Saturday, June 28^th.

Since our flight was delayed and we missed the first day of class, we had class on Saturday to make up for it. Afterwards, our professors took us all (about 40 of us) out to a restaurant for lunch. It was the first time since getting here that we had a round-table style meal. Basically, you sit at a table with 10 or so other people, and in the center of the table there is a rotating platform where all the food is. You take whatever you want as it turns around, so you get to try a little of everything. There were some interesting dishes (although nothing too bizarre). The coolest one was a rack of pork ribs shaped like the bridge that goes over the lake on campus, complete with a huge carrot carved to look like the nearby water tower.

After lunch, two of the local students took Desmond, Nathan, and I to visit Tsinghua University. Tsinghua is sort of the MIT of China, and it and PKU are considered the best two universities in the country. It was cool to see another university campus, and it was definitely different from ours. There were several lakes that were coated in lily pads, which had raindrops all over them. I also managed to find their aerospace department (which I don't think PKU has).

I also managed to get a phone that works locally, so I can communicate with my classmates. I suppose it's an indicator of how much I rely on having a cell phone, but it has been useful so far (especially today when I got lost on my way to office hours, and every one of the five different people I asked for directions told me to go a different way)