Recap of Week Three, and it is finally done!!!

June 22

This past week started off with a bang. I have already posted about the blue sky, and all around beautiful weather. Better than even the weather! I was able to meet of friends of friends from St. Louis for dinner. The back-story: When I told my friend Jessie that I was moving to Beijing for the summer, the first thing he said was "WOW," the second, "Let me put you in touch with my friend Jack." Well from one thing to the other Jack and I were never able to meet up in Saint Louis before I came over here to Beijing. We were, very happily, able to meet up this past Monday here in Beijing. He had come over for an extended business trip, and brought the whole family. Being able to reminisce about Saint Louis to people who know and share my love of the city make me feel all warm and fuzzily inside.

Later in the week I dragged some friends back to the restaurant from Monday for American desert. Before we dive into that I must share with all the iPhone devotees that we trekked to the north of Beijing to find an iPhone savior. My friend Will had dropped his iPhone in some water, and it would not even turn on.... absolute tragedy! This shopkeeper took Will's iPhone apart completely, found the problem, rebooted it, and charged it in about an hour. Even more amazing is that the total cost with a shiny new case and screen protector (which they put on) was 435 kuai, about $160 to $170!!! He didn't lose any contacts or photos --- its nice to be on this side of patent infringement.

Back to the desert, best said through a photo:

Absolute gluttony, but well worth it!

This also must be shared:

Will enjoying his bottle of milk --- that won't kill him!

 The rest of the week didn't turn out so well. I had my first bout of "Beijing Belly." Not that bad all around, I really could have slept it off in a day. My host family though was very concerned when I came home early from school and gave me some medicine. Unfortunately, that medicine barely touched my stomach before I started retching everything out of my stomach -- for four hours. Not the best, but on the other hand there was nothing left to continue my bout with "Beijing Belly."

I took yesterday off, and just reviewed my lessons at school to get out of the house before heading off to get my nails done and eat some solid Western food.

Today was much better. I felt completely human again, and spent the whole day doing nothing but enjoying my time with friends, and thanking God or genetics that my "Beijing Belly" was a 24 hour experience. We did go to see the new Superman movie which was exactly what it was supposed to be: a good remake that had a different take, Superman saving the world, a few inconsistencies, and a handful of great lines and actors to make up for it. If you do go see it, please, imagine me trying to explain that last great line in the movie after Superman tells them they will never find where he hangs his cape to anyone who has never been to America