Boos in Beijing: Zoo+Houhai+Cole

Cole, a good friend from high school happened to venture into Beijing this past week, so I showed him the unique parts of Beijing that his family's tour wasn't going to cover. Okay, well, some of them, we didn't have much time. Turns out the most interesting pictures come from the Beijing Zoo, which is utterly massive, and an area of Beijing known as Houhai, which is a gorgeous lake area in the daytime and a crazy bar scene at night. And of course, we went to a couple traditional Beijing restaurants, but kinda ran out of time to do much of anything else, since my school schedule plus his ridiculous tour schedule did not workout well. Now his family and the tour group are in Xi'an for a few days, then off to so many other places; the tour sounds amazing.

This morning we had midterms, which covered 763 new words (yes, we counted), 14 lessons worth of grammar, and a 10 minute speech. Luckily, it sounds worse than it actually was. Now that it's over, I can relax for... 1 day. But next week another one of my good friends from high school, Kevin Watford, who I visited in Shanghai a few weeks ago, is coming up to Beijing with his father to explore the city. And yes, it is crazy awesome that two of my friends randomly decided to pop over to China at the same time, considering that we all scheduled our respective trips separately.

Tonight we're headed to Laoshe Chaguan, a play called Tea House written by a famous Chinese author called.... Laoshe. Not only is it a traditional Chinese performance, but we also get served traditional snacks and teas, which I'm excited about. I'm sure pictures will be forbidden again, just like the Chinese Acrobatics, so you'll have to live with some pandas for now.