I've now been in China for four days, but it seems like quite a bit longer. I met my language partner yesterday. She's a student at the university I'm staying at, and is assigned to speak Chinese with me for an hour every day. I liked her a lot, and was amazed at how easy it was to have a conversation with her. We talked about all sorts of things, including the movie Titanic, the one-child policy, and religion. She's in some kind of Peking opera-style performance tonight, which I'm going try to see.


I've had a number of pretty interesting experiences just wandering around and getting meals. Here's a picture of an outdoor exercise park that I stumbled upon. They have all sorts of workout machines for public use, though I think most of them are geared towards old people.

Here's another experience that perplexed me: since we're advised not to drink the tap water, I went to the store to buy a big jug of water to drink. I found that the cheapest kind tasted strongly of plastic, so I decided to get a slightly more expensive bottle, which cost about $1.50 for four liters. After I bought it, a few of the store's employees came over to me and said "Wow, that's imported water. How much did that cost you?" After I told them, they continued to admire the bottle, trying to figure out where it came from. I'm still confused about why they were so impressed with this water. I understand that it's not the cheapest bottle, and that they probably think it unnecessary for me to be buying water at all, but I bought it at the store they work at! This wasn't anything I had brought from home. Anyway, I guess I'm just underestimating how extravagant my habits seem to the Chinese, but it was bizarre nonethelesss.