Day 8

Today everyone got up kind of late because of the late night last night. Alex called me at 10 to tell me to meet him in the lab. I met Lily outside the lab building, and she said I was going to go with her to a friend’s house. We walked across campus and met four more of her friends near the gate to campus. I thought this friend lived on or near campus, but I was very wrong. We ended up getting on a bus. Once again I thought it wouldn’t be too far away, but once again I was wrong. We were on the un-air conditioned bus for about an hour, during which I developed an ear splitting migraine from the intense heat. It is very hot and muggy here. The lows at night are only in the 70s, and it’s only going to get hotter.
Lily’s friend’s apartment was very nice, but very small. It only had four rooms. Her friend had just got married, so she was throwing a dinner party to show off her new place. They all spoke in Chinese because the friend knew very little English. Therefore, I sat there for about five and a half hours just smiling and looking interested. We left close to dinnertime, and barely made it back to campus in time to eat supper in the cafeteria. Then, Alex suggested we go to a mini mart that night. I had mentioned that I was almost out of breakfast food so I thought this was a good idea. He said we would meet in front of my building in twenty minutes, so Lily could change shoes, and I could drop my bag off in my room. It turns out that I misunderstood him though. We ended up hiking up Bai Wang Mountain near the campus (and yes it is a real mountain). It was a lot of fun, and since it was cooler on top with a nice breeze, my migraine went away. My only problem was that I didn’t have the proper clothes or shoes on. I was wearing a nice t-shirt, cargo pants (luckily not jeans), and my converse shoes (which have no support). On the way to the trail, we walked through tranquility garden. There were these fountains that danced with the music playing out of speakers all over the park. It was really cool to see. When we reached the top, it was nearly dark. We could see quite a stretch of Beijing. It is really beautiful at night because the major streets have huge lamps on them. It almost looks like a huge airport at night. It was a great ending to the day.