My parents arrived in Beijing today!

Today I had class from 8-12pm. I had tingli and hanyu. Hanyu we had a test and it was SO hard. Tests here are so much harder than at Wofford, but I guess that is expected.

After class I made a pb&j sandwich- amazing as always! Then I napped for a little. Heather and I went to go recharge our internet and then watched gossip girl while I packed for the next 4 nights in, I hope, a GREAT hotel!

I left to meet my parents around 5:30pm where they/we are staying, the Marriott Hotel City Wall in Beijing (obviously). I was so excited the whole cab ride there. Seeing them waiting for me at the front of the hotel reminded me of the first time they visited me at Wofford freshmen year.  Needless to say, we were all very excited to be together.

The hotel is absolutely gorgeous and it is HUGE. Dad upgraded us to the executive floor which meant every morning we got "free" AMERICAN breakfast and every night we got "FREE" appetizers and cocktails starting at 5:30pm. I plan on being in the executive room every night at 5:30pm. 

I can't tell you how many times I went back to the buffet for "seconds"... I'm pretty sure I went up 5 times. I mean... they had CHEESE! And guacamole and BEEF (real BEEF!) and american chicken with honey mustard. It was GREAT.

My parents were pretty exhausted from their long trip so we had an Italian meal in the hotel (no complaints there!). They didn't think the food was all that great, but I thought it was great. Pretty much any food that isn't cafeteria Chinese food tastes delicious to me.

After dinner we came back to the room. I get to sleep in a King size bed all by myself. It literally is a cloud and I am not exaggerating at all. I never want get out of this bed.

McDonald's Chicken Nuggets do the job

As you already know... my parents come tomorrow! If you're reading this blog now, since I am posting it 6 days late, you're probably confused. I don't know if that was a funny joke?

Anyway... Today was another uneventful, typical day at school! I had class from 8-9:50. Came back, thought about going to the gym. Decided it was too long of a walk. I did some work for kouyu. Met my tutor at 1 for an hour. Walked around the entire campus with Katie and Laura looking for the building where we recharge our internet. 40 minutes later after asking a million people we found it, BUT we only had 10 minutes till class so we just picked up the sheet of paper we had to fill out and left.

Kouyu was from 3-5 and seemed like it lasted 4 hours. We had to present another essay. This one was about our country's traffic compared to Beijing's. For some reason (shocker) I was so nervous to read it allowed. It ended up being fine.

After class I was exhausted and planned on taking a nap. I have a test tomorrow in hanyu so I figured I would nap, eat then study all night.

Somehow Heather convinced me to get McDonalds delivered. I honestly may come back 100 pounds heavier if I keep eating McDonalds and not going to the gym.

After I ate my chicken nuggets I had SO much energy. It's amazing how much more energy I get from eating "real" McDonalds chicken compared to chinese "chicken".

So, I skipped the nap and went straight to studying. Heather, Laura and Katie came in later and were shocked by how focused I was... FINALLY!

60th Anniversary of Foreigners at Beida!

Today was a typical day at Beida. I had class from 8-12pm then got lunch and studied for a little.

Our hanyu teacher told us in class that we had to be in front of the Russian Building (where our class is) at 6:15pm tonight for the 60th Anniversary Show. We had no idea what show she was talking about. Later we found out that beida was celebrating the 60th Anniversary of having foreigners (waiguoren 外国人）studying there.

Katie, Laura, Liz and I showed up at the Russian Building at 6:15 on the dot. We didn't leave the Russian building till 6:30. And we sat in the theater until 7:45 when the show FINALLY started. We were so mad. But that is China... get to something at 6:30 for it to start at 7:45. Of course and it was two hours long!

We stayed till 8:30. The dances and songs we saw were really cool. It was a mix of foreigners and locals.

After we left I did some work in my room and then went to bed. I didn't fall asleep until 1am though. This hard bed is really putting a damper on my sleep!

Two more days until my parents are here :)!

Blue skies in Beijing and I am loving it!!

This morning I woke up to blue skies and the perfect temperature! Beijing fall weather is absolutely gorgeous.

Today I only had tingli (listening class) because our Intercultural Communications class got canceled. After debating forever I finally went to the gym around 10:45. After I met Heather for lunch; I got baozi again. I go through stages of loving one type of food for a week and then moving on to another.

I met with my tutor at the cafe on campus from 1-2:30. She helped me with my homework and then we talked about what types of clothes brands we like... in chinese of course. She asked me to describe my style- I had no idea how to say preppy. And she has never heard of J.Crew... so that conversation lasted about 2 minutes.

Tomorrow we are meeting at the cafe again at 1 and then she is taking me to a local supermarket to practice my chinese. I am pretty excited!

I took a 30 minutes nap at 3 and then met Kathy and Mariel at Starbucks to do work. The Starbucks is a two minute walk from the FX hotel. It was pretty loud. I still haven't found my spot to do work. No place is as good as Milliken. I definitely never thought I would say I actually missed Milliken.

After we were "done" studying, Kathy and I went to a noodle restaurant by the hotel. I got beef friend noodles (牛肉炒面）... the beef actually tasted like steak! Im starting to like onions; I don't really have a choice since every dish here as onions in it. I'll probably never eat onions when I get home though- so don't get your hopes up Mom.

Well... I should probably stop procrastinating and go study for my two quizzes tomorrow!

Lazy SUNDay

Today I finally got to sleep in!!! I woke up at 10:45am; it was great! I can't tell you the last time I slept that late.

It was absolutely gorgeous out today. A bunch of Chinese students were hanging in this grassy area (I have no idea what to call it). Some were sitting down in groups, others were reading to trees. They do that a lot; read aloud to trees, or sit on random rocks and read aloud. I still haven't figured out why or the meaning behind it; but, I am determined to find out before I leave! I am interested to see if they stand out there in the cold or even in the snow! I honestly would not be surprised.

For breakfast/lunch I got a Taiwan pancake. Then I came back here and ate it while I caught up on my blog and studied a little.

Heather and I ordered Pyro Pizza for dinner around 4- we were starved. They have free delivery and if you call during a certain time you can get a large pizza for the price of a medium. It was absolutely delicious! We each had three slices and I pretty much ate all the garlic, parmesan bread- Heather only had two slices.

While we ate we watched the season finale of the Bachelor pad and one episode of Teenage mom. Then I finished making my flash cards for hanyu and skyped with mom and dad. They will be here on Thursday!!

Somehow it got to be 1am. I don't know where the time went, but I definitely need to go to sleep!

I made money!!

Chandler singing a Chinese pop song!

Karaoke last night was so much fun!!! We had our own private room and they gave us popcorn, whiskey, iced tea, and peanuts. There we about 20 of us who went and we each paid 33Y. I sang "I want It That Way", "Tonight's Going to Be a Good Night" and many more...

This one guy Kyle is also tone deaf... so I wasn't too embarrassed as I "sang"/screamed into the microphone. 

xiao xin peng tou- "be careful to touch your head"

After Karaoke, a bunch of us took cabs to Wudaokou and hung out at solutions for a little bit. Laura and I got really tired after a little and left with Travis to go to McDonalds. Laura and I got really excited when we saw this sign there that we understood because we had learned the characters this past week!  

Yesterday (Friday), Liz and Laura (from across the hall) did a voice recording for this company who works with bing.com and they needed two more Americans so Liz asked Heather and I if we wanted to do it this morning at 11. We get paid 150Y for an hour.  Of course we said yes.

So, this morning we left at 10:30. I called the guy when we got to the Walmart building and he met us outside there to take us to the recording place. They put Heather and I in two different rooms. We each had to say 180 phrases into a microphone while holding an iphone. These phrases were "bing.com's" top 180 searches. They had the funniest searches. I definitely did not say all of them right either, but he didn't have a clue so I just pretended like I knew all of them.  

We had to do two recordings, so after the first one in the office, we got taxis and recorded another set of 180 phrases. I tried to ask him why we had to record them in a taxi and he responded by saying, "Now I take you to subway to meet friend". Clearly I need to practice my chinese more. 

When I got out of the taxi at the subway station he handed me 150Y. It was a great job! I made $20 for an hour. I'll do that again any day- and it was a great experience to add to my list. 

The rest of today was a very lazy day. We are all exhausted and decided to stay in tonight and watch a movie. I vote Sweet Home Alabama :)

Zeta girls- I hope rush is going great!! Miss you all! And I can't wait to meet the new Zeta babies when I get back!

Inner Mongolia and Karaoke here we come!!!!

After classes today we got Taiwan Pancakes. They are my new favorite food to eat. I get it with Bacon, Egg and Cheese. It is absolutely delicious, but very greasy- great for hangovers, or just in general.

Around 1, Laura, Katie, Heather and I left for Wudaokou to book our trip to MONGOLIA! A place my dad has never been... and he's been to a lot of places, so I feel pretty cool for being able to go to a place he has never been to. The first travel agency we went to said we would have to leave October 1st- which meant I couldn't go. My parents are coming from September 30th-October 5th, so we wanted to leave the 6th for Mongolia.

Thankfully, Heather and I saw an advertisement in the building for a different travel agency on the 17th floor. So we decided to go up there and check it out. It turned out it was a bigger travel agency and seemed a lot more legit. And.... they had a trip to Mongolia too and it was cheaper AND we could leave on the 6th and take a train instead of a bus! The only downside is that we are in hard sleepers. But, the four of us will be together so we figured we could handle it- it was that or no trip to Mongolia. The trip ended up being 680Y which is only $97! We are going for four days and it is all inclusive... the catch: lunch one day is hand shredded lamb.. yummmy! We are staying in Yurts. It's 6 to a yurt so we will be with two other people. I am so excited to travel to a place that I never thought I would go to.

After we booked our very cheap trip to Mongolia, we went to Carefour to stock up on water, coke, food, etc. Then headed back to campus to get baozi and get ready for the night. We are going to KTV... Karaoke! And Chandler is coming with us. It should be a very fun night!