Day 23: August 18, 2011

Today was another beautiful day in Beijing. I am so happy to be here right now and am totally loving it. The weather was gorgeous and it has just been making me so happy.

 

This morning I went to class as usual. We completed our last lesson, and tomorrow we are going to review everything. It's going to be difficult to remember all the characters, but I think I can manage to do well on the test. I definitely know a lot more than some of the people in my class, so I'm confident in myself.

After class, I went to McDonald's. I was a little disappointed, but also a little relieved that it tastes exactly the same as in America. At least, the fries and the ice cream taste the same. I'm not sure about the burgers. And I know they have different pie flavors and some different drinks too, I think.

Then I had tutoring, and when I was done I took the bus to Lotus so I could call my parents. I had a good talk with them, then went to exchange some more money so I can buy stuff this weekend. Afterwards, I decided to walk home. It was a bit adventurous of me, because I had never walked the route before, but I knew all the street names I had to go on so it wasn't hard to find my host family's apartment.


It took me a while to get home, probably because I stopped in a lot of shops along the way, and took a lot of pictures. I bought a dress at some store for 199 kuai (about 31 USD, which isn't bad at all!) and apparently it is a dress by Prada from Italy. That is what the tag says anyway...but it's pretty and blue and has ruching so I like it.



For dinner I had more street food! This was a bun (baozi) with vegetables in it which I bought on the walk home. It was very good, and it tasted like there was even a hint of cinnamon or some sweet spice in the bread. Tomorrow morning I want to get something else at this stand underneath the bridge I cross to get to my bus stop. I'm sure it will be very tasty, whatever I get.

I also met a Chinese kid who lives in the same building as me and speaks English. We basically followed each other home for a really long time and didn't even realize it until we ended up at the same building. So we are going to try to hang out this weekend.

My day went really well and I'm kind of sad because I will be leaving next week and I am just starting to really, really get settled here. I definitely want to come back and study more and see more places and talk to more people. My experience so far has been great, and though I struggled with homesickness and probably would if I stayed any longer than a month or two, I am learning to love Beijing and want to return to China.

Hope everyone has a good Friday and a good weekend!