It's almost like beijing in love!

So, there's so much going on here and so much to see, that I know that if I write this infrequently, I can't tell y'all all of the good stuff. This entry may be a little scattered, but I'm trying get as much in as possible.

We went to the Great Wall on Saturday. There is a place called Ba Da Ling not too far from the city where a lot of people go. It was a gorgeous day--blue skies are virtually unheard of in Beijing, but we had a series of clear days last week where we could see the mountains from our hotel. On one of these clear days we went to the Great Wall, and after climbing what was evidently Manhood Peak (Chairman Mao said that one was not a man until he'd climbed the Wall at Badaling), we were rewarded with breathtaking views of vividly green mountains in all directions. The wall still seems like a strange untaking, but in its final form, it is very awe-inspiring. Equally awe-inspiring was the sheer number of people there! I have never used my elbows and boxed out as much as I did in those couple hours; it was complete chaos. I realized pretty quickly that the most dangerous people to watch out for were those carrying umbrellas to block to sun, or to knock out the eyes of all who got near them! Somehow, some of the entrepreneurs had gotten a camel up to one of the towers as well for picture taking opportunities, but in my mind that really only increased the craziness elsewhere! A lot of people wanted their picture taken with me; I think in some ways being in China is kind of like how it feels to be a celebrity in Hollywood. Now that I've fixed my camera, I think I'm going to start taking pictures with people as well!!
We ended our Great Wall adventure at Starbucks Coffee. Yes, there is a Starbucks Coffee at the bottom of the Great Wall. No McDonalds though, surprisingly. I've got to tell you, a Frappuccino has NEVER tasted that good. I haven't had any milk since I got here--everything is soy milk, which is good in a different way--nor have I had any ice, which you grow to miss when it's constantly 80-90 degrees. So I think it was worth it.
We then moved on for lunch at a guy's house in the middle of nowhere, about 15 miles away from the great wall, in a "village" with maybe 10 houses and a one lane dirt road coming through it. There was one option on the menu, and we took that. The man's wife promptly went out back and came back with two catfish that she killed on the spot. That kind of ruined my appetite, I have to say. But it came back quickly when the other dishes with freshly grown vegetables and wonderful spices were placed in front of us.
Saturday night, a CSE program director took us out for dinner in a very swank area of town called Ho Hie (not sure about the spelling; it's pronounced Ho High). The restaurants there have American prices (in contrast, most of my dinners have been $2-3 here and leave me totally stuffed), but it is gorgeous. It's on a lake and complete with weeping willows, lantern-lit boats, lotuses (which by the way, taste really good :), and candles floating in the water on little wish boats. I sat right on the water and really enjoyed the experience. I'm starting to get the chopstick thing down. In fact, I was eating sticky rice last night at dinner and suddenly realized that I was holding my bowl at a tilt kind of shoveling the rice into my mouth--a very, very Chinese was of eating--so I think maybe I'm starting to fit in.
Sunday I went to the Temple of Heaven and ate dinner with the Harvard Club of Beijing. Both were wonderful, but fairly uneventful. We again got lucky with the weather, and also had the company of many of the BeiDa students who have been helping us, so it was a nice time to wander around the gardens and learn a lot about Chinese history, architecture, and current issues.
Monday really takes the cake for fun days, though. I have finally reached that point where I really, really need to do laundry, so I, along with my roommate, took literally all of our clothes minus those that we were wearing to the laundromat, and left them there for next-day pick-up. That afternoon, the weather looked pretty menacing, so we opted for the supermarket/mall that was indoors instead of the summer palace. We took a cab ride in the rain; it's only like 3km away, so it was pretty quick, and had a great time looking at all the CHEAP cds and dvds, incredible pastry and candy collection, and less appetizing (for me) seafood section, complete with live turtles, shrimp, and many kinds of fish. I had plans to meet a friend of a friend back at the hotel at 6:30, so around 6 we went outside to catch a cab. The rain had gotten much worse, and it was really pouring into the already flooded streets. Amazingly, we waited for about 10 minutes in a sheltered area for a taxi with no avail, and then moved to an area in the rain and had no better luck, so finally began the long walk home. Two of us (including me) had no umbrella, so we roughed it, but the real hard-core prize goes to the guy whose flip flop strap broke in the middle of the walk, and had to do it with one bare foot. Yick!!! It was phenomenally fun walk, despite the fact that we were soaking wet and being laughed at by locals on all sides. The best part was after we got back here, and I gave all of our folks sitting in the lobby who hadn't come with us great big WET hugs, my roommate and I got up to our room to realize, these are all the clothes we have!! Luckily, our generous c0-teachers helped us out for the night. I did, however, meet this friend of a friend, clothed in a towel and extremely discombobulated (I have no idea how that's spelled!). She was cool with the whole situation though, so I'm pretty sure that we're going to have a lot of fun together in the next two weeks.
So, I have to go get ready to teach now. I think that we're going to go over the Bill of Rights and the Supreme Court today. Tomorrow we're watching Shawshank Redemption; it will be interesting to see what the students think of it.