Spring! 

Boating on Lake Behai 

Connor and my favorite Itali-Cantoneseian, Gabriela Sanzineriellian (sp?) 

Biking is even more fun when you are trying to take a picture at the same time 

Beijing Olympics 2008 site 

Actually going the right direction through rush hour traffic 

Rant

Well I don't actually write many entries here, and for good reason because then I would have to write quick and witty ancedotes or be contemplative and share my inner feelings with the world wide web...but in honor of being in China for so long, I decided to write a long run-on sentence.
some really quick rants.
why does everything here have to be so Asian? Enough is enough already.
why did I only bring 3 razors to a country that doesn't have facial hair?
edited
why do taxi drivers have to universially suck?
why is there such a disregard for human life here? I mean fake dvds are one thing, but fake alcohol made from methanol and a little formaldahyde added in for flavor. Greed wins again.
why is MSG a staple in Chinese cooking? oh yeah see above
why do french people insist on chain-smoking constantly? I guess it doesnt matter since the stuff coming out of my nose is already black from the pollution, I'm screwed either way.


Rave:
everything else

question:
why is sarcasm only relevant in english? anyone know the underlying reason?

The Great Wall at Mutianyu

Almost to the top

The Great Wall at Mutianyu 

Making China my toilet 

More Great Wall 

The mystical landscape 

Climbing down 

The quick way down! 

? 

Birthday

In "Bed" for Connor's 22nd

At Bed for Connor's bday 

Dinner for Connor's bday 

View of hutong from on top of Nuage 

This is a little out of place but I figured it deserves web time, credit to my bro 

At the old village 

The hike up to the earth cave 

A resident of an earth cave carved into the mountainside, the only remaining family living here. No running water or electricity, I think they were listening to a radio, though 

A few inhabitants of an earth cave 

Surfing on the sand dunes 

The scenery 

Postal Town

On top of the Ming period CockCrow Postal Town wall.

A small temple within the village 

The wall 

This was apparently built for Genghis Khan to stay in. All travelers going to Beijing were required to stop here. Its about 700 yrs old and the only surviving post town.

Photos posted in reverse order, start at bottom

Climbing down

You can barely see the where the actual bricks were 

Trying to not get blown off the wall 

Corn fields surround the towers 

Part of the Great Wall most tourists don't walk on 

The oldest part of the Great Wall near Beijing. Built by the Ming Yan Kingdom 2000 years ago. Only the towers remain, you can follow them up the mountain ridge. This was a rare opportunity see old and authentic China, a country dominated by fake ripoffs and restored tourist traps

On the side of the mountain 

An enclave where a family lives in home dug out of the side of the mountain 

A donkey in an "earth cave" 

The wild west... 

Digging our death van out of the sand dune. Despite this incident, thanks to our friends at www.cyclechina.com for a great trip.

Desert outside beijing, very windy here 

March madness

So I made my acting debut yesterday...and I'm glad none of you will be able to see it unless you have a satellite subscription to CCTV. But maybe several million Chinesa will see me as a goofy foreigner on their tv sets one day. The tourism show features me swinging a German-sized stein of beer in front of the camera while pretending to be at Oktoberfest with a couple other Westerners and about 20 Chinese. A couple of takes (and drinks) later and we were performing well as a jovial Deutschlanders. The bastards kept yelling at me to smile more, since when do I need to smile more?! The video also features us "livin' la vida loca" with a Ricky Martin dance segment and a trip to Brasila Carnivale. It doesn't really make sense, so I'm assuming a propaganda video will be edited into the background. Oh, I have an "acting" agent, his english name is "The Rock".

Zhonge Film Studios in Beijing 

The director 

Chinese tv

On set.

its Carnival time! 

Behind the scenes at CCTV 

Oktoberfest in China 

Side trip to Munich

These photos are really hard to explain...

My daily coffee substitute...riding a bike alongside taxis and hundreds of others wakes you up quickly 

The Baita Temple...thats all I know about it. We found it on the while looking for the geology museum. The saying goes, "A tourist sees what he wants to see, a traveler sees what he sees."

For the love of rocks!

The Geological Museum of China, a marvelous, brand new building with over 200,000 pieces on display and four floors of exhibits. So very very cool, I was really excited to check it out. They have a spinning globe just like UW's museum!

No schist, they have rocks in China

Geologists! A piece of fluorite outside the geologic museum of China. Maybe I should try to bring it home with me?

A street market in the hutong area. 

An elegant night at the symphony!

Tianamen on a frigidly cold night

The Beijing Symphony Orchestra after playing Mozart and Rachmaninov. Not bad, but I was expecting the piano to be featured, considering Rachmaninov wrote some of the most famous piano concertos ever.

At the Forbidden City Concert Hall with Xenia, Connor and Lei. 

Stacy and Connor and someone else in the background who I dont remember. 

Xenia of Ecuador 

Frenchman Xavier, from my class, and Connor 

Playing frisbee with a elderly Beijinger 

Our local tour guides...Audrey and Mandy

Beijing Street Market

Street market where you can get anything on a stick..snake, scorpion, crab, squid, hawthorne berries. Beijing is famous for its street food!

This section of the city doesnt allow cars on fire? 

Stuck in traffic and bored... 

In Tianamen Square. Playing Ultimate there is on our list of things to do...

Sandglass - Old District

Not a great picture, but inside the Mongolian teahouse. The owner has some great artwork and does his own photography

Two dudes outside Sandglass, a backalley Mongolian teahouse/pub 

Chinese fire hazard

I accidentally locked Connor in our apartment today. Apparently our apartment can double as a jail cell, because Connor wasnt too happy when he called me after lunch and asked me to come let him out. But its a pretty good excuse for why he missed his entire four hour class! Our apartment, while its nice inside, kinda looks like a Chicago project on the outside and feels like one when they decided to shut the water off for 24 hrs to maintenance it with little notice. Getting by on good food, a great selection of cheap dvds, and cool people from every continent (even penguins!)

P.S. (inside joke) I saw a delicious looking "rice cake" in the supermearket today!