How Could This Have Happened?

Yesterday I shaved my head and my face for the first time in a long time. After looking in the mirror, I realized how skinny have gotten because I have not been eating and I have been walking everywhere. If you have ever seen the movie fight club, there is this seen where is in the aid comfort group and there is this girl dying of aids and all see wants to do is hook up one last time. Well, I look like that girl. My face is so skinny now, I kind of look like a whole different person, but in a bad way because I look sickly. This weather has not helped my skin complexion at all. I am already really light but now I look pale. But, on a good note, my la duzi is almost gone. I have been able to eat more and more so I probably will gain all this weight back pretty quickly. So don’t even trip, I am doing fine.

So what have I been up to lately, let me think. Oh Sunday! Sunday I went to eat an American breakfast with Clark, Cahill, Jamie, and Joy. It was so good too. Even though my pancakes were burn, the milk taste like cream, and it was really expensive, it was still all worth it. It was so good eating American food. When the syrup hit my lips, oh gosh, I was in heaven. I really miss Middlebury’s weekend brunch. If I could bring one thing to China it would be Middlebury’s weekend brunch. I didn’t realized just how much I missed American food until I went there. I mean, I was missing it, but that just made realize how eating Chinese good everyday is going to start to get tiresome. But what can you do? So anyway after breakfast we went to this ancient Chinese observatory. It was a place in ancient times where they looked at the stars. The place could have been really interesting but all the signs for everything was in Chinese, so I did not really now what I was looking at. But it seemed like some pretty cool stuff. And the signs that were in English, they were using really big words so I did not understand. Right now I my English, if I am lucky, might be at a fourth grade level. But I have no real use for English anyway. After the observatory, Clark, Cahill and I went to this place called Bai Yun Yuan (White Could Temple). Joy and Jamie went to the hospital but that is their story. All I have to say is there is karma in the world. It was a pretty cool place. It might have to be the world’s best Daoist Temple. But Clark, told me like anyone could even know that. Clark’s a jerkface. Anyway, this Temple had a lot statues, paintings, and buildings. It was like most other temples but with a Daoist feel to it, kind like you might have found back in the hippy era. It was interesting though. If I learn how to put pictures on this thing you might get see some of this cool stuff. But that will probably never happen. On our way out of the temple we met this Chinese guy and I think his girl friend, she didn’t really talk to use. This Chinese guy was hella nice. He just started having a conversation with us about China and America. As we were walking we told him we were going to the Subway, but he was like no don’t do that because the subway is hella far and the stop we were going to get off at is hella far from our school. So he showed us how to catch the bus. I have to say the Chinese people are so nice. I know I would not have done something like that, but hey that’s just me. I am just like that. After leaving there we went back to CET and meet up with Clark’s roommate and Wang Wei Feng. We all went to eat Hou Guo (Hot Pot). It is this thing that has a spicy side and not spicy side and you dip raw meet in it and let it cook and soak up all the flavor. It was really good. But the best part of the story is the next day. When Cahill and Clark got sick. I say this because I am not a mean person. But Clark and Cahill have been making fun of me ever since I have gotten la duzi. And now finally they are feeling the effects and that is so great. I love karma. So that was Sunday.

On Monday, Jamie and I went to the flag ceremony at Tiananmen Square. Let me tell you, it was freaking freezing. I thought my hands were going to fall off. These gloves that I bought in China are no help against the cold. The only reason I bought these things, is because they were the only gloves in China that fit my hands. Other than the fact they fit on my hands, I probably would not really call them gloves. These gloves could not even keep a cool breeze out. So anyway it was freezing. I think the best part about us going to Tiananmen was the way the cab driver ripped us off. I don’t know for sure if he ripped us off but I am pretty sure that he “GuYi RaoDao”(took us the long way) us. I swear it should have been a 15-minute cab ride, but it was more like 30 minutes. The second best part us going to Tiananmen was the fact that we got there an early to stand in the cold and wait for the flag ceremony to start. The reason that we got there so early was that one of the Chinese roommates told us that the thing start at 4:30 but it really started at 5:30. This is also the reason that we jump in a cab because we thought we were going to be late. Unfortunately we weren’t. However, I must say that once the ceremony started it was kind of cool. Like 20 Chinese army men march out of Tiananmen gate with their guns and all marching to the same beat. And I know this sounds bad, but they all look the same. They are all the same height and all their clothes are perfectly in place. When they take flag down and tie it is the best part, because they do it so quickly and tie the flag in some type of super not that I can’t even explain. This ceremony takes place everyday at sundown and sunrise. So if you are ever in Beijing, I think it is something that is worth seeing.