School and some Exploration

This week was my busiest at school so far, with more and more characters to memorize each night.  I am enjoying most of classes, though, it’s just the homework that gets to be a drag.  I’m working for a long time each night, but I’m getting through it just fine.

On Wednesday after school, we took a class trip to the Forbidden City (故宫), which I was very excited to see!  As I’ve said before, I love seeing the ancient Chinese architecture.  Because of the massive scale of the Forbidden City (it contains 9,999 buildings) we were only able to see the main courtyards, so I’m already looking forward to going back to see more.

Yesterday, I went to the Summer Palace, which was the Emperor’s escape from the Forbidden City.  We only saw about ½ of the palace, but then we took a walk around the lake nearby, which was beautiful.  I really enjoy being able to go out into the city with friends to go explore different sights.  Couple that with the fact that I’m doing my own shopping, and I definitely feel much more independent here! 

Here are some other pictures I took this week (mouse over for captions):