Hello everyone,
First off, I’d like to apologize for not updating my blog
for the past two weeks. I was going to update it last week, but unfortunately I
got a virus and felt very sick until recently when I went to the hospital to
get medicine. Suffice it to say, I wasn’t feeling too well and am sorry. I’ve
also been busy trying to figure out where I should visit during winter break.
PKU students don’t have Christmas off because that isn’t a holiday celebrated
here, but from the beginning of January till the middle of February I have a
month long vacation time. But this also means having to plan ahead and buy
tickets as soon as possible, particularly if you want to travel during the
Chinese New Year (also known as the Spring Festival), because train tickets and
plain tickets become sold out very quickly. As such, I’ve been a little
stressed with figuring that out. I do have one thing finally planned though. Right
after my final exams, I am going to visit Harbin, a city in northern China
which has an ice festival. I’m going to be traveling with some classmates and
friends from school, so after I return from that (probably around January 10th),
I should have some awesome pictures for you.
So last week nothing particularly interesting happened, but
the week before that I went to Sanlitun, a district in Beijing which is known
for having lots of embassies and foreigners. My Korean language partner’s
girlfriend, Min, my friend Janie, one of her roommates, and I all went out to
see the shopping mall there. Janie had told me that there were really pretty Christmas
decorations that I should see, but since it was during the day and the
pollution level was over 400, it wasn’t quite as glamorous as she remembered
it. Still, if one evening the air is clear and I have time, I might go back to
see what it’s like.
Here’s a couple pictures:
(My friend Janie and her roommate)
While we were at the mall we saw an exhibition of children's artwork which was being sold to raise money for disabled children.
(This statue is actually similar to two others I saw in Wudaokou. I actually have pictures of these other statues in an earlier post, but I have yet to find out who the artist of these sculptures is)
We also ate Persian food. There are actually a lot of Middle
Eastern restaurants in the area we explored, and the food we had was fantastic!
Here’s what I ordered:
(This is Min, my Korean language partner's girlfriend. She's really awesome!)
(Janie on the right and her roommate on the left. I unfortunately forgot her name because Janie has two other roommates, so I keep mixing up who is who)
Desert: Colibri cupcakes. Flavors (from the green going clockwise): mint, cookies and cream, chocolate, mocha. Mine was the mocha, and it was glorious to eat such a wonderful cupcake!
Dinner was delicious! It reminded me a bit of home when my dad
would take us out to get Middle Eastern or Mediterranean food back home. It was
also really nice to eat solid, real meat.
After looking at some of the embassies and exploring in
general, I went back to Janie’s apartment to watch an Indian movie which we
began in October but hadn't finished until two weeks ago.
Since the semester is ending in January we're all preparing for our exams, final essays and presentations, etc., which is a little sad because lots of people will be leaving to go back to their home countries (those who are staying for only a semester that is, most other people are just traveling during the month long break).
I’m afraid I don’t have much else to report from here. Getting
sick really sucked though. Everyone here at school is sick, and in my dorm
everyone has the same type of illness I have. I’m worried that my roommate
will be next (she’s already showing the symptoms I had), and the last thing I want
is for her, or anyone else for that matter, to get what I had. It was miserable,
but I’m taking medicine that the doctor prescribed to me which is helping a
lot.
I wish everyone back home good health!
P.S.
I got a haircut today ^.^
Hope you stay well. Also looking forward to seeing the pictures of all the great places you go over break!
ReplyDeleteSo sorry to hear that you were sick. Diana and I are really enjoying your blog and all the great pix! Keep up the awesome work!
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad that you guys enjoy reading it! It makes me happy to know that a lot of people are interested. I'll try to be better about posting every week. ^.^
DeleteI really liked the kid's art -- cool fishy picture ^_^
ReplyDeleteglad you are getting better.