class.  Notice the people doing taichi in the background.  They are there very often. Sometimes people practicing martial arts will also practice here.

The sun was setting and I thought this looked beautiful.  This is just by 4th Ring Road by Bei Da

Also, another pretty picture as the sun sets. 

This is the building of where I live. It's one of the more modern buildings

The lobby of my building! The chandelier is huge!

There's a theatre at my school and this huge picture was up.  I tried to copy the man on the lower left.

This is Bei Da's library!! You have to have a 500 RMB deposit to receive a library card!

I'm standing on "Stone Boat" with one of the towers on campus.

This is one of my language partners! 

Wooooo! This was spicy! One of my roommates and I ate at a Si Chuan place and boy was it spicy! These spices numb your tongue.

A picture with me at the Si Chuan place.  The red little lumps are big spicy peppers!

On one of the nights, we went to a kabob place! It was super filling.   We also had a refreshing salad on the side.  This was a meaty meal.  Normally, when ordering a dish and "meat" is in it, you're only offered bits of it.  It gets a little scarce.

I'm doing fine in Beijing and I'm excited for what's to come ahead! 

Adventures in Beijing

Today was the first day of class! It was short and sweet. I have yet to finish selecting my elective classes but I'll choose them later this week.  I went to the art district this weekend! I even met with a friend from SF. She's here for the month and leaves on the 20th. She's half black and half Filipino! She's pretty cool. 

Random things I've noticed

-People pick their noses in public and they don't care who sees

-Crossing streets is like playing leap frog

-Young kids/toddlers have pants that look like chaps so that they have an opening around the crotch and the butt area so they can pee on the streets anywhere.

This is a picture of  pork and eggplant noodles with a tea egg and a cool plate of veggies on the side.

One of my roommates and I at Haagen Daz! It's such a delicacy here. It's ridiculous! One small scoop is 38 Kuai which is about 6 American dollars. It was a really tiny scoop!

I was in the art district! 

In the art district, we stopped for a little something to drink and snack on 

What a great picture right?! This cool cucumber drink made with cucumber, mint, and lime.  It looked really pretty but it tasted pretty bad!

A friend from the States who leaves on the 20th and her Beijing friend!

This is part of the art district. I thought it was pretty cool.  While I was here, a random person came and asked me to take a picture with them and then proceeded to pull me there to take one with her. She was amazed that I was a foreigner! I think that's rare because I'm a Chinese person in China.  

On campus, this is the Bo Ya Pagoda Tower. I'm standing on a "stone boat".

I had dinner at a Si Chuan restuarant.  The red peppers in the big bowl is a stir fry with peppers that are a little spicy but it's effects numb your tongue! 

Soem fo the CSU students had kabobs with refreshing salads on the side.  This was pretty good. I didn't realize how good meat products in the USA.  So far, anything with meat that I ordered had the scarcest amount of meat.  If i ordered an entree with a steak... it was chewy and discolored, so this place was pretty good. 

On one of the nights, we went to a fancier dinner.  (:

Surrounded by bikes! This was on campus by the East gate of campus. bikes on bikes on bikes!

Beijing has been super smoggy but this was the clearest day I've seen since I've been here. I miss San Francisco's fresh air. This was taken right by my home for the year