Beijing's Greener Side

Today we didn't have class, which was nice for a change. This meant I got to spend more time with my Chinese parents. We ate a relaxed breakfast of bread and milk, they even brought out some jam that I'm assuming one of their prior host student brought. They called it "American jam" and it had Minnesota in big letters across the label. I chuckled to myself. 

They decided to take me to the park today! Baba and I started walking to the bus stop, I told him that I needed to exchange money at the bank to pay for the park entry fee. He just chuckled and gave me a 100 元 bill and said something that I assumed was pay me back later. Mama caught up to us when we were waiting for the bus to arrive. These two really seem to have fun teasing each other. Baba says something snarky then Mama hits him and laughs. It's good to see. We rode the bus for a long time. We passed good quality high rises that would be the Chinese-apartment buildings version of suburbs in the US. We saw a McDonalds along the way as well and Baba taught me the transliteration to be "mài dāng láo" or 麦当劳. Mama also pointed out the giant canal/trench that I could run along from their house. It leads all the way to the Summer Palace which is where we were headed.

We got to the park and as I stepped in, the view took me aback. This place was huge! For those of you who don't know, the Summer Palace was the emperor's escape during the hot summer months and where he went to celebrate his birthday. The park has a very big lake in it with a few islands and an earthen causeway that cuts across it. The path goes all around the park, which also has plenty of bridges. Baba first showed me the "shíqī kōng qiáo" or 17 Tunnel Bridge. It's the longest bridge in any of China's parks. On it are balustrades (I think) with 544 little lion statues, with multiple lions on each balustrade. 

Baba brought their camera with because they didn't want me missing out on capturing today. What an awesome guy. So although the pictures from his ancient camera are a little lower in quality, I still have pictures and I'm happy with that. We walked around the park clockwise. Along the way, Mama told me that the willow trees line the whole lake and that the lake itself is covered in lotus flowers in the spring. We came across another bride that also has its own name. This one, they explained to me got its name from how it looks like an arched back. Right before the causeway, we came across old guys playing with Chinese yo-yos and really long whips. The guys with the yo-yos were unbelievable! They had the string twisted between their legs and around their back yet they still guided the yo-yo without mistake. Mama ushered me to try the whip and when I did it was impossible to make it crack without losing an eye. 

We made our way to the other side where the giant pagoda was then through this outdoor hallway with hundreds of different murals painted on the ceiling. Mama pointed a few of them out and told me a short story about each. There were a lot of foreigners here and I couldn't help thinking to myself how lucky I was to not only have local tour guides, but also to live with them too. I was freezing cold for the second half of our time there so Baba suggested that I run around a little. For something that we consider to look a little silly, running around in jeans to get warm actually works. We stopped at a bathroom too and the first think I did was run my hand under the hot tap water that helped my hands defrost. 

We got back to our apartment building and as we got in the elevator, I got a phone call. One of my classmates called me to say he'd found my camera! It turns out that sometime before we got in that cab, my camera got into his jacket. I was so elated. God is so good, somehow I had this feeling it'd show up and I was right. This is only a small testament to how God does care. I had lunch at home then quickly rushed over to school to get my camera. What a good feeling to have it in my hands again. It was a gift from my parents and grandparents so losing it would have been hard to tell them (I told Mom and Dad after I found it...). 

I sat in the library for a while burning through some papers I had to write. New semester students arrived the night before and were individually frequenting in and out of the library. Some of them spoke a little Chinese and others didn't speak a lick. It'll be interesting to hear how they improve after the semester of severe language immersion. Time came for me to head home and I first took the bus down the road to a big supermarket to buy some tea. The place was so busy because people were just getting off work and needed to do shopping for dinner and breakfast the next morning. The amazing thing about the Chinese is that they buy by necessity, meaning they'll only buy food for the next meal usually. It really is a good idea and it saves a lot of waste. 

After supper I met up with the gang at PBD Pizza. It's a joint about half a mile walk from the school. PBD has a log cabin feel and has really good pizza and fries for really cheap, making it a great hangout spot. There's a foosball table there too that we played a few tournaments on. I told Baba and Mama that I wouldn't be back too late so I left earlier than everyone else to find my parents already asleep.