China, - last day

Before I begin this, I made a cut against "apologetics types" in a recent post, which was unfair and based on an isolated incident. I have a lot of respect for a lot of "apologetics types" so, if you are one of them, I apologize for the comment.

This last page wasn't written in China, I think it was written a couple weeks later in Sendai.

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We spent one more day in Beijing, but because I didn’t write a journal page for it, it's hard to remember what happened. Funny thing, journals. I couldn’t take many photos either. But I did meet up with my friend Chenggang, who was one of my best friends at Penn State.

[Insert: we met up near the train station at a McDonalds. We took a bus and the sub to various places, before getting off at kind of a cool old alley-way. We found people selling various things, and found a building where a dozen artists were working, painting these kind of pictures.]

[She seemed to be in charge]

[Painting bamboo]

He was visiting for a year, from Peking University. He met us when we got out of the train, and took us on a tour of his university. Peking University is really an amazing place. It’s got beautiful parks, and buildings, and a lot of history. It also regularly vies with the nearby Qinghua university for the “best university in China” spot. More foreign exchange students come from Peking University than any other university in China, I was told. Because you don’t pick your school in China, they basically ship all the best and the brightest to this school. It was pretty neat walking around. Also, I guess they have some pretty special library there, the biggest in all of Asia.

[Peking University, some big building]

[At the park]

[Chenggang, and some historic campus building]

[Hmmm... I wish my campus looked like this]

[Catching fish... the stream through the park was remarkably clean]

[I guess it was graduation day...]

[Leaving the university]

It was great to hang out with Chenggang, he seems to be healthy, and doing well. After we took off, we found a strange little “American café” that was supposed to be like American culture. The guy who owned the place gave us drinks on him, which was really nice. Got to admit, it was a pretty nice place, if I went to that university I’d probably hang out there.

[Mari and the manager]

[The interior...]

Hmmm after that, because the following day will be my birthday, they take me to a really nice restaurant where you pick what you want to eat and fry it over a little barbecue type thing. It tastes really good, and it’s a lot of fun. That was really nice of them.

[Heh heh heh]

We hang out with Liu Kai for a while, and eventually go back to the same hotel we stayed at the night I arrived.

[Hanging out with Liu Kai the night before I leave]

The following morning, I grab a taxi at dawn, and head to the airport. The taxi driver can’t speak any English, so I get to practice my Chinese. My Chinese, while being for completely useless for practical things like getting from A to B, is actually not to bad conversationally, and I had a decent small conversation with him, but I totally forget what it was about. Anyway, then I flew back, took the Shinkansen back to Sendai. I don’t think I’ve ever taken a trip that was so jam packed with memorable, incredible things.

THE END.

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[really, the end]