Great Wall, Bavarian Beer and Chinese Haircuts

I have found a little bar district near my house here which is cool because I have really begun to meet Chinese people. I go there almost every night and do my homework. In the past few weeks, I have only seen one foreigner there and he was Spanish. This saturday, however, was different. I went to the great wall and then went to some western places with friends. I spent waaaay too much money... like $60 which seems like a small fortune here.

Naturally, before any really good night out people like to get all primped and primed. I hadn't had a haircut in a while, so I decided to go and get my first one since I came to China. It was about $5 but the experience was priceless. I have become accustomed to being stared at, but this place took it to a whole new level. I thought I had offended my hairstylist because he kept cracking jokes and the whole place would break out into uncontrollable laughter. Needless to say, I had no idea what he was talking about. It was very awkward and stressful and when it was over, I grabbed my dictionary to look up the word "offend" so that I could apologize. As I was looking in the dictionary, all the stylists, hair washers and clerks quit what they were doing. They circled around me and waited silently with anticipation. When I pointed to the word in the dictionary, they all started laughing again. My stylist shook my hand and told me he wanted me to come back because I made everyone laugh. All I really said the whole time was, "I don't understand" and "what did you say". Apparently that is a riot around these parts.

The next day, saturday, was time for climbing the Great Wall, and then a little socializing with my classmates. The climb to the Wall is really hard. I stayed at the very front of the pack though.

Here is a picture of how high we climbed. That town at the bottom was the starting point.

This is me standing on the wall:

The view:

This is me with my favorite Croatian, Maya. Actually, she's the only Croatian I know.

The next picture is of me with my Thai friends and the Croatian. From left to right: K, me, Oui, Li, Belgie, and Maya. Oui is a weightlifter. I see him in the gym almost everyday and he invited me to go to Thailand with him this summer. I sure do hope I have the money.

These are some more people I am friendly with. I don't remember their names, but I will remember eventually. They are in a higher level class. The girl with the reddish hair is Caroline. She is from Macao and speaks English, Portugese, Chinese, and some other languages. She sounds native in English, Chinese, and Portugese. I thought she was American the first time I talked to her.

Later that night, me and some English speaking friends went to the Lufthansa Center. It was fun but I won't be going there again because it is expensive. When we left, we got lost and walked around the streets drinking. We finally found a decent bar, and I drank everyone under the table... go figure. One guy actually threw up. It reminded me of the time me and Brandon out-drank the frat boys at Ohio State our freshman year. Here is a picture of us at the Lufthansa Center:

Left to right: Amanda (American), Peter (American), Nigel (American/Ugandan), Anna (Khasakistani), Robert (American), Nate (American), Belgie (Thai), Me (Descended from Heaven), Fina (German), Flourian (Swiss), Ben (American)