four weeks down, four to go.

so we have reached the halfway point. friday we had our weekly meeting with our mentor and he reminded us that research is coming up with new ideas to contribute to the literature, not just reading other people's solutions and applying them to your problem, that's engineering. so we are going to try to come up with something completely original in the next three weeks. i had skipped lunch and was super hungry when we got off of work so we (the girls) went back to little sheep restaurant (hotpot) for dinner. went to bed early cause we (the girls, sean, and ryan) had big plans for saturday.


on saturday we woke up at 4 and met downstairs at 5. while we were waiting on people, i called my cousin rebekah who was getting married the next day. it was still friday her time, so she was getting married saturday. she did get married saturday. yay! time differences make things confusing. i also called allison and she had just gotten back from her first non-sports camp! and she loved it as much as i knew she would :) i can't wait to hear more about it! 1,000+ kids from one youth group, 100+ salvations, 245+ baptisms all in daytona beach. i have to go next year, or at least that is what she told me.

so we took taxis to the train station because the subway wasn't running yet. the train station was pretty impressive. i think this was the first real train i've ever taken. our train is called "green-skinned" because it is green and also the oldest type of train still running in china (aka no air conditioning). so we sweat for 2.5 hours and then we were there! "there" instantly reminded me of the dominican republic. we took a taxi to the gorge and it was so nice to ride through the countryside. pretty flowers, orchards, corn fields, things you never see in the city. the air was so much cleaner, but still cloudy. there was a huge dam in the valley and of course we had to climb stairs to get over it. let me remind you, it isn't a weekend in beijing without climbing something. britni and jasmine bungee jumped and then we all zip-lined across the gorge. AWESOME.



so we spent the entire morning there and then found some food and took a taxi back to the lake area. our plan was to find a place to stay the night and then check out the park around the lake and maybe go swimming. we found a room for all of us to stay in for 150 RMB. there were some reasons it was so cheap. but i can sleep anywhere for just one night, right?

so we changed in to our swimsuits and walked to the park around the lake. and guess what, NO SWIMMING IN THE LAKE ALLOWED. what?!?! apparently chinese people don't know how to swim and keep drowning in the lake, so they outlawed it. umm so what were we going to do? we rented a paddle boat, paddled out there, and then britni, jasmine, and sean jumped in. yeah we got in a little trouble, but at least they got wet. i stuck my feet in. the main result of that trip was to make me miss living on lake murray.

we decided to not spend the night and go back to beijing late that night since there wasn't much left to do on sunday. so we walked the mile back to our "room" and changed. we took a taxi back to the train station area and found a restaurant that looked crowded with locals. when we walked in, they took us straight back to a little room with just one table in it. yay special treatment. the food was SO GOOD. and super cheap! six of us ate for 103 RMB. crazy.

after eating we still had two hours to burn before our train got there, so we walked around a little. still having flashbacks to the dominican. then i decided to get a haircut. yeah you read that right. so three of the four girls got our hair cut. this is the shortest i have had my hair in a while. it always takes me a while to get used to any haircut. the salon was pretty nice and it only cost 15 RMB to get a wash and cut. two bucks. the funny thing was they kept my hair that she cut off and put it on the table. i guess they don't see very many blondes.

we finally got on the train (this one newer and air conditioned) and got back to the apartment around midnight. now that is what i call a full day! today (sunday) we are taking it easy and finding that american food heaven again. the salad bar at sizzler is calling our names. hope we can find it again :)