I Washed Too Many Socks At Once...

But at least this time I didn't turn them green.

Living in a country where I don't speak the native language is proving to be quite the interesting adventure. Even the simplest tasks are sometimes impossible to do right. Like for example laundry. The first time I washed some medium color clothes, I tossed in a couple pairs of socks (just like I've done a thousand times in the States). When I pulled them out I discovered they had aquired a definant lemon-lime green color. This time my mistake was my own fault. I put a few too many socks in the washer and now I am having a difficult time find enough places to hang them all. (The dryer machine here is a waste of yuan). I'm slowly getting used to the crispy feeling of air dried clothes.

Sometimes it gets unbelievibly frusterating. Like when I'm trying to write a paper and the computer keeps writing characters instead of letters. Or when I go to the shopping market and the sellers double or triple their starting price because they know that Westerners 1. don't know how much it should cost, and 2. usually have poor bargining skills.

Overall, China is proving to be a great experiance. I am really liking my Chinese language course. I have my first exam on Monday. We just finished up on Traditional Chinese History and will start the next session after National Day Holiday Week.

To appease certian people who have repeatedly requested pictures (and because I want to) here are some more pictures:

Way back on September 7th we went to the Imperial Academy and the Confucious Temple. in ancient times when a scholar passed his examination his name would be engraved on one of these large stone slabs. I decided that it was somewhat fitting (and a cool picture) for me to stand amoungst the names of people who had spent plenty of time studying for exams in the pursuit of higher education.


The next two pictures are from that same day, only at the Buddhist Temple run by Tibetan Lamas. The first one is of a temple structure with another odd little structure in front of it. I'm unsure of the purpose of the building. The other little one (with the fence around it was covered with coins which people were throwing. As I understand it, if you can get your coin to land on it you get some luck in return.

This other picture is of a man using a stick of incense to sweep out coins which he would then share with his wife so they could throw them back again hoping to get one of them to stick.



On September 21st we went to the Capital Museum which just opened in March of this year. It was phenomenal. Here is a picture of what ancient Chinese people used for money. Kinda looks like it would hurt to carry around. (The holes are to put it on a string).


I couldn't resist testing out my camera's macro mode on on of Beijing's many roses.


Hopefully I'll add some more in the next few days. On Tuesday afternoon we leave for our National Day Holiday trip. I'd tell you where we're going but I don't remember.