Week 1

The Next  Day
In the morning, i looked around the room more closely. It was full of things people brought from their country and left there in thanks for the internship for the school that helped them get there, UIBE. Sitting there, i quickly got bored and wanted to explore the outside. I went to the door and tried to open it. The lock were a few bolts on a heavy ancient metal door, and when i say ancient, i am not exaggerating. These buildings were there for a long time as i found out, but people still lived there without much renovation.

My first meal in China with Charles

I tried for maybe ten minutes to open the door with no luck. I got bored and wanted to go on the internet, i found a plug, it did look different than that of in the US but i tried to plug in my computer charger anyways. It gave out some sparks, but it worked! On Gmail i noticed that Charles invited me to go to lunch and offered to meet me at the apartment. Soon I heard knocking on the door, I again tried to unlock he door with no luck. He tried too with his key, but could not do it. I was locked in, with absolutely no other way out. Charles was getting nervous, but i thought it was funny, first day and I am locked in an apartment in Beijing. After half an hour of struggling and me smacking the lock with a broom, the door opened. I found Charles and we went to lunch. We met up with this girl Lily, she ordered. The food was very delicious and I got to practice my chopstick skills.

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Weekend in Beijing 

That first weekend, I got to spend in the university's apartment. Ricky from U of I soon joined me and we went to explore Beijing. The first place we went to was this street full of little shops, food and bars. The buildings were old and beautiful. We spent most of our afternoon there. It got too late to take the subway back as it closes around 10pm so we had to find a taxi. It took us a while as all of them were taken but we got back.

Beijing is connected by a very good subway system. You can go anywhere by subway and it is very cheap. There are always so many people using the system, when it is rush hour, you have to fight to get on and you stand very close to one another. Same with the buses, they get very crowded. There are truly a lot of people here. 

The next day, me and Ricky decided to go on our first adventure alone, without one of the students from the Beijing University. We went to the Olympic Park. It was huge and gorgeous. We took many pictures of the bird's nest and the olympic pool. You can actually swim in the pool which I really want to do. There were also many people who wanted to sell something both food and souvenirs. People were flying kites, dancing and a couple were singing. One guy was actually pretty good. 

Olympic Stadium

Olympic Pool