Oh dear, it's been so long since I last wrote. I have a lot of catching up to do. Unfortunately it's quite late here and I'm also suffering from a bit of a cold, so I'm going to pick my battles. Today I'll tell you some of the non-academic highlights of my week, which only really ever happen on the weekend:
1) On Friday I went to the zoo! Of course, I had a very, very difficult test first, but the afternoon was brightened by the fact that I got to see pandas. It was incredibly hot, and the animals were consequently somewhat lethargic, but it was still a pretty nice zoo -- they seemed to have plenty of outside roaming space for most of the larger animals.
Here is a picture of a very tired panda:

2) At the zoo, my friend and I met up with her Yale roommate, who is now studying at Princeton in Beijing (a lot like HBA), and her new PIB friend. We all went out to eat at a surprisingly good pizza restaurant in a hutong right by Houhai. It was extremely fun.
Here's a picture of the two HBA-ers at the zoo:


3) On Saturday afternoon, we went to Xiushuijie, the "Silk Market". The market is basically a six-story building filled with little shops selling all sorts of things, but most famously fake name-brand clothing and accessories. I bought a beautiful scarf and a red sparkly headband.

4) Saturday evening was HBA's trip to see the Peking Opera. This is very far from what you imagine when you think of opera -- while it incorporates singing (very unusual, high-pitched, nasal singing, to be exact), it also makes great use of mime and martial arts. We saw a production of two excerpts of operas that was geared toward tourists. The stories were forgettable, but the physical performance was fun to watch, and I was really intrigued by the music, particularly the instrumentals.
Here are some pictures from before and during the show:


5) On Sunday, to celebrate the Fourth of July, a bunch of us went to Tim's Texas BBQ restaurant, which appears to be one of the most American places in Beijing. I don't eat meat, but I had a delicious quesadilla (yay, cheese!) with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and lots of guacamole and sour cream. At one point, the guy who owns the restaurant (maybe his name is Tim?) came to see how we were doing, and it was very easy to tell that he was actually Texan.
Here's everybody, eager to eat some barbecue:


I really want to write about some things I've learned about Chinese culture, mostly through talking to teachers and my Zhongguo pengyou. But it's definitely my bedtime now, so I'll save that for tomorrow. Hope everyone had a great 4th! Also, a very happy birthday to my dad!