Track Meet and Tiananmen Square

One of my teachers savoring our victory.

we aren't conceited at all.

This is Kyle and a girl whose name I forget from Korea. Kyle is 6'6 and she is about 4'9.

This is Chinese jump rope.

Me and Puge, a girl I met from Mongolia.

My 4 X 200 teammates.

A guard and the cleaning crew at Tiananmen at sundown when the flag is being lowered.

The Olympic mascots at Tiananmen.

A statue of Confucius at the Confucius temple.

As you can probably already tell, today I participated in a track meet. Every year at all schools across Beijing, there is a track meet and the different classes within the grades compete. The SYA students at our school participated in the 11th grade category. I ran the 2 x 400, the 100, and did shot put. The 2 x 400 did well, we got 2nd. I earned our team some points in shot put, which was good, but the 100 didn't go so well. I was also going to participate in the jump rope, but the last time I tried, I twisted my ankle pretty bad, so I've sworn off jump rope for awhile. The Chinese jump ropers are pretty good and have been doing it forever, so we got anilihated, but thats ok, we had fun. Over all, SYA came in 2nd in the 11th grade, which is apparently a feat unprecendeted, so our teachers were pretty happy, as you can see. While at the track meet, I met some kids from a boarding school also associated with our school. Many of them were Korean, but a few were Mongolian, which was so cool. We talked with them for awhile, its not like we didn't have the time. We had to be at school at 7 and didn't leave until 5, it was a pretty long day.

Yesterday, we went on a class trip to the Lama Temple and the Confucius Temple. The Lama temple I had already been to, but it was cool to go again. The Confucius temple is smaller, but much much older. All the trees were twisted and old. It was really pretty. Then my friend and I made our way to Tiananmen Square because neither of us had been yet and it seems like a place you just need to go if you are in Beijing. We got to see the guards taking the flag down at sunset and Tiananmen Square at night, which is so pretty. However, the cartoonish Olympic mascots added a different feel to Tiananmen Square. Most of the tourists were more interested in them than anything else. After visiting the square, we wandered down some alleys and say a little of Beijing's shadier side, but it was so cool. A lot of tea shops and places selling fruit. We only saw a little bit, but it went on forever. We could have spent hours there, but we thought that we should be home because we have to be at school tomorrow.

Tomorrow I am leaving for Si Chuan for vacation with my family. Next week is a national holiday here, almost like the 4th of July, but everyone gets a week off from work or school. I am pretty excited, its supposed to be really pretty there.
sorry all the pictures are out of order, but I can't figure out how to move them without downloading them again, and I am just too lazy.
Stephanie

Lama Temple

Awesome flowers.

Seriously, awesome flowers.

The bottle I am holding contains some kind of tea which tastes a little like soap. yum.

Thats incense, not smoke. FYI.

My awesome uniform.

My friend, Nick. we were trying to figure out what this says. we have no clue, but we tried.

I am pretty sure I was not supposed to take pictures of this, but it was really cool. the pictures don't do it justice.

Again, the flowers are awesome.

So, today was a boring old wednesday in Beijing. We have half days on wednesday. I don't really know why, but I was certainly going to make the best of it. Today started off rainy, and continued to be so, but that didn't really stop me. went to school, had Chinese classes, the usual. This afternoon we were supposed to go to the Lama Temple and Confucius Temple as a school, but the trip was cancelled because it was raining. My friend Nick and I decided to go search for some bubble tea after lunch. I just learned the Chinese name for bubble tea, 珍珠奶茶（zhen shu nai cha） today in class, so I wanted to know if I could actually order it. we wandered into a few tea stores, but none of them had it. Finally, Nick had the sense to ask where we could get it. We got an answer which we didn't really understand, but went in the direction we were pointed in. Eventually, we came across a Hu Tong, a kind of alley, which looked promising. We had managed to wander down an absolutely sweet Hu Tong. We found our bubble tea, ordered it, and even received what we thought we ordered. we were pretty proud of ourselves. the Hu Tong was lined with street venders and cool fruit stands. it was so cool to walk down, but we had to be back at school. then, the school cancelled the trip, so we had the whole afternoon off. so, we decided to go to the temple on our own. this is harder than it sounds. we could have just taken a taxi, but thats no fun, so we decided we would learn to use the subway system. the teacher we asked seemed skeptical, and gave us the "oh, no, they are going to get lost and call me" look. well, we didn't. We even managed to get to the Lama temple, and not somewhere completely different. Here is a good place to note that our uniforms are sweet, although we get strange looks everywhere we go. foreigners wearing Chinese school uniforms is not really common. so we managed to get into the temple, and it was sweet. Everyone was burning incense. It is really interesting because the people here have no religion, but they still follow the old traditions of burning incense etc. it was really cool to watch and smelled pretty cool too. The old temples were really cool and had a lot of statues that were so huge it was hard to imagine building them, let alone what they were made of. We wandered around and found a temple filled with chanting monks. so cool. the electric desk lamps were pretty amusing, though. No pictures allowed, unfortunately. So by this point, we were feeling pretty confident and instead of going home, we decided to go to a park across the street. This park was so cool. Absolutely huge. filled with trees and beautiful landscaping. we even found a crochet course, which was unexpected. the english translation was ball drop court, most of the english translations are this good here. so we wandered for awhile to see what we could see. A lot of people practicing a tai qi type martial art in the grass and an really cool outdoor gym. yes, an outdoor gym complete with these cool elypticals (no clue how to spell that) and weight machines. i should note that the admittance fee to this park was 1 yuan, or about 20 cents. so eventually we found our way out, it took awhile after we got a little lost. we came across a cat reminicient of Elvis in size watching some birds. I don't think he could move fast enough to catch one, but Elvis has surprised me before. So anyway, we found our way back to the subway and got home without becoming completely lost. a pretty successful day, all in all. much more fun than school and homework.
so other than an awesome day at the Lama temple, this week had been going all right. Plenty of Chinese homework to keep me busy. Getting a little homesick. Can't drink the milk here, not that that is much of a loss, believe me. next week is a national holiday, so I don't have school. Hopefully I don't get too much homework. yeah, right. anyway, I miss you all.
Stephanie

The Great Wall of China

yeah, i hiked that.

this bridge was not all that reassuring...but cool

So, today we visited the Great Wall of China, and it was awesome. Seriously. We hiked the wall for about 3 hours, and I couldn't even tell you how far we went. All of it was up, up, up, down a little, and up some more. It was pretty hot and everyone was drinking a lot of water, but we had a great time. The views were spectacular, and I never got tired of looking over the wall at the mountains. The hike was pretty strenuous because there was so much up and down, but mostly up, on uneven footing. However, the Wall being a huge tourist attraction, there were little Chinese ladies trying to sell us everything from t-shirts to bottled water. And man, are they persistent, they followed us for a long long time. And of course, they never got tired or looked even a little sweaty. Eventually, they gave me up as a bad job and went to badger someone else, but I have to hand it to them, they really tried. Along the wall, we saw a lot of people, mostly Westerners, who were going the other way, meaning that they had the easy route. But I didn't really mind. It was nice to get out of the city and do something. It was nice to actually see the sky and to be in wide open spaces, if only for a little while.
This past week was my second week of school. So far, so good. Chinese class has a lot of homework, but I do have two classes a day, and sometimes even three, so that is to be expected. There are a ton of extra curricular activities that SYA offers, and I want to do them all, but I know I cannot.
I cannot stress enough how unbelievably good most of the food is here. The dumplings are awesome, and so it the tea. I really like being able to try new food on a daily basis. For those of you who are curious, the most disgusting thing I have eaten here so far is McDonalds. seriously, as bad as it is in the US, in China, it is absolutely awful. For the record, I did not go willingly. Speaking of food, one of my friends, George, swears that he ate dog the other day. I don't doubt it, but I think it is absolutely hilarious that he didn't know until after he had eaten it.
Everything else is going well here. This week I hope things start to settle down a little bit more so I can figure out what it is feasible for me to do outside of school. I think Martial Arts would be fun, but we shall see. I miss you all and love you lots,
Stephanie

Summer Palace II