Unfortunately, it was cancelled

Unfortunately, the trip to the 13 Ming Emperors Tombs was cancelled because of snow and slippery conditions on the road.

Instead, I used the time to travel to Ikea. It was a bit crazy. I do have some pictures.

But I am feeling tired and I need to prepare for class.

Friday and the Weekends

Today was the first class of the Beijing Culture Class. We visited the bookstore of Beijing Language and Culture University. And then we had dinner on campus. We met two of Professor Na's undergraduate students studying English (who had already studied for quite a few years and are relatively fluent) and two students who just recently returned from France. The undergraduate students are named Lily and Ah Jian. I forgot to ask for the France students which I will find out later.


Professor Na had already planned a trip to the 13 Ming Emperors Tombs for tomorrow at 10 am. I will have pictures up soon. I believe his four students will be accompanying us to the tombs. w00t!

- Wayne

First Day of Class Afterwards...

I just came back from two classes, Listening and Reading. I could pretty much understand what the teachers were saying, but I didn't know any of the new words. Listening class was easy, but reading class was okay, so-so. I wander if I should consider the option to transfer to a higher level class?


Before first day of class:

I arrived in Beijing Sunday night, but my flight arrived an hour late. Then I had to take a shuttle from Terminal 2 to Terminal 3. TEAN took the group of us who had already arrived to a dinner at a local restaurant for some food. It was cold, but it wasn't that cold. Monday morning brought us an awesome buffet meal comprised of a mix of Western and Chinese cuisines. After breakfast, there was a presentation on our schedule in China, transportation, communications, housing, and contacts. Then we went to a Korean BBQ for lunch near the Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. Then we got to ride in rickshaws to a hutong in Beijing and had dinner in a restaurant in the hutong of Peking Duck. Then we rode the bus home all tired and ready to sleep off.

After Ceremony

I just came back from the ceremony, lunch and buying books for class. The ceremony was nice except for the part where a professor kept shouting into the microphone. Our ears hurt. There are five books required for our classes which cost us a total of 220 rmb. It's a nice price.

Morning Before the Ceremony

The opening ceremony of our classes are starting soon. Now that I have set up a stable and consistent internet connection, I can blog more regularly. I have also uploaded some pictures of my orientation @ http://s121.photobucket.com/albums/o209/dzboy15/Beijing/. The Password is wayne. Have fun!

Pictures!

Yup! I'm back with pictures!

This is a picture of Beijing International Airport(PEK).

This is a picture of our hotel, the Courtyards Marriott, that we will be staying at for the duration of our orientation.

This is a visit of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City.

This is inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Riding on Motorized Tricycle Rickshaws.

Visiting hutongs and a famous Peking Duck restaurant.

Visiting the Summer Place; the lake is manmade.

Great Wall of China at sunrise.

Finally getting online...

The first week of orientation was a blast. I have a tons of pictures to share. The first day I was in Beijing was Sunday night when my flight came in an hour late. And then I had to take the free intra-terminal bus to the terminal where everyone else was located at. There was a bus to take us everyone such as the Tiananmen Square, Forbidden Ciy, and the Great Wall of China. We had the famous Peking Duck and a New York Times Recommended Dumplings shop.

I will try to update more regularly now that I think I figured out how to get online.

-Wayne