we have dogded the ropes of rain where the cats and dogs, well, they love to play

…on a handsome fella with an umbrella who once saved you your day…

there was really no doubling back once i stepped outside the apartment this evening, clothed in my swimsuit and shorts and sneakers.  We were in the middle of a typical random beijing storm and somehow i got the idea that it would be great to go running in the rain.  and the thunder.  and lightning.  and puddles.

and old scolding chinese grandpas and grandmas.  i was told a lot that i was going to get sick and saw a lot of shaking heads.  i got a few exclamations from the younger generation saying how crazy i was.  not that what i was wearing was indecent, but more that i was just an idiot running in the rain.  but, really, the school don’t have a pool, so running in the rain is about as good as it gets.  i may never go back to running when it’s dry.

although, if it weren’t acid raining, that’d be great.  but i did have a huge flash of self-consciousness as i stepped out of my dorm at first…but i didn’t have enough mettle to return to the room/roommate defeated.  so i was a coward somehow in there…dunno exactly how just yet.  but, really, beijing is really pretty when it’s raining.  i was running along the old wall that was built to keep the mongols out, so it was really cool. as i was getting ready to go out, i told my roommate that if i wasn’t back in about 40 minutes, i had either gotten lost or had died.  the latter is sadly just as possible as the former, both due to my lack of running recently and to the acid rain falling down upon me.  but i survived.

tomorrow i’m gonna go swimming in the cube, so i’m excited for that.  more excited than my classmates are to hold a panda….a panda is no michael phelps, and i’ll get to swim in the same pool where he WON 8 MEDALS.  EAT THAT, SUCKERS!

er…apologies for the outburst.  but, uh, as you can see, i’m pretty darn excited.  it’ll be a long course pool, i’m sure, so i’ll have to do without my walls.  not sure exactly what my workout will be, but it’s 50 kuai for 2 hours, so i think it’s a pretty good deal.  i just have to get there between 2 and 5, since the pool closes at 7.  and i guess i can also go on saturday if i really really REALLY can’t go tomorrow, but hopefully that won’t happen.  i’ll be sure to take pictures of the cube.

i wonder if they’d let me take some of the water with me….

…

…sorry, that’s a bit fan-girlish of me, isn’t it?  i suppose it happens.  we actually leave beijing this sunday, so i’m trying to cram everything i need to do into these last few days.  i can’t believe that we’ve been here for two weeks almost already.  still kind of feels like i just got here.

yesterday, we saw an original opera at the egg, a huge performance center for the arts that’s right next to tian’anmen square.  it was….interesting.  the lyrics were kinda iffy, but it was a good experience.  it certain was amusing at times to hear their deep voices sometimes singing “deng deng…”

or maybe i’m just perversely easily amused.  it’s a very real possibility…

today we also had a chance to interview some chinese students, which was really really interesting.  i wish we had more time (we only got about 45 minutes), but the lecture that our guest speaker gave afterwards was fascinating too.  and he had an awesome southern drawl, so i was pretty much paying attention the entire time.

and oh!  i got a chop/seal in the hutongs!  it’s really small, so i was really impressed that the guy could etch my name into it.  it’s pretty legit, and it has a hole through it so that i won’t lose it…yay for being able to attach it to something!  i know that i already have one, but it’s too precious and i’m too scatterbrained to actually keep it well, so i figured this would be a good substitute.  and i should really stop blogging and do my paper….

i guess i’ll leave you here, dear readers.  thanks for hanging with me!