So yesterday Yaohui took me to the Old Summer Palace. I also discovered that moon cakes are gross. The Summer Palace was destroyed by the French and the British during the 2nd opium wars, and the Chinese government decided that they wanted people to remember that event, so they are not rebuilding the palace. I gotta say, for not rebuilding there was a lot of construction going on. They were creating new pathways all over the place and building new exhibits and making sure that the ruins were safe for tourists. They just weren't rebuilding the main buildings.
It was immense. We were there for at least 7 hours and we didn't see the entire area. Granted there were periods where we were too tired and just chilled on benches, but most the time we were wandering around. I took 180 photos that day, which I will eventually upload on facebook when I have more time. I think at this moment I am only on my second day, maybe my 3rd, so I still have a whole weeks worth of photos to upload. Yaohui bought a ticket for a boat ride, which I then had to ask him to return. I remember how I felt in the Pacific in a large boat, I really don't think my stomach could have handled a ride in a row boat. I felt really bad about it, but if Yaohui minded, he didn't say anything. We got to see a group of black swans, Yaohui said it was his first time seeing them, apparently they are one of the things visitors to the park look out for. More importantly we saw kitties. I think I was on a one-woman mission to find every cat that was living in that park. I saw two right before we saw the swans, and then we went to a huge stone area where there were literally four cats just chilling. I think that the park visitors must feed them, because they were not acting territorial toward one another, and if food was scarce they would have been.
When we got back we saw Scrappy, and then later when we were talking in the lounge at the ICB building we heard a cat meowing. It was more like it was crying....so we went out and found a little white kitten. I named it Xiao Bai (little white, I know not very creative). I also tried to give it food, but it really did not want to be anywhere near us. This morning when I was working on the reading assignments to prepare for class Bobby (the Irish teacher who lives across the hall), knocked on my door. He said that if I liked kittens I should come look, and Xiao Bai and two other kitties were on the roofs across from the ICB building. Adorable. Cute little balls off fluff. I went back there after class and some students were throwing hot-dog looking things at Xiao Bai who had gotten down from the roof. Scrappy ran in and grabbed it, and ran up to the roof. So they threw another one at Xiao Bai who hid. Scrappy came down about 2 seconds later and started ripping into the packaging on the things that look like hot dogs. Then Xiao Bai ran up and grabbed it. So I like to think that Scrappy is a parent and brought the first dog up to feed the other kittens. I think when I go shopping next I'll see if there is any cat food. There was a 5th cat that Yaohui and I saw outside of the ICB building, but I didn't get a good look at it.
Because of the Old Summer Palace Escapade I missed dinner with Colin and his sister (they kinda adopted each other, no blood relation). He showed up at the ICB guest house where I'm staying to pick up a paper he forgot, and I got to meet his sister. He also gave me some carnations...5 purple ones. A really nice gesture but I know I'm going to kill the poor things. I wish I had known how large the Old Summer Palace was. I would have asked Yaohui to go a little earlier, and would have tried to get back in time for dinner.
Classes are going pretty smoothly. Its a little hard cause the teachers try to use examples that are relevant to the Chinese students, so sometimes they are talking about things I have never heard of. After this update I'm going to go and look up what SK 2 is. Like I know now, but I would like to know more about it. Also when we are working in groups the Chinese students automatically go back to speaking in Chinese, which is ok, but I still don't have the skills to follow the discussions. I have been staying up on my readings though. Yep that's about it.
It was immense. We were there for at least 7 hours and we didn't see the entire area. Granted there were periods where we were too tired and just chilled on benches, but most the time we were wandering around. I took 180 photos that day, which I will eventually upload on facebook when I have more time. I think at this moment I am only on my second day, maybe my 3rd, so I still have a whole weeks worth of photos to upload. Yaohui bought a ticket for a boat ride, which I then had to ask him to return. I remember how I felt in the Pacific in a large boat, I really don't think my stomach could have handled a ride in a row boat. I felt really bad about it, but if Yaohui minded, he didn't say anything. We got to see a group of black swans, Yaohui said it was his first time seeing them, apparently they are one of the things visitors to the park look out for. More importantly we saw kitties. I think I was on a one-woman mission to find every cat that was living in that park. I saw two right before we saw the swans, and then we went to a huge stone area where there were literally four cats just chilling. I think that the park visitors must feed them, because they were not acting territorial toward one another, and if food was scarce they would have been.
When we got back we saw Scrappy, and then later when we were talking in the lounge at the ICB building we heard a cat meowing. It was more like it was crying....so we went out and found a little white kitten. I named it Xiao Bai (little white, I know not very creative). I also tried to give it food, but it really did not want to be anywhere near us. This morning when I was working on the reading assignments to prepare for class Bobby (the Irish teacher who lives across the hall), knocked on my door. He said that if I liked kittens I should come look, and Xiao Bai and two other kitties were on the roofs across from the ICB building. Adorable. Cute little balls off fluff. I went back there after class and some students were throwing hot-dog looking things at Xiao Bai who had gotten down from the roof. Scrappy ran in and grabbed it, and ran up to the roof. So they threw another one at Xiao Bai who hid. Scrappy came down about 2 seconds later and started ripping into the packaging on the things that look like hot dogs. Then Xiao Bai ran up and grabbed it. So I like to think that Scrappy is a parent and brought the first dog up to feed the other kittens. I think when I go shopping next I'll see if there is any cat food. There was a 5th cat that Yaohui and I saw outside of the ICB building, but I didn't get a good look at it.
Because of the Old Summer Palace Escapade I missed dinner with Colin and his sister (they kinda adopted each other, no blood relation). He showed up at the ICB guest house where I'm staying to pick up a paper he forgot, and I got to meet his sister. He also gave me some carnations...5 purple ones. A really nice gesture but I know I'm going to kill the poor things. I wish I had known how large the Old Summer Palace was. I would have asked Yaohui to go a little earlier, and would have tried to get back in time for dinner.
Classes are going pretty smoothly. Its a little hard cause the teachers try to use examples that are relevant to the Chinese students, so sometimes they are talking about things I have never heard of. After this update I'm going to go and look up what SK 2 is. Like I know now, but I would like to know more about it. Also when we are working in groups the Chinese students automatically go back to speaking in Chinese, which is ok, but I still don't have the skills to follow the discussions. I have been staying up on my readings though. Yep that's about it.
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