I promised I'd flesh out a few details today and that's what I'm going to do. I've spent a little time reminiscing about the last two months and here's what stands out...

Ethnic Minorities Park - a large park in Beijing that celebrates the different ethnic minorities of China - there are mock ups of their villages and houses that you can walk through and explore - pretty neat in a depressing sort of way (most of the real settlements and authentic houses have been knocked down and replaced with China's solution for modern living - the large soulless soviet-bloc apartment.) It was pretty much void of people and quiet - unusual for Beijing. And it was a bright, sunny, and warm day - all in all, perfect. I've got plenty of pictures.

The perpetual cold that I have had for the past six weeks or so - it's starting to get better now, but I've been hacking and sneezing for that whole time. Maybe it's allergies - I don't know. I've also been getting more than enough sleep in the last month or so - I've actually started going to bed at a somewhat reasonable hour - my mom must be proud.

Tom From Guam - a good friend of mine will be coming to Beijing soon, and while I have many good friends here in Beijing already, more never hurts. No that's not his real name, but I don't think he would like it if I was to put his real name here. For the sake of posterity, I feel I should say (as far as recruiting goes):
Team Beijing: 1-confirmed 2-probables 1-potential
Team Hong Kong: 0

LOTR:ROTK - I finally managed to see this movie in a real theater two weeks ago. The movie wasn't officially released in Beijing until March 14, although it was available earlier in slightly less legal forms, which I avoided like a plague. I wanted to see it in the theater first. Just getting to the theater was a quest in itself - Every mode of transportation that I took broke down on the way to the theater - taxi, bus, subway, ankles (a minor twist, nothing to worry about.) The trip should have taken an hour - it took me just under three to get to the theater. I did enjoy the movie.

That's all that really stands out - I'm sure I'll think of more as time moves on, but that's all you're getting at the moment.

It's been seven weeks since I last updated this - I'd apologize, but I don't really feel like it. So let me give you a quick overview: I'm starting my eighth week of the second semester - I only have six weeks left to teach before the end, and I have my students giving speeches for the majority of the time (this both minimizes my time spent making lesson plans and gives me pseudo-concrete things to grade them on.) My spare time is spent napping (I'm always tired and I've had a perpetual cold for the past few weeks,) cleaning, studying Chinese, playing Euchre and strategy games with Jared, Mike, and Christie, and watching the occasional DVD. My time is flying by here in China; I haven't seen all that I want to see nor done all that I want to do...I'm debating over staying for another year at the moment. I'm leaning towards staying right now, but I haven't made any final decisions yet.

A lot of interesting things have happened - my journal is getting thick and I have been documenting a lot of things for posterity with my camera - but alas my internet is still down, so I can't cut and paste like I'd like. I'm not going to take the time to retype everything, but once it's up again (should be relatively soon, now - I've put the machine in motion) I'll make up for all this lost time.

I know I've said this before, but I'll fill in more tomorrow - I have to put the finishing touches on my lesson plans for the upcoming week.