Tian'anmen Square

Today marked my seventh month in Beijing! Boom!

I spent my morning and early afternoon chilling at my apartment mostly catching up on TV shows! It was fantastic.

Then, I decided to go visit Tian'anmen Square! It took a lot longer than I had anticipated by subway and I missed the flag lowering ceremony by minutes! I still had a bit of a wander. Most of the buildings that I wanted to visit, including the museum and the Forbidden Palace had already closed. I could have paid my respects to Mao, whose body is displayed in one of the buildings, but I decided to pass on that experience. I made friends at an art exhibition near the square featuring the artwork of graduate students. One was nice enough to write my name in Chinese characters! Apparently, the "lleen" part of my name means "long, happy life." I did go into the park next door called the Bei Hai Park. It looked beautiful, but it was dusk, so I didn't get to see as much of it as I wanted. I did get a few pictures of Bartholomew, though!

Then, I went to Sanlitun to do a bit of Christmas shopping. I also ate dinner at one of my favorite Western style restaurants where I got a big salad with avocados that I savored and a glass of chardonnay. It was delicious!