Busy day, busy people!

I woke up on my own today at 6:40 and it was kind of awesome...jet lag has really kind of adjusted me very appropriately to the times I need to wake up here. This morning we had a huge awesome breakfast and then did team-building exercises, which were pretty awesome. Probably the best was the one where we had a big group of people and they'd tell us how many hands and feet we could have on the floor (it was a little Twisteresque), and we'd have to figure out how to support 13 people with, say, 8 feet and 6 hands. Wooo! After that we went to get our books and find out our courses. Soooo on the downside I have 8 am classes every morning and I can't take any electives because I'm not in a high enough level, but on the upside I have no Friday classes!! I never thought that would happen to me, especially not at Beijing we-work-so-hard Daxue. I'm thinking maybe this will allow me to take some sweet long weekend trips. Or just sleep a lot on some Fridays...hen hao!

So I went to lunch with some peeps, and we were looking for some pizza place, but we couldn't find it, so instead we went to a little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant. It was pretty decent, and I had my first experience with the awesome public bathrooms that have no stall doors, as well as walls that are like 3 feet high. And no toilet paper. Hen hao! I was really worried about squatty potties before I left home but somehow once I got here they didn't faze me at all. Woo!

In the afternoon we went shopping in Wu Dao Kou, and I bargained for the first time ever. I wasn't very good, although I did talk her down more than 20 kuai from the original price, so I didn't feel like a total loser. Plus the sweatshirt I got is pretty awesome and has backwards letters and silly non-words on it. But bargaining made me feel flustered...I could feel my face turning pink as I did it, and it didn't help that my vocabulary isn't large enough to argue well or understand everything the vendor is saying to me. Oh well, practice makes perfect. There was soooo much clothing with hilarious Chinglish on it that I wanted to buy, but I didn't have the patience or stamina to bargain for it. Whatevs, I have lots more time here and I'll probably be better then anyway.

I still haven't met my language tutor...I have to call her sometime because she couldn't come to the meeting. I should probably do that soon. Tomorrow we are going to Tian'anmen and the Forbidden City! All kinds of touristy I'm sure, but I'm still excited. For some reason my camera batteries died even though I put in new ones yesterday, so I'm not very happy about that...bu hao bu hao!

These green tea cookies with peach chips are growing on me...I can't really taste any green-tea-ness, but the peach chips are pretty exciting. Oh man I ate so much food today. And every other day I've been here really. I think the family-style eating makes me eat more because there aren't set individual portions. Don't be surprised if I come back from China I've, like, doubled in size. The food here is good but Beijing cuisine is so oily! I kind of wish I had access to kitchen facilities...oh well. I should join the gym maybe, or hip hop club. Walking everywhere probably helps, but it makes my poor little feets hurt. Bu hao.

Jackie and I got lychee beer today in Wu-Mei...it's basically nonalcoholic but it is way delicious! Pretty much just like lychee-flavored soda. And lychee is hen tasty!

Mmmmmm well we are meeting at 8:30 tomorrow morning to leave for Tiananmen, so I'm-a go sleep now, even though everyone else just went out to some clubs to party down. I'm such an old fogey, but I don't want to be dead of sleep deprivation tomorrow for our day of walking around and seeing important things. There will be lots of other times for late night dance party action. Hen hao!