Still catching up...

Honor the God of Strawberries!

the rows upon rows of straberry greenhouses. I tried to convince my teacher to leave me there and come back for me in a week, but he would have none of it.

t
strawberry flower

YUM!!

Spring is here!

the lanterns at Ghost Street

Tree planting! Dad will be so proud...

Strawberry picking! (but mostly eating)

wow, that city is HUGE!

the famous CCTV building from a distance.

the Forbidden City from an interesting angle.

Tractor ride!

national pride

such is life, right?

Green? must not be in Beijing...(hint: I am not)

Chinese style grave.

cousin bonding

Pandas!

the Beijing Duck's (Beijing's basketball team) mascot. not kidding.

Hair cut!!

warning: this is not a bad quality shot. this is a building down the block on a day with pretty bad pollution. yay pollution! my poor lungs...

So, tomorrow I am leaving on my last trip. :( anyway, the purpose of this blog is to give you an idea of what I have been doing for the last few weeks because I have been too busy/lazy to update my blog. Sorry about that.

On of the first weekends, me and a few friends went to the Beijing Zoo (动物园). The weather was pretty nice (as in not cold enough to turn our fingers blue) and the sky clear (as in we could see down the block). We had a good time wandering around for a few hours. The coolest and most amazing animal was, of course, the pandas. They had the best exhibit in the whole zoo. We decided to go and see them because they were only in Beijing for the Olympics and are going back to Sichuan soon. The pandas were putting on a show for the crowd by being playful. Some of them were sitting with bamboo in their paws and would whack the other panda and then take a bite, then whack the other panda. We decided they must be siblings. Anyway, all the other animals were pretty depressing. They had small cages or exhibits and did not look happy at all. To avoid this depressing scene, we went to the aquarium for the rest of the afternoon.

One friday night, I went to a basketball game. Apparently, Beijing has a basketball team, the Beijing Ducks. This was the biggest game of the year, rivalry wise, against Shanghai. However, in the end, Beijing swept the floor with Shanghai. It was a little pathetic. In Shanghai's defense, Beijing has a few former NBA players. More than a little unfair, but a good gig if for them. The basketball court was all the way at the end of subway line 1, a real troop, but worth it in the end. I had a good time watching the game. Thankfully, the game did not drag on as long of NBA games do, so I could stay for the whole game and be home in time for curfew. I couldn't decide if the people organizing the game watched too much NBA, or too little in relation to the "cheerleaders", and I use the term loosely. Either the organizers understood that the purpose of the cheerleaders was NOT cheerleading, or they just did not get the concept of dancing. Either way, it was painful to watch. Fun stuff.

Last weekend was the beginning of super nice weather. On Sunday, I went park hopping, literally. First, I started at Ditan, then made my way to Jingshan, arguably the best park in Beijing, and certainly has the best view. You can see the whole cityscape of Beijing laid out before you on all four sides. pretty cool. for dinner, my friend and I went to the Ghost Street, famous for the red lanterns and lined with Chinese restuarants. Pretty cool.

last Saturday was 清明节, or grave sweeping, kind of like the Chinese version of Day of the Dead. everyone goes to the village where their ancestors are buried and cleans off their graves and offers sacrifices. Most of the family comes, so, of course, it turns into a Chinese style party, or lost of smoking and eating. My extended family was pleasantly surprised to learn I spoke passable Chinese and I passed a nice afternoon telling them all about life in America. One family member felt obligated to teach me about life in the countryside and gave my cousins, sister, and me a tractor ride. probably not too safe judging from all the smoke coming out the back of the tractor, but fun none the less.

During my favorite conversation, we were driving back to Beijing and someone asked me how the driving laws in China and America are different. Well, for starters, you definately cannot do exactly what we are doing now...(driving on the shoulder to pass someone). They were surprised to learn how strictly the speeding laws are enforced in America (i know, i know, not that strict, but compared to China, very strict, believe me.) Lets just say i am glad I still am not too clear about how fast i am going in kilometers/hour. i don't think i really want to know. That night, I all but collapsed into bed, tired from a long day.

Last monday, I did not have school (score!). SYA organized a joint project with the local highschool. It was optional, so there were only 30 kids or so, mized American and Chinese. We went about an hour outside Beijing (by bus) to go plant trees! yay! just like at home! I had a fun time planting trees with my Chinese partner. the soil is really dry and hard, but no problem for an experienced tree planter! My Chinese teacher went around and graded everyone's tree planting, and we got an A plus. Yes!! After a quick lunch, we went to go pick strawberries (can this day get any better?). Let me tell you, these are the most amazing strawberries EVER! They are really sweet and juicy, and I definately picked more than I ate. they taste a lot like wild strawberries back home, but are the same size as store bought ones (yay pesticides and fertlizer!). All in all, a pretty good day, I would say.

This weekend. unfortunately, I was not intelligent enough to bring my camera to the coffeehouse, so i have no pictures. I will update when I get back, if i remember.

So, my trip. a little preview. Tomorrow, we get on a train to Guizhou, a 28 hour train ride. not too bad, our longest is 32 hours. time skip...we eventually end up in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan, known for spicy food and hot weather. We get to go to a cooking school for 2 days, so excited. i already wish we could stay longer. Anyway, I get back on friday April 24. We are flying back from Chengdu to save time. See you all in 2 weeks!