My Life's a Soundtrack, I'm Just Playing DJ

What a great week. I got all of the pictures up from Guilin, I've turned in a paper, passed a Chinese test and had a great weekend. First, Friday night DJ Armin van Buuren, ranked #1 by DJ Mag top 100 DJs, was at GT Banana here in Beijing. All of us at TBC prebought tickets and went all out for this. Personally, I had no idea what to expect from something like this and techno music really isn't my thing but everyone had the time of their life. After a stressful week, this was what all of us needed. Besides the fact that everyone dressed in neon-colors, multiple layers, hats, ridiculous sunglasses and even wigs (Devon & Brittany), the best part of the night was the fact that we didn't return home until nearly 4:30 am. Saturday was spent mostly sleeping and my ears are still ringing from the hours of loud music. (Really, they are.)

Saturday, after sleeping until 1 pm, I woke up, ate and went to get paid. Tutoring really does pay off! Then, I came back to the dorms, we went out to eat and went back to Wangfujing Street to the night market. This time, we made sure it wasn't closed and that we could eat some creepy crawlers. Just wait for some of the pictures. There were kidneys, hearts, livers, testicles, penis, crickets, cicadas, grubs, silk worms, and scorpions. I ate something from that list and to be frank, it wasn't all that bad. I actually had another just to try it again. When the night market was about to close we all got some fresh fruit on a stick and called it a night. I was exhausted from the night before and when I got home, I watched some Entourage and slept.

This morning, I woke up all too early to tutor but in the end I just reminded myself I get paid way too much to talk with a 10 year old about nothing. Today, we went over action verbs to try and get him to form complete sentences, but he wasn't having it really. We eventually got him to say all the verbs with a simple subject (always "I"), verb, and object. We're making a bit of progress I think?

This week, I also dropped serious kuai when I went Christmas shopping. Sean and I headed to some of the largest markets around Beijing, including the Silk Market, and came back with nearly everyone checked off of our Christmas lists. But the homework still continues without end. I have two weekends in December when I'm going to be away from Beijing and out exploring Asia. This means that I have to write one art paper by December and another by the last class. Chinese class is relentless, always new characters to be memorized and learned. Further, my Buddhism class has a 15 page paper due at the end of the semester. School is school. It won't do much to complain but the only problem is that now everyone is scrambling to see Beijing. Many students have procrastinated and a majority of them haven't been to Tian**men Square yet, let alone the Summer Palace, Llama Temple, Olympic Green or Beihai. There are plans unfolding all around me to take a trip to this place or that place, to see this market this weekend or that district this day. As for me, I only have to see the Temple of Heaven, but I might not get around to that. I also planned on going to an acrobat show, which I think we're planning soon.

I'll post pictures of the party Friday and the Wangfujing eatings later on this week. Stay warm. Thanksgiving is in 11 days!