Solo adventures

So I have the last day(of first week) of class tomorrow with an oral test and a skit. No matter where you are group projects are the worst. Classes have been a lot of fun, in the mornings we have a listening test and read over a dialogue then we drill on new vocab and grammar for three and a half hours with scattered breaks. The afternoons vary, some days we have a supplementary class which involves working on scenarios that you would often find yourself in while in Beijing, such as ordering food, buying stuff, and taking a taxi. Also we have 1on1s and 2on1s where we talk and talk and talk in Chinese using grammar we have been working on and getting some focused instruction. Also once a week we have to go to a public place and talk with Chinese people. So my free time, is explore time (I do actually study ) so Monday I wanted to go to a park but at the particular entrance I found, when I asked the homie if I could go through(in Chinese) he looked at me and said…. “NO” well… okay…. It’s a public park…. private entrance? 我不知道(I don’t know) . So I said screw you I’m taking the subway one stop was Yuanmingyuan park. SO I hit that. Also known as the Ruins of Yuanmingyuan it was first constructed in 1709 during the reign of the Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty as a private garden, over the next 150 years it was expanded by Chinese emperors covering a total of 864 acres. Then in 1860 Anglo-French Allied Forces plundered and blew everything up<------- Long very interesting story cut short and butchered. This fat map is what it looked like back in the day

Moving on, it is divided into three parts and I only covered one part in the three hours I walked around, Changchunyuan( the Garden of Eternal Spring) It was absolutely beautiful

In its heyday Yuanmingyuan had nearly 200 bridges. This is the only preserved old stone bridge.

Here is some photo spewing to get an idea of where I was

Zelan Hall, was on southern slope on the central axis of the ChangChun garden that covered 10,000 sq meters of land and was one of the main libraries in the Changchun Garden

They also had a Huge Panorama model of the gardens constructed from old articles and books which was amazing.

It was very beautiful, Imma have to go back and check out another section.

SO INFORMATIVE

Yo let me tell you about things that I was deprived from in my childhood:
1. Annual snow
2. Ice sports
3. THIS BIKE

4. THIS SLED

5. THIS SLIDE

It’s weird for me because growing up the coldest it ever got for 20(almost 21 OOHH BABY—oh wait it doesn’t matter)years was 15 degrees so frozen lakes are strange. Are these safe? Probably not. Do they do this in America? YO get sued.

 So all is good, Going to Tiananmen square this weekend and going see a movie in Chinese YUSSS. Good luck homies on winter quarter, it’s always the worst.