Tallest building in Beijing!

Hello everyone! So I have been rather busy these days, and actually I'm kind of tired now but I want to update this and tell you what I've been up to, since this weekend is going to be super busy and full of adventures! So later on Wednesday, Maeve came to my room and we decided to go try to find some food. Maeve said we should bring Robby since he has good Chinese but I thought we would be fine. We went over to the outlet place because we wanted McDonald's. So we got there and it was really crowded in there and I got nervous about ordering the food, so then we walked out!!! haha the language barrier is so bad, I always want to order food but I don't have enough vocabulary for that, so I have decided to learn some vocab that will help me with this! Well sometimes you can point to pictures but it's not the best option. Anyway, so we were still hungry. We were walking back to the dorm and we called Robby. He said he would come help us, so we met him and he took us to the other McDonald's. I had my usual, chicken nuggets and fries, and it was pretty much the same as in the US. The difference is that we don't have to throw our trash away, someone else does that! haha.

So after eating Robby said he wanted to show us the tallest building in Beijing since Maeve was going to leave in the morning. So we took the bus to Jinsong metro station and took the metro like 3 stops. Then we walked for a long time. We got to see an indoor ice skating rink which I hope to go and try sometime. Then we finally got there, and that was so tall!!! We took some photos and Robby said, "now we go inside". We thought he was kidding but he wasn't. Within 2 minutes we were in the elevator shooting up to floor 80!!!!!! And that elevator was FASSTTTTTT it zoomed up there in less than one minute man!!! My ears popped and I could not hear anything. By the way, I used to be deathly afraid of elevators but I decided to overcome the fear because I knew I would face the elevator in Beijing at some point, turns out I was VERY RIGHT about that! We got out and up there was like a fancy restaurant and I really don't think we were supposed to just wander up there but we did. I took some photos but they didn't come out very good. I will post them in the next photo post.

So then after we took the Subway and bus and walked back to the dorms and I called it a night. Thursday was also a long day. Well, I woke up at 6am because I had to go to some medical exam where they were going to take my blood. I am not fond of this so I was worried about it all night and not looking forward to it. I got up and dressed and ready and at 7am I was down on the bus waiting to go to the hospital. Then the guy was checking the passport and visa and he said if you have an F visa you don't have to go. That's what I have, so I ended up waking up for nothing!!! But I guess it was okay because I went back to my room and Skyped Huy. :)) Then later I was getting hungry so I told Michelle because we were chatting online and she sent her friend to come take me to get something to eat. Her friend is Stephanie and she is also American, and has been here on semester already. Stephanie said she had been trying to find me to meet me but the front desk kept telling her different room numbers (gee I wonder why..). So she was SUPER NICE and I was really happy to meet her. We went out to this noodle place called 一家面馆, and it was really kind of nice in there. I enjoyed my noodles with beef and broth, mmmm. Then we went back to the dorm because I needed to go to the campus tour. That was fun because I got to actually learn about my surroundings officially. After the tour I went back to my room for a while and relaxed until I was supposed to head to Jinsong station to meet up with my friend Tracy. I met Tracy on interpals.net and so it is the first time meeting. I was kind of nervous about it, and I only saw one photo of her so I was hoping I would find her. It was my first time to take the bus alone to get there, and only my second time at Jinsong. So I was waiting for her to come out, and then I saw this beautiful girl looking at me kind of excited, and I knew it was her! :)) I was so happy. We met and then she asked me where I want to go and we checked the map. I let her choose and so we got on the subway and went to a place called ... well I don't remember what it was called, I can ask Tracy and get back to you. Anyway, it was in the center of the city, and there were a lot of old buildings there. We were walking around and we got some food. We got this triangle pie thing that was sooo good, I want to eat it again, and we also got some chicken that was amazing too!! Then we walked for a long time and got cold so we got some milk tea. So the names of the three things we got were 三角烧 (the triangle)，第一佳大鸡排 (the chicken)，and 薏米仙草奶茶 (the milk tea which had rice and black jelly balls inside..). I want to eat them all again because it was so good. After we got the milk tea we went into the metro station and sat down and we were just drinking the tea and chatting there. We talked for a long time, and finally at 9pm we decided we had better catch the subway. She needed to take me back to my stop to drop me because she can go back to her stop, and she needs to ride one hour to get to her stop. So we rode for a long time to get to my stop. Then she got out at my stop to say goodbye. She gave me a hug, also she gave me a gift of packaged chicken wings and duck feet..... I have yet to taste them. I gave her some gifts too, cigarettes that she requested, chocolate, and moose key chain with Maine on it. It was great. I was so happy on the way back catching the bus and then walking to my dorm, and I slept well because I was happy.

Today was busy as heck too but I don't think I want to say too much about it because I'm getting sleepy. I went to the orientation which was the international office people telling us about the school and other random things. Then we had the welcome lunch at the restaurant on campus. That was cool because I sat with 9 other people at a round table with the spinning thing in the middle and so many dishes, all of which I didn't recognize. I ate many things, some I don't want to eat again, and others I really enjoyed. I chatted with the people there and they were all nice. After chatting I wasn't as shy, and my craziness came out a little bit and I was yelling like my old self, and those people seemed to enjoy it. :D I was happy. We ll laughed a lot together. Then after the lunch I bought my books for class. I ended up not having to pay for them though because of the program with UMF. Yay! :)) And they put me in level 1 for Chinese but the teacher said I might be able to do level 2 since I know everything in the book already. So then I came to my room and then Robby and I went to walmart to get a few things. I still have not bought a fan yet because they are hard to find, but tomorrow for sure I will get one. I need it!!!!! Walmart was pretty crazy, different than in USA but still similar. haha. After shopping I got some noodles to go at a restaurant and came back to my room. I ate noodles and watched Pretty Little Liars online (I needed something American!). And now here I am sleepy as heck. Tomorrow I am going to climb a mountain with Vince so I will take a lot of photos.

Starting to miss everyone back home, but still really having a blast here!!!! :)