1. Tiananmen Square Flag-raising ceremony
So everyday when the sun comes up a bunch of Chinese soldiers ceremoniously marches out from the Forbidden City and put up the big Chinese flag on the flagpole and then watch it rise while loudspeakers play the Chinese national anthem. Okay, so I apologize for that summary lacking any romantic description, I'm just short for time here. I had heard that this ceremony was just something one should see if in Beijing, so I joined some friends in getting up at 4:30 am and taking a 15 minute ride on a bus at 5 am to Tiananmen Square..oh, and it was probably in the 20's or low 30's temperature wise :) . The ceremony happens daily, but on the weekends tons of people come out and watch. Freezing from head toe, we ran across the square once we got through the screening tent and ended up with the best spots in the whole place, front and center.
Too bad it was only 6 am and we still had another hour and 10 minutes to kill before the ceremony would take place. As more and more Chinese people (mostly tourists) gathered around us and and the other side of the street I began to realize the truth in what a Chinese friend a told me. He had said that this Chinese flag and the soldiers of the People's Army mean so much to the people; how, before the republic was established in 1949, people were suffering terribly in all kinds of ways. So flag and the army represent that renewed hope. And while Chinese will admit Mao's horrible mistakes, they still give him and the Chinese flag sincere respect for what they did to bring change to the nation. 
So yeah, it was pretty sweet watching the soldiers do their special march from across Chang'an Blvd. (长安街) with the traffic stopped and put the flag up. When we had got to the square it was completely empty except the soldiers standing guard... now the whole place was packed with people. I parted ways with my friends Courtney and Helen and made my way back to BNU to meet up with my classmates. One of my Korean roommates had arranged for us to go to this Korean-owned campground-like place at the base of Xiang Shan, a series of big hills an hour outside of Beijing.
2. Camping with My Classmates
Ok...so we didn't really go camping. Basically, one of the Korean guys in my class knew of Korean-owned camp-like-ground-place-thing at the base of Xiang Shan and organized for us to go up there for the weekend to hang out. And now I realize that I just wrote this exact information in the last paragraph...huh...well that's kinda embarrassing... but I'm not going to delete it... it's probably just a side effect of drinking all the melanine-filled milk I've been drinking (just kidding Mom...I only drink the healthy milk...the kind with lead paint chips). Anyway, so we got to the Korean place after an hour in this 17 person van (I know it was a 17 person van because it said so on the outside... I'm quick like that). Since it's the end of fall and beginning of winter most of the trees were bare and didn't look that all appealing, but it was a chance to get out of the city and breathe some less-polluted air so I appreciate it anyway. After having a Korean-style lunch (lots of kimchee) we played some basketball on the dirt court, had a relay race on these rickety old wooden paddle raft things, and played a type of tag-game. I took a nap after all the fun and was woken up by another Korean classmate who told me to come to the recreation room. We hung out there for the rest of the evening as it was freezing outside (it was freezing inside too with only small heaters... but I think freezing inside is better than freezing outside, just a personal preference of mine). Dinner was some awesome Korean BBQ pork veggie wraps and, of course, kimchee. Just to give you an idea of the racial mix, off the fifteen of us there, 10 were Korean, 2 Indonesian, 2 Japanese, and me. The rest of the night was filled with funny Korean drinking games, a weird food eating contest (think whole lemons, kimchee Sprite, etc.), and karoake. I had a good time just getting to know them all a little better outside of the classroom, not to mention learning more about their countries while sharing them what America's really about... not what the movies proclaim. They were all really interested in American politics and Obama and things of that sort too.
We came back Sunday morning and when I got back to my room I realized that I had exactly 3 weeks left week in China... so exciting...
Sorry for the lack of pictures they aren't uploading at the moment. I'll try again sometime later this week.
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