So its been awhile since I last updated, and that's because things have been kind of crazy here in China for the last two weeks or so.

I'm not going to dwell on what happened, for those of you who know, but I've been so greatful for having Lizz, Julius, Joe Wat, and Andy Gao here for me. On a very positive note, Beijing was amazing. We took a soft-sleeper train from Shanghai to Beijing. We left around 7:30 pm and arrived around 7:00 am in Beijing. The first thing we did was meet our tour guide Steven and go to Tianmen Square. After that, we walked to the Forbidden City and looked around for hours. We were so tired. After that, we went to see the Hutongs which are old, traditional-style homes in the underdeveloped part of Beijing. They were amazing. There were two-person carriages that took us around, and Joe and I had an awesome driver. We had a pretty good Chinese conversation with him even while he was busy riding the bike. After that, Steven decided we still needed to see even more despite how tired we were, so he took us to the Summer Palace, which is famous for its amazing lake and Confucius' frequent visits. We had a nice dinner and returned to our hotel for the night which was the nicest hotel I've ever seen in my life. The next morning we woke up early and drove to see the Great Wall. We were advised to take the cable car half-way up the mountain so we wouldn't be exhausted for the climb to the top, but several of us decided to climb from ground level to the top of the mountain. It was the hardest thing I've ever done, but it was absolutely amazing. We got really lucky because our first day in Beijing was completely clouded over and the weather was awful. We were told that the only way we would be able to see the scenery from the Great Wall was if we had a HUGE storm the night before to wash away all of the fog. Unbelievably, we had that storm and the view was spectacular. After the Great Wall, we went to see the Olympic Stadium and had a decent dinner. On our last day in Beijing, we visited the Temple of Heaven and went to eat famous Beijing kaoya (roast duck). The duck was one of the best things I've ever eaten. After that, we did a bit of shopping at some famous shopping malls in Beijing...yay bargaining. Then, we were taken back to the train for our overnight ride and arrived back in Shangai the next morning. It was depressing going back to campus and getting ready to be picked up for homestay. I was the most homesick that day than I've been any other day so far. It was the combination of missing my family, being in trouble for almost a week, and the prospect of entering someone else's home that triggered it.

Luckily, homestay has been great for the past two days. The first night, they took me out to a fancy restaurant for dinner. They even purchased a private room, it was great. Then, they took me to a German store called Metro (which is just like Costco in America) to pick out food I might like. They took me to all of the imported food aisles and tried to look for American products. Unfortunately, Hu Chengdi's parents had a little fight in the imported cereal aisle over the best kind of cereal to feed me, haha. Then we went back home, I did a bit of homework, and went to sleep.

Their house is really nice. They are definitely a rich family by Shanghai standards. They have their own car, and a maid and a cook. Both parents are very busy and work demanding jobs, so I only see them around dinner time. They're trying to teach me Shanghaihua (local Shanghai Chinese dialect), so I'm trying to communicate as best as possible. Hu Chengdi's father speaks a little English, so we have some interesting conversations about Chinese-American relations, politics, etc. The mother, however, doesn't speak English at all, so this situation is a great test of my Chinese language skills.

That's about all I have to say for now, hopefully I'll be able to keep up with the blogging over the next two weeks. After that, I'm back to the dorm for one week and then I come HOME! I can't wait, even though I'm having a pretty good time here.

-Olivia