I am thinking about changing the name of this blog

to "The Han(a) Dynasty"-a pun on The Han Dynasty. I am going to give it a few more days and see if I think it's still funny. I got laughs out of Anne and Dave.

I am behind again on blogging. This has become a pattern as I roll in too tired to write/remember. I can barely make it past midnight here.

Going to bed early means I usually wake up around six with no alarm. On Thursday I woke up and went for a walk around the Bamboo Park with Kristen, Alex, and Chris (our professor). Keith and Diana ran. I have said many times I don't run unless I'm being chased. We watched some elderly people who could kick my ass do Tai Chi and other fitness classes.

We also walked home and randomly saw Chris's friend on a balcony. I swear she knows everyone in Beijing.


Chinese class at 8 as per usual. I am awful. My adorable happy teacher even called me out. She said I need to study after class. The people I try to practice with on the bus and at restaurants all smile and I say I am very good. Liars. I really enjoy the class I have to say. Characters intimidate the hell out of me. I wish I spoke Chinese. My kids will. I now know all the polite things to say to start a conversation. I tried on my cab driver-he didn't want any part of my practice.
I can also count very high and say Northeastern in Chinese. My teacher likes to laugh at my pronunciation. It' okay because I love her-thought not as much as Edek who stares at her with affection and asked her to come out clubbing with us. She said yes, but couldn't make it. I got a sticker for doing a good job in Chinese the other day. It was thrilling. No sarcasm.





We had a free afternoon after a lecture, so Kristen, Diana, Anne and I went shopping at the Silk Market. It was nice to get away from the large group-not because I was sick of them, but because it gets overwhelming traveling in a pack. Joan Reil sent us to some pearl stores and when we dropped her name, they dropped the prices. We each bought a lot of stuff-I got earrings and two necklaces for under 20 US.




I had this cool thing off the street for lunch. I have no idea what it was, but I will call it "Egg is a Bag". It was basically a crepe with egg cooked on top and filled with fried dough (fried meat?) and folded. Yum.





This picture makes me laugh. You could not buy kids there.






My new favorite baby:





We had dinner at a Cultural Revolution themed restaurant. It had food and decorations from the era. We sat with people who lived through it and they told us about their experiences. It was like sitting and talking to a Holocaust survivor in a Holocaust themed restaurant. Dave called it "A Johnny Rockets with a Cultural Revolution theme". I found it so bazaar and tacky. Also, Chris kind of tried to gloss over the negatives of the CR. The woman told us that students in her school beat a teacher to death. Chris said, "Well what she means is that it was a hot day and when the kids beat her she had a heat stroke and that's why she died." Anne pointed out to me that she noticed she glossed over the deaths of Intellectuals in her lecture. Odd. Anne also said Li Yan said she was a little offended by it. I would imagine.




Anne and I got our laundry done. For both us together it was 3 dollars US. They didn't dry it so we had to hang it up in an empty room. This has become the unofficial laundry room.

We were so "heartbroken" about China not drying our laundry (there are no dryers here) that we went to bed early.