Jan. 15

Today we went to a high school that's associated with BNU, the 大学 (university) at which we're studying. The school was beautiful, with an indoor courtyard that had lots of pretty stone structures, small gazebos, and a pond that was slightly frozen at the time. A translation error caused me, Eric and Scott to mistake a guy saying "too thin" (referring to the pond's sheet of ice) as him saying "I'm full." The Chinese language is really quite curious.
Then we had tai chi class in a gym. It was boring and not calming at all. People were playing basketball right behind us. Kyle and I attempted to make tai chi, partner tai chi. That made it somewhat more amusing.
Then, we took out Sunny for dinner because she's the best helper and friend ever. However, there wasn't enough room for us to all sit at one table, and Pong and Sunny sat at a different table than the one we were at. Service was slow and the food wasn't that impressive, so I was kind of disappointed. At least I was sitting between Jon and Fii. Never a bad pair to be between :).

At night, me, Fii, Jon, Scott, and Anna all went out. First, we went to meet up with Steven at a really, really nice bar called Mesh. It was 2 for 1 drinks that night, which was good because the drinks were expensive - about 70 kuai each. I got a delicious lychee martini and then an expresso martini! It was really fun meeting a bunch of Steven's friends, too.
Then, we parted ways with Steven and went out to this club called Banana, which Jon had heard was really good. It was intense! The music was this Eurotechno music that had such huge bumps and beats, that my whole internal organ system felt like it was being pressed and tugged against my insides. The walls were decorated with mirrors, carpeting that was molded into waves, ,and metal sheets with small decorative bubbles, hot pink bathrooms, and a dance floor that vibrated, platforms that raised and lowered from the floor and ceiling, and tons of tvs.

On the way home, we had to split into two cabs and Anna and Scott's cab driver got lost and went to the OTHER Peking University! I learned a Chinese curse word that night. Anyways, it was not a happy scene, but Fii's relative fluency in Mandarin saved the day and got us all home safe and sound. Yay!