okay.

THURSDAY

we toured the hutongs, which are some of the older, poorer parts of beijing. my group biked around the city, and while it was hot, and the weather that day on weather.com called for "widespread dust" (no, i'm not kidding), and it took a long time, it was a good time. our groups were competing to find as many random things as possible on a list compiled by our professors. for example, some items on the list were to find the dirtiest public bathroom, the cutest kid, or a street that looked like baghdad. there are a lot of streets in the hutongs that look like baghdad because some hutongs are being torn down since they're not generally the beijing that the government would like people to see. anyway, it was hot, and biking in beijing traffic is always going to be an adventure, but after five hours and many collected pictures, our group felt a real sense of accomplishment for all we'd done that day. personally, i really enjoyed the fact that the trip helped me get a better sense of where things are in beijing.

but also, the hutongs are a part of beijing that tourists don't usually bother to check out, and they're still a large and important part of the city. a lot of beijing looks and feels not much different from the us, but the hutongs, with their old, crowded, one-level houses and poverty and extremely narrow streets really did seem foreign.

anyway, i don't feel like i can accurately do justice to the experience in words. it was a good experience on so many levels. we got to see a part of beijing that really seemed foreign, and it gave us a fuller picture of what beijing is like. the hutongs also presented a direct critique to the modern beijing portrayed in the beijing planning museum and by the beijing planning commission. also, i really enjoyed the satisfaction of having biked for four or five hours straight. i had walked the great wall a few days earlier, and i felt so fit after all the walking and biking. i'm not generally a big exerciser, but i enjoyed that exercise.

FRIDAY

friday was our day off. i spent most of the day updating this blog, which took a ridiculously long time (you're welcome, mom and dad! :) ). this was because of the time it took to upload photos, and it's also the reason i won't be uploading any more photos in china. maybe i'll add photos to these posts when i get home.

but anyway, there isn't much to talk about for friday because i spent so much of the day blogging. i didn't really feel obligated to spend a lot of time looking around the city because our days had been so full for a week and a half or so. but later in the day i did venture out because i wanted to force myself to actively explore the city on my own instead of passively following whomever i was with, like i had been doing. i also really wanted to see the progress on the cctv building, which, when finished, will be the tallest building in beijing and certainly one of the most stunning in the world. the building isn't yet finished, and it was starting to get a little dark when i got there, but i got to take some pictures. even though the building isn't done yet, the two rising columns that have been built so far do look really impressive because they aren't perpendicular to the ground or parallel to each other.

SATURDAY

we went to beijing university to play a softball game with some of their students. we were all a little apprehensive about what the final score would look like. we were all afraid that we'd be playing against the university's team and that we'd lose badly. the team we played did have a number of players from the official softball team, but it was mostly made up of amateurs like us. it ended up being a close game at the end, and we pulled off a win in the last inning. despite the fact that most of us had not played softball in a really long time/ever, and despite the heat, which was kind of ridiculous, we all had a really good time.

we had the rest of the afternoon off, and i wanted to use it to check out a rene magritte exhibit i saw from the bus on the way to beijing university, but by the time i had reassured myself as to the museum's location and by the time i had walked there, the museum was already closed for the day. this was really frustrating, because i was fairly certain i had biked right by the museum on thursday and somehow missed the gigantic rene magritte sign in front of it. if i HAD seen it, i could have gone to the museum on friday, our day off. but since we were leaving beijing early sunday morning, i wouldn't get the chance to see the exhibit. so anyway, i can't believe i missed out on that opportunity, and i was a little disappointed by that, so on the walk back down wangfujing, i stopped to buy some clothes, which were ridiculously expensive by normal beijing prices and not exactly cheap by us prices either.

that night some of us went to a karaoke club that is way nicer than most karaoke places in the us. in that club, there is a private room for every party/group with a leather couch and a big tv. so yeah, really nice, but the privacy undermines part of the fun of karaokeing, which partly derives from letting go of your inhibitions and singing horribly in front of strangers. also, that club had a seriously limited collection of songs we knew by us standards for karaoke clubs, but we still had a really good time.

SUNDAY

we departed for and arrived in shanghai. the flight was short and uneventful, although i did get a window seat, which was awesome. :D how to describe shanghai? well, it's even busier and more crowded and less green than beijing, although it does have some parks. shanghai developed at the same time, and probably faster, than many american cities. anyway, i'll show you pictures when i get back. and i'll update more later today.