Here's one of my roommate, Alex, with another cute kid. 

Okay, this takes a little explaining. First off, this is still at the Summer Palace. Ever since getting here, we've all commented that Chinese kids are the cutest ever. So some of us have posed with kids we particularly think are cool. I mean, c'mon, check out this kid's hair! We figure these photos are the least we could ask for in return for all the stares they give us. 

I pretty shot taken from the main complex area. 

Looking out over the lake from behind the main building, with part of Beijing skyline in backgroun. 

This is the main temple on the hill looking over the lake. 

Another from the lake 

Looking North from the lake. 

Me at the lake. 

Me on the front of our boat. 

Another pic of the main summer palace complex. 

I figure Mom will kill me if I end here on a belly dancer, so here's a bunch of pics coming up from the Imperial Summer Palace. Our group went their Sat., of our first weekend in Beijing. The Summer Palace is gorgeous, dominated by the main lake and main complex overlooking the water and central Beijing. The park is massive, and deserves a return visit when I get tiime. The highlight, for me at least, was driving boats on the lake...I loved it cause with me at the helm our boat was continuously in ramming mode. Didn't sink any battleships but I hit a couple pretty good. 

Another pic of our belly dancer. 

We went to dinner at this muslim restaurant with belly dancing. Mom, I swear, it wasn't my idea - I actually tagged along with some girls who wanted to go. Anyways, the food is from Xinjiang province in Northwest China, which is largerly muslim. The food was awesome, and so was the entertainment. Here the belly dancer isn't on stage, she's dancing on a table out in the audience. Oh, and the food was good too. I think we might have had some meats, and maybe some veggies too. Somethiing like that. Great dinner all around!  

You may need to double click on this one to be able to see it well, but here's a pic of what Chinese mosquitos can do. This is one of my boys here, Dan, and he's gotten a few of these nasty rashes from the bites. He's the only one I know of who's reacted this way. Strange thing is, he's Chinese-American. Go figure. 

I know she doesn't look real but Xiao Mei is a real puppy. Cutest thing ever. Story behind this is a couple weeks ago a bunch of us went out to dinner in Houhai, a lake in Beijing with bars and restaurants all around. As we wait for dinner a buddy and I come across this puppy sitting on the back of a bike with a middle-aged Chinese man standing by. We pet her, the man acts annoyed and we finally figure out that he's trying to sell the puppy. A few hours later we're hanging out on this rooftop patio and we're met by other students from the program who didn't come to dinner with us. And guess who's in the arms of one of the guys? Yep, Xiao Mei. One of the kids, Justin, got a little too tipsy and decided to buy Xiao Mei for 200 yuan, a little more than 20 bucks. He named her Xiao Mei, Chinese for, basically, Little Beautiful. The end of the story is after buying Xiao Mei toys, food, etc., and getting her checked out and shots at the vet, the cleaning lady at the dorms found her. That was the end of that. It was a rough ending to cause everyone had fallin in love with Xiao Mei.

The first evening at Beida some of us are making our way off campus for dinner, and what do we see? Haha, so funny we'd run into a crew of ping pong players within hours of our arrival. Yesterday at the gym I stumbled upon what I think must have been a ping pong class underway. So far the locals are too afraid to take me on...

The only picture you'll ever see of me doing karaoke.  

Our first day here we all were split into small groups and given a tour of campus by resident Beida students. My group's guide, pictured here on the left, was Ting. She's such a sweat heart. A few of us, including the guy next to me, Felipe, have kept up with her since being here. We all love her.
Even though she's from the Southern province of Hunan, she's got a hardcore Beijing accent, which means she puts an 'r' sound at the end of sentences. This translates into a cute English accent...rather than "because" she says "becurse." We tease her about it all the time. Notice the umbrella one of my friends is holding over her head. On sunny days on campus we see more girls carrying umbrellas than girls without them. Tanned skin is not valued here for the women. It's funny walking with her cause she's constantly opening and closing her umbrella as she goes from sun to shade.

Here's the street bordering campus. This pic doesn't do it justice, but once we leave Beida's campus it's just crazy. Walking across the street is a threat to life, not only from cars zoomin by but the hundreds of bikes. Beijing once was known for its bikes, and I've been told that many of the streets used to be bike only. Obviously not anymore. I'll have to put up a picture of how they ride bikes here to carry two people. You see it everywhere - one person pedaling and one person sitting on the back rack. Westerners are no good at this. My rommmate's bike broke when he tried to carry someone on the back. One of the funniest things ever.

Another picture of the lake. On a nice day it's almost impossible to grab a seat around the lake.  

One of the first things we did upon arriving was purchase bikes. To my right is my roommate Alex. Both he and the two girls in the picture are from AU. The lake behind us is one of the central features of Beida. It's famous and they say that when Chinese students visit the campus they often cry upon seeing the lake.  

My bed is the one closest to the window. 

Here's the view from our room, and below are pics of our "hotel" room. The beds are hard as wood, and there's no where to put our clothes. Alex is living out of suit case still while I've taken over the tv stand for my clothes.  

First meal in China...Bullfrog...Mmm! It's not chicken innards and foot, nor lamb penis, but it was pretty good. The first night we arrived a whole big group of us ventured off campus for some food, and we just had to get at least one thing exotic. The bullfrog was actually really good...you just had to eat around the bones. The problem was the peppers, they packed quite a punch. This dinner, like most meals here, was the type where everyone orders a dish and you all share. It's a good thing that's how they do it here 'cause I can't tell you how many times someone orders something to find out it's completely imcompatible with their system or tastes.  

Here's the yurts we were meant to sleep in. I think the reason why we instead stayed in a fantastic zero-star hotel is cause it was freezin' cold at night. Everyone who knows me well knows how much I hate the cold and how important food is to me, so you can imagine how miserable I was up there.