有山有水，pandas, weiduomei

With another blink of an eye, we are down to two weeks left! Today at lunch, we were discussing what we will miss most about China, and what we're most looking forward to. Generally, we're going to miss the Chinese prices, but we are also ready for clean air and ice water. Being in China makes you appreciate the simple things in life.

Yesterday, the program took us to Shidu, where we were all prepared to see 山 and 水 (mountains and water, the only two things mentioned when they told us about Shidu) but we also found out a few days ago that there is bungee jumping there. That was my incentive for going, as frightening as the thought of bungee jumping in China is, but unfortunately, the day did not go as planned. First, we hit traffic that turned a two-hour journey into a five hour journey. If I never see a Chinese coach bus again, I will be a happy child. We also did not go to the part of Shidu that had bungee jumping. Granted, it was a beautiful place. We got yelled at several times for failing to notice "no admittance" signs, but managed to find some fun trails to go on. There were a lot of stairs....definitely feeling it today. It's weird that there is such a scenic spot close to Beijing - but the change of scenery was very welcome.Near the end of the day, most of the other people in the programs went with the teachers to the river, where we commandeered a fleet of bamboo rafts. I was glad that I did not have to work the poles as it looked like hard work, but we kept the morale high by singing "I'm on a Boat."
There also was a zipline across the river, but I unfortunately did not get a chance to go across. So Shidu was less exciting than I had hoped, but I still had fun.

On Friday, we also went to the 动物园，the zoo. I love the zoo. At heart, I am a two year old and thus get very excited at the thought of lions and tigers and bears. And as an added bonus, there are pandas at the Beijing zoo. It was deathly hot that day, but a friend dumped ice water on my head which made things better for awhile.

We also went to the market across from the zoo, which was quite the experience. Unlike the Silk Market, which is entirely composed of foreigners, this place was all Chinese people. There was very little bargaining necessary which made shopping much less of a sport.

I also lost my phone...I think I left it in the cab coming back from the zoo. I'm still debating whether or not I should get a new one - surviving without a phone has been an interesting experience that I've grown rather fond of.

Since all of the actual UIBE students are gone for summer vacation now, the campus has slowly been shutting down, but also has gained a lot more foreign students on programs like ours. However the morning breakfast stand, and the East Gate (that we used to frequent to get to restaurants) are both closed. The nearby supermarket also has more empty shelves than stocked shelves. In lieu of the egg tortilla thing, I have been frequenting 味多美, a nearby bakery whose name means "taste more beautiful." The pain au chocolat and baguettes are too delicious - a good portion of my weekly food stipend goes towards this lovely place.

8 weeks goes by so quickly. My goal for the next two weeks is to study less and do more. Before, it was so easy to stay in my air conditioned room and study and say I'll go out and see things later, but we can't do that anymore. My grade can't suffer that much, and really, 经验比成绩重要 （experience is more important than grades).

One more gem of a picture from last night - at Wudaokou Solutions with the Yale 哥们人.
I still have yet to see a lot of the PIB and HBA students - our paths have just not crossed. Hopefully soon!