One more week down, not too many to go
Tuesday was my birthday! I was really excited to celebrate my birthday in China. During the day my classmates were asking what I was going to do for my birthday. I kept telling them that I did not have any special plans for my birthday. A few of them understood because we had homework to do, but some of my other classmates felt like I should go out and have some fun. I fooled myself into thinking that I did not want to go out until the late afternoon. My classmate Tammy and I were chatting online when she asked me what I was doing and whether or not I wanted to go out. She convinced me pretty quickly to go out and have some coffee. I am really glad she did this because even though we did not make a big deal out my birthday it was still nice to know people wanted to spend some time with me on my birthday while I was in China. I also have to thank Janny and Taylor for coming too. After we had our coffee it was time to study.
Tuesday was the highlight of my week until Friday. That is the day we had our midterms in class. I did better on this midterm than I had done on the final and midterm from last quarter, so I was happy. My grades were not stellar, but I have had progress, so I am happy.
Friday night was also really special because I got to eat dinner with a classmate of mine and my good friend Eric Stowe. Eric and I studied Chinese together at the University of Washington. Right now he has a great working for an adoption agency in Tacoma. He just so happened to be in Beijing this week, so we planned to hang out eat dinner together. We went to a really nice vegetarian restaurant near Wangfujing. We had a great conversation about all sorts of things including the trip to Nepal he just took. He had some amazing pictures of the children and villages he on his trip. I really envy Eric for the work that he does.
Tonight we had a movie night at my classmate's apartment. We shared pictures that we had taken in China and then afterwards we watched a romantic comedy called Something's Gotta Give. The movies stars Jack Nicholson, so at times it is a little hard to not think about The Joker from Batman. At other times it is hard to accept him as the person chosen for this role, but at other times he suits his role really well. I think it was a decent movie, so I might watch it again sometime.
Besides all this excitement I realized again this week what it means to be a skateboarder in Beijing. If I am anywhere on campus or around campus I get lot's of looks, but something very strange happened on Friday. I was going to my friend's apartment to fix her computer when I had just crossed the intersection. I heard a person yelling my name. It was not my Chinese name and not too many people around here really know my English name. I was really confused as to who could be yelling my name in the middle of Wudaokou. I turned around to see my classmate from the UW jumping out of a taxi waving me down. I knew he was in Beijing, but not at the same university where I study. He told me that as he saw a skateboarder in Beijing he figured it could only be one person ... me.
This example on top of the time my neighbor in my apartment telling me he has watched me skateboard in other parts of the campus makes me feel as if my skateboard is now acting as a large nametag.
In addition to all this "excitement" I went out and bought a small christmas tree with some lights and ornaments today. All of it came out to about $6 and it gives my room a nice Christmas flavor, so it makes me happy. There are a few final touches I need to make to the tree, but for now it comforts me. Here is a picture of my nice little xmas tree.
Finally if you guys want to see the church I skateboard at, here is a picture of the Church at Wangfujing.
Tuesday was the highlight of my week until Friday. That is the day we had our midterms in class. I did better on this midterm than I had done on the final and midterm from last quarter, so I was happy. My grades were not stellar, but I have had progress, so I am happy.
Friday night was also really special because I got to eat dinner with a classmate of mine and my good friend Eric Stowe. Eric and I studied Chinese together at the University of Washington. Right now he has a great working for an adoption agency in Tacoma. He just so happened to be in Beijing this week, so we planned to hang out eat dinner together. We went to a really nice vegetarian restaurant near Wangfujing. We had a great conversation about all sorts of things including the trip to Nepal he just took. He had some amazing pictures of the children and villages he on his trip. I really envy Eric for the work that he does.
Tonight we had a movie night at my classmate's apartment. We shared pictures that we had taken in China and then afterwards we watched a romantic comedy called Something's Gotta Give. The movies stars Jack Nicholson, so at times it is a little hard to not think about The Joker from Batman. At other times it is hard to accept him as the person chosen for this role, but at other times he suits his role really well. I think it was a decent movie, so I might watch it again sometime.
Besides all this excitement I realized again this week what it means to be a skateboarder in Beijing. If I am anywhere on campus or around campus I get lot's of looks, but something very strange happened on Friday. I was going to my friend's apartment to fix her computer when I had just crossed the intersection. I heard a person yelling my name. It was not my Chinese name and not too many people around here really know my English name. I was really confused as to who could be yelling my name in the middle of Wudaokou. I turned around to see my classmate from the UW jumping out of a taxi waving me down. I knew he was in Beijing, but not at the same university where I study. He told me that as he saw a skateboarder in Beijing he figured it could only be one person ... me.
This example on top of the time my neighbor in my apartment telling me he has watched me skateboard in other parts of the campus makes me feel as if my skateboard is now acting as a large nametag.
In addition to all this "excitement" I went out and bought a small christmas tree with some lights and ornaments today. All of it came out to about $6 and it gives my room a nice Christmas flavor, so it makes me happy. There are a few final touches I need to make to the tree, but for now it comforts me. Here is a picture of my nice little xmas tree.
Finally if you guys want to see the church I skateboard at, here is a picture of the Church at Wangfujing.
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