The Great Wall conquered…..actually, it would take a really long time to see all of it that you wanted to. I went to the Great Wall at Mutianyu two weekends ago (7/9, I think it was this part). We spent about four hours there. I would definitely like to go to the wall again but with less people around and during another time of the year. It took about two hours to get there.

Albert (my roommate) and I’s first exploration on our own (6/30) around the city on our bikes. We found this area which at first seemed we shouldn’t be there but it ended up being great. Ali Baba was from far western China.

Yesterday, I visited the Summer Palace. This place is awesome. I spent only two and a half hours there but it was worth the 30 kuai ($3.50), my old friend who is Beijing ren (from Beijing) told me it was too much but I have to pay because I’m a tourist (游客). It must have been really magnificent to have such a big place for your own playground. The park closes at 8pm but everyone strolls slowly out the doors. Nobody tells you till leave. It was nice to stroll along the waterside. I left around 8:30 and rode my bike to my friends neighborhood to chat and drink a little while.

I’ve been here in Beijing for two weeks tomorrow. (i started writing this the first week i was here) Sorry to my friends who I haven’t updated since I’ve been here. Things are well but I’ve had a few difficulties, but none so far have been unmanageable…

The flight from DC was 3 hrs late because they were fixing the a/c, with us sitting in it. After I arrived in Beijing, one of bags didn’t make it over. It came yesterday. On the flight water got spilled in my laptop and didn’t work for a while, but now it does. Then me and my friend (lulu) had trouble at the hotel bc we weren’t married. then i went to an atm machine that didn’t have right symbols and i tried it and it gave me a reciept for 1,000 yuan but didn’t give me the money. found out today it didn’t go through. the next day at school i found out the dorms are full and must stay in a hotel 15min walk from campus, not very convenient. so yesterday with help of lu’s friends i bought a bicycle.

i just finished my placement test. my speaking skills are much better than reading and writing skills. tomorrow will be the first class and bf class must go to check the results. riding a bicycle around is a great way to get around town, there is a special lane for bikes along side the road.

one night the first week we (albert and i) left our ac on too low, the ac dripped onto the desk below and the next morning my school books and laptop were soaked. my battery is shot and all else seems to be working, hopefully nothing else has been damaged. oh, then we found out we used a months worth of ac in our first week. they didn’t tell us we could only use 4 hours of ac a day. know we now and conserve. enough complaining…