万圣节，国家博物馆 － Halloween and the National Museum

Besides being filmed by CNN on Wednesday for a special piece they are preparing about SYA China, I had a quiet week at school. On Friday, I went to the first meeting of the bilingual club, which organizes activities for us to do with the Chinese high school students. Because this Friday was Halloween, we taught them how to carve pumpkins and had lots of candy!  The temperature is really dropping quickly here, and the trees are losing their leaves.  In this picture, the trees are changing color along the entranceway to my school building.

On Saturday, I went to the National Museum of China, an absolutely gigantic building next to Tiananmen Square that contains thousands of artifacts from ancient China. They also had an interesting exhibit on how China regained its prominence after being dominated by foreign powers during the Opium Wars, and it was fascinating to hear the story from its point of view. Click on some of the pictures of the signs below — the way they describe the Communist Party is interesting.

Afterward, we were able to climb Tiananmen (the Gate of Heavenly Peace), which afforded a nice view of Tiananmen Square.

Today I am just doing homework in my apartment, but I think I’ll bake some cookies later this afternoon too!

Next Sunday morning we are leaving for our week-long trip to rural Shanxi province, so I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do another blog post until after that.