June 21

This was the last day of class pretty much, since we take a test tomorrow. We went over two Chinese poems, and wrote our Chinese names on the board in characters (Mali is Chinese for Mary).

This is the class with one of our teachers, Li Laoshi.

Ben is missing from this picture because he doesn’t come to class, and I’m crouching down so you can see Burton’s face.

During break I wrote down lists of all the gifts I bought, and who they go to, to see if I missed anyone and need to buy more. I think I probably do. Luckily some of my family is coming here in a month, so they can buy their own damn gifts :)

We were supposed to take an afternoon excursion to Yu Gardens, but it was just raining a bit, and very smoggy, so Jenny and I might go tomorrow instead. Lounging around and watching TV was divine.

I also decided to go check out some of the stores again, and picked up a few more DVDs and two really cute dresses! They rarely have stuff in my size since, well, Chinese people aren’t my size. But I found two that actually fit, they’re adorable, and they were (my favorite quality) cheap!

Got back to the room, craving French fries. They aren’t on the hotel’s menu by themselves, but come with the burgers, so I figured it was probably possible to get them by themselves. I called in two orders of fries with ketchup to room service, and minutes later we got two good-sized bowls of delicious deep fried goodness. Heaven.

I wore one of the new dresses to dinner. We decided to go with Thai, but picked the restaurant that’s at the same location as Hazara and Face (the Indian Restaurant and bar we visited another night). At Nan La Thai we ordered spring rolls, satay, cashew chicken, and red, green, and yellow curry. Everything was delicious, as we’ve come to expect from most restaurants here. Bellies full with food and drinks, we had another round out on the patio, and then cabbed it home, since we have a test in the morning.