Today was a pretty standard day– Chinese class in the morning, speaker in the afternoon, time off in the late afternoon (SOOO needed!), and– highlight of the day– the Beijing Olympic Park in the evening. This was day 6 of Chinese class, meaning I’m officially 2/3 fluent in the language, and I have to say it’s a pretty good feeling. I’m still confused why I don’t understand a lot of what people are saying– I’m just assuming that all the practical stuff I learn in the last third of the class. Professor Liu keeps asking me if I’m going to take Chinese at Vandy when I get back– I’d love to take it, because the language is freaking awesome (except the whole thousands of characters to memorize thing), but I’m already at 18 hours for the next two semesters, and even auditing the class would cost about $1000 for each of the 5 credits the class would require. We’ll see how it works out.

The speaker this afternoon was really interesting– she’s an Econ professor at a local university, and spoke really good English which made it easy to pay attention. She did, however, lecture for the large majority 90 minutes– something I don’t miss about life at Vandy. The most interesting aspect was her analysis of China’s ¥4 trillion economic stimulus package, much like the US’s stimulus package. She went into the details, how the money was being broken down, and how China’s stimulus was different than the US’s (mostly, China’s stimulus is going to the people while the US’s stimulus is going to the big corporations. Thanks GM!). A large chunk of the money is going to finish Beijing’s MASSIVE subway building– they’re in the process of over doubling their subway rails. There’s already 3 million people that ride the subway every day. There’s a lot of people here.

The coolest thing of the evening was definitely the Olympic Park. We took the subway there, and got there with just enough time to see all the buildings with all the lights on in full glow. The Bird’s Nest, Water Cube, and broadcasting tower were beautiful displays of every color imaginable, and it was definitely way more impressive in person than on TV. Of course, I took lots of pictures for your entertainment below. I’d have taken more, especially of a fair lit up across the lake, but the lights started turning off and our professor rushed us out of there pretty quickly.

On my way home, I stopped back by Wudaokou, where I ran into Adam Dekich, a friend from high school, the other day. We hung out, ate some lamb, and I walked back to campus (almost 2 miles). My legs are beginning to hate me, but I guess that’s a good thing? Still loving it here.

In walking back from downtown Auburn last night to my car (it’s a long walk!) I found an easy way into Jordan Hare stadium as they do construction on the east side.  So of course, I busted in and snapped photos until my camera died.  Taken with my point and shoot with no tripod, they didn’t turn out as well as I’d have liked, but I plan to go back soon and do some damage.