Recap

What I've done since Hong Kong:

Bought a pair of Timberland work boots. 140 RMB ($17.50). The initial
price was 280 RMB ($35). Similar bargaining techniques as the memory
card reader, except this time I had a Chinese girl with me who worked
some magic. We saw much cheaper but they were all bad copies of
Timberlands, the ones I bought look real. The cheaper ones were
probably just as good, but oh well.

Seen Tsinghua (Qinghua) University. This is the second best
university in China behind Peking/Beijing University. Supposedly very
elite. The same girl that helped me get the boots introduced me to
her brother. He is working on a computer engineering masters at
Tsinghua. He had just come back from a large world conference on some
sort of networking in NanJing China. He showed me the conference book
which was published and the paper that he wrote with 2 other guys
from his department. It was all real complex stuff but maybe one day
I'll get it. He was obviously very proud of both his paper and his
university. They were both very impressive, the Tsinghua campus is
very large compared to mine and for being in Beijing it has a nice
and quiet feel to it, even though there were still a good bit of
people. It is large enough to provide a barrier between you and the
city.

Went to a party hosted by a few of about 18 Tongans living in
Beijing. Some of them go to my school, one is the daughter of the
Military Advisor to China and the Ambassador. I don't know where
exactly Tonga is, but its an island in the south Pacific, the people
are polynesian. They were cool.

Had a few decent conversations with cab drivers. They are infamous
for their horrible Beijing accent, but surprisingly I've been able to
talk to them. I've talked about their families, their careers as
drivers, the NBA and different players. One guy told me that he was
Mai Ke Qiao Dan's friend, since they were born in the same year.
(Michael Jordan). I've learned words as well, such as truck and
another word for bus, but I don't remember them. Its hard for me to
learn words in that manner, since I didn't use them again, and since
Chinese words are built out of one syllable smaller words, they lack
uniqueness. I've heard all of the possible Chinese word sounds, so
its not like something sounds new. If a word applies to me or holds
some interest to me, then I will remember it.

I've been called a flower hearted big radish by my language partner.
She told me that when I found out what that meant, I would come after
her with a knife. But then Mrs. Schuler told me it meant Playboy. Who
knows why. Whether that applies to me or not, I don't know, but I
have no clue why she called me that. She also told me that she has
eaten more salt that I have eaten rice, or just food in general.
Since Chinese rarely use salt that means she has eaten a lot, and is
therefore more experienced than me. Again, I don't know why she said
that, but she does like to elevate herself and China above me.
Sometimes I think she says in Chinese, something about Chinese vs
American intelligence. After she mentioned Shenzhou 6, the second
manned Chinese rocket which launched in October, she said, "Chinese
are so smart". It sounded sort of weird. However it's not my style to
rip other countries or patriotic individuals. I think this was after
I said Beijing smelled bad by noting the notorious Beijing air. She
took offense at that.

Three tests in the next 2 days, not really worried. One test is ten
minutes of speaking and it means I can sleep until 9:30. Next week is
our school trip to Shanghai and a bunch of other cities in the
Shanghai "Golden Triangle" area. Any souvenir requests?
Two weeks after going to Shanghai with school I will go back to
Shanghai for a "friendly weekend of ultimate frisbee" Its basically a
grudge match between 2 Beijing teams and 2 Shanghai teams after the
Hong Kong tournament.

I've been invited to a Thanksgiving party by this girl from Virginia
in high school here that I met. Her family works at the embassy and
has a party each year so don't worry, I will celebrate Thanksgiving.
However with the closing of the poultry markets in Beijing due to
avian flu and I think the lack of Turkey's in China, I don't know
what the main course is.