Greetings from warm and sunny Nanjing! (mecury has soared to 12-15 degrees the past few days, thermals are a thing of the past!)
First up I would like to say that I have managed to keep all limbs intact after the insanity that was the beginning of the Spring Festival, aka Chinese New Year. While my hearing and sight are perhaps not in such good condition, a minor burn on my arm and shrapnel bruise to my leg were the only injuries from my fireworks debut. Jordyn is also still in one piece- only just though, after a firecracker was reacting too slowly for her liking and she begun to point it towards her face, to outcry from all spectators; "WHAT ARE YOU DOING DON'T POINT IT AT---" just as she pointed it back at the sky it began raining colourful missiles upon the unsuspecting lattice fence, lucky timing. 
The mayhem began on Tuesday afternoon as soon as the sun dipped below the horizon. We had been dispatched to find fruit for a hostel feast, wandering completely unsuspectingly into what felt like a combat zone- hopefully I will be able to attact a video to this that Jords took as we were walking home, which will explain much better than I can with words. 
We have spent the aftermath of Chinese New Year being continually shocked by random fireworks appearances and trying in vain to find an open restaurant. New Years Day we went in search of lion dancing, but instead found a variety show featuring kung fu, dancing, Sichuan face changing opera, a magician and  me. I knew I was in trouble when the magician started talking about people who were watching who might not understand Chinese, then he swtiched to English and asked me to come onto the stage! I was the somewhat unwilling assitant to the trick that involves a guillotine-that-slices-all-the-vegetables-but-magically-doesn't-slice-your-assistants-hand-off. Well. Standing right next to said guillotine I couldn't figured out how it would fail to detach my left hand, and thus the terror on my face in the video Jords took is real. We also visited the Nanjing Massacre Museum, which was haunting- 300 000 victims fell to the Japanese, many in truly shocking ways. The rulers at the time told the people of Nanjing, 'It is better to be broken as jade than to remain whole as tile', and then effectively locked the city and left them to the cruelty of the invading Japanese army. The museum in built around an excavated mass grave site, and the pictoral evidence gathered by the Japanese themselves is damning and disturbing.  
Other than that, we have been riding bikes in search of a famous dumpling chain (which we finally found today for lunch, well-worth the search), hooning in a motor boat around one of the many lakes, eating alot of Aijisen Ramen because nothing else is open and chilling with the awesome people at our hostel. The New Year holiday has been quite restrictive, but also lots of fun- happening upon random celebratory street-markets and food stands and chatting with families visiting temples for their little time off makes up for the closure of almost all restaurants and sights. Tomorrow we are catching a fast train to Shanghai, our last stop before flying home on the 17th. Depending on time and internet availability I may post some pictures of Shanghai later this week.
Here is our week in Nanjing in pictures, hope everyone is well and sheltering from the bonkers weather.

As I write this I sit here in oh-so-warm Nanjing (10 degrees!!), surrounded by the boom and crackle of box after box of fireworks. Tonight is Chinese New Years Eve, and as I am the proud owner of 3 different types of fireworks myself I felt obliged to quickly upload some photos of Qingdao (and also because my lovely German friend Jas told me to) in case this is the last blog entry I ever do. Bought from one of the many street stalls, with instructions in Chinese and incredibly cheap (I am hoping it is from cheap production costs and not dodgy quality), I am very excited about joining the throngs of Chinese filling the air with incessant noise, smoke and pretty colours. 
I don't have much to say about Qingdao; we had a week of relaxing, eating, hiking and pretending the weather was warm enough for much beach wandering. We ran into the combined obstacle of the Spring Festival holiday and tourist off-season, making sight-seeing an adventure- we hiked along a windy mountain road for 2 hours, had several security guards panicking when we headed off into the mountains, had another security guard call a friend to ask, "I have 2 foreigners here... where are they going??!!", and struggled to find anywhere to eat as one-by-one the restaurants shut down. 
I have to go and lose a limb or two to fireworks, stuff my belly with a New Years Feast with everyone at our hostel, and then head into the city for the midnight countdown and more fireworks, but I hope the next few photos show a bit of Qingdao. 
If this is my last post, much love and no, Maggie, you are not having my stuff. 

Here are the promised photos and assurance that we are still alive after a few days of temperamental internet and a change of location.
While I only wrote a few days ago, it feels like weeks- time seems to be in flux here, racing by while we were studying and slowing right down for our last few days in the capital Beijing. After moving into an awesome hostel in the nightlife-rich district of Sanlitun, we played the ultimate tourists for our last few days- cameras in hand, backpacks loaded with guide books and maps, we set off to conquer the bucket list sights of Beijing. On Saturday we had a very spiritual day, lighting incense and being somewhat altered by the peace and serenity of the Lama Temple, the most renowned Tibetan Buddhist temple outside of Tibet. Visually striking, with brightly colored rooftops and intricate alters, the warren of temples and shrines are inspiring to behold. We joined throngs of worshippers queuing outside at 9am, all clutching incense to make the requisite offerings pre-Spring Festival. We also meandered through the Confucius Temple and Imperial College, which illustrated a past driven by the importance of education. 

We stumbled upon an agreed top food experience for lunch on Saturday- easily one of the coldest days so far, I could no longer feel my feet, toes or face when we happened upon a vegetarian restaurant that offered a buffet lunch. Well, we certainly made up for the Asians having a ‘buffet’ of one plate- polishing off at least 8 plates between us, plus bowls of soup, sushi hand rolls, unlimited tea and coffee- I ate until I couldn’t bend over! 

To continue our spiritual journey we went to the Temple of Heaven, strolling through avenue after avenue of winter-bare trees strung with red lanterns. We had a thrilling motorcycle ride that afternoon- after viscous haggling which resulted in a steady torrent of abuse our whole trip, we clambered into, literally, into a motorcycle- see picture below. A floor of cardboard, walls of thin tin and a driver who thought he was driving a F1 car made for a hair-raising way of getting to the subway.

We finally made it to Tiananmen on Sunday, taking our time to wander on the biggest public square in the world, while also reflecting on its dark history. Only I was allowed into see Mao, as Jords didn’t have her passport- something which, as well as very strict security checks and not being allowed to take anything in, was necessary to view the man himself. The weather got even colder that afternoon, so we headed to the warm indoors for a 30 kuai ($5) massage- hands down the best massage I have ever had in my life. We continued the indoor activities with a Chinese movie- luckily it had English subtitles, though it was good practice to try and follow the Chinese. The language barrier didn’t take away from the emotion of the movie, with one of us (Jords) having quite a bawl towards the end.

Today was an epic trek of subway, train, bus, plane, walking up a massive hill with a 25kg pack for me and a 25kg out-of-control suitcase for Jords. However, we are finally settled in Qingdao, a welcome change of pace from the hustle bustle culture overload of Beijing. While Qingdao still has 2.5 million people, the vibe here is relaxed and beachy- not dissimilar to an Aussie holiday spot. Our hostel is much quieter, and we were upgraded for free to a private room, which is certainly going to aid in a week of relaxation and recovery, and hopefully some hiking and country town exploration. 

I may have gone a bit overboard on the photos, but it was just so hard to choose from the last few jam-packed days.
As we huddle in our jumpers, three pairs of socks, and earmuffs I am thinking of you all in warmer places.
Will probably write towards the end of this week,
Much love,
Lu Fei

Another very hectic week has flown by. My teacher, helpfully, drew a calendar on the board Friday morning to illustrate just how little time we have left, circling the remaining 8 lessons in red chalk and crossing out the days already passed with blue. While I was sadly absorbing this information and daydreaming of a more rebellious Lucy, who would chuck the towel in on Melbourne University (in 5 weeks we have covered the entirety of next year's Chinese course) and sign herself up for semester upon semester of study here, my attention was suddenly snapped back to my teachers artistry as I saw (in yellow chalk now) "kaoshi" being decisively written on the last 2 days of the course- exams! Concentrating intensely now, I soon figured out that we have both oral and written exams in the last week- hours of shopping, sightseeing, relaxing with some Chili Peppers (hopefully making up for previous Shakira references) and a Chinese Vogue (Or 3. $1 each. Seriously), went *poof* before my eyes. A hurried conference with Jords in the break later:
"Ohhhhhhh I have EXAMS in the last WEEK!! EXAMS!!! ORAL!! WRITTEN!! GRAMMAR!!! Arggggghhhh oooooh kill me nowwwwww" (no prizes for guessing which of us that is)
"ME TOO!!!! *insert similar death throw type noises*
(Pause)
"So, are we going to study?"
"Nope"
Call us not dedicated enough, (though after 6 hours of study a day if you dared to do that I might maul you), but we are in Beijing, baby, and have been working our tails off. The weekdays are university's domain, but our weekends are our own and we plan to make the most of them, kaoshi or not.

Friday night dinner came around we we headed to our fave, a hotpot place called Xiabu Xiabu. Having been there a few (ahem, 6) times, we felt pretty pro at the ordering game, though Friday brought an additional challenge- Jordyn desired a mango juice. Lacking the word for mango and/or juice, we decided to randomly choose two drink items, and hope one of them was mango and I figured I'd like whatever the other was, thinking along the lines of soft drink. Alas, only Team Lucy and Jordyn could make such a rookie mistake- a pitcher of finest Chinese beer was soon weaving its way through the tables to a non-drinker and someone who doesn't like beer. Luckily, it was accompanied by a mango juice. The ordering chaos continued with we decided we wanted noodles- and while the beer ordering was on my head, the ordering of 'flour gluten' was on Jordyn's- small balls of mysterious puffy bread stuff. I dove right in, and caused a small child and his mother sitting opposite me to almost fall off their chairs in hysterics when I choked and almost died. According to Jordyn, the lady's face as I conveyed the bread ball to my mouth was one of increduality, so I was probably a. not supposed to eat it, b. not supposed to eat it like that, c. not supposed to stab it with a chopstick due to my inability to grasp spherical objects or d. all of the above. 

The rest of the weekend has been nothing short of insane, starting off with another night out at our pet nightclub Solutions that continued well into the early hours of the morning. We drew even more stares than usual setting off for our Friday night out, as seeing how hot we got dancing last week, and given the close proximity of the club, we went out in dresses- bare legs, no coats, no scarves, not even a solitary pair of gloves in sight. Men stopped their bicycles in the streets to berate us about how we would catch a cold, girls penguin-huddled with their friends as if to stave off the cold for us. Giddy on the high of a successful afternoon shopping and a week of completed study, we laughed away as we cemented our status as 'crazy foreign girls.' 

With a shopping list longer than this blog entry in hand yesterday, we headed off for another very famous shopping market in downtown Beijing. Success was had, and by success I mean bags upon bags upon bags of electronic goods, backpacks, hoodies, jewellery- absolutely everything you could think of, they had it at cheap cheap cheap prices. For example- I am a dedicated user of a certain brand of ear bud headphones, my current pair of which are a little beaten up after constant tangling, stepping on etc. In Australia, a pair of these babys would cost me $90. Yeah. When I spotted them yesterday, with a squeal of delight, I confided to Jords- 'Oh, if i can get these for $40 each, I am getting TWO!' The shop assistant scrutinised the proffered packet, looked at his calculator, and offered.... $40. For two. As his starting price. Once I had him down to $25 for the BOTH I felt morally obliged to stop (though I could have gone lower) and also to find whoever sets the prices on these in Aus and beat them. 

My German friend Jasmine joined us and we piled in a taxi to try and find the famous Donghuamen Night Market. When he dropped us off on a seemingly empty back street we were a little concerned, but after hurried map reading we strode off, laden down with bag upon bag of shopping and no real idea of where we were heading. Still wandering a few minutes later, I was squaring up to find someone to ask when a couple clutching toffeed fruit sticks passed us, noted our evident confusion and offered laughingly; 'Just keep going.' Sure enough, about 50m later we wandered into the most ridiculous culinary experience of my life thus far. The street was lined with stall upon stall (see picture, then extrapolate as this place was MASSIVE) upon stall upon stall of penis (yes, go back and read that again, it says penis), snake, scorpion, fried banana (which I tried), sea horse (which I did NOT try) and many other foodie delights. Between us we had noodles, dumplings, smelly tofu (which was horrendous), traditional Bejing deserts (also horrendous) fruits on sugared sticks, some crazy almond paste thing- wandering up and down, we each had dinner several times over. We watched a British guy try scorpions- his verdict: 'Tastes a bit like french fries!' However, that favourable review was still not enough to entice any of our trio to try some, and we hailed a taxi, struggling to fit 3 very full girls (this one in particular still clutching corn in one hand and toffeed strawberries in the other) and their shopping spoils. Once we had got established that the taxi driver did actually know where we wanted to go, we settled back for a 45 minute ($5) tour of Beijing by night, during which I amused Jasmine with my German- complied from the German version of 'So Fresh', Eurovision and my little sister, she thought I was hilarious. 
This week is our last full week of study, and will involve a kung fu show, trying to book train tickets for the only time of the year it is apparently impossible to do so, more home cooking (with a microwave, chopsticks, one knife, two fry pans and unlimited imagination, see photo) and maybe, just maybe, some study for the dreaded kaoshi. 
Much love, as always,
Lu Fei

Were the words of two Korean boys who approached us at the Summer Palace yesterday. A little shocked, Jordyn and I tried to ascertain in Chinese exactly waht they wanted to know the price of- surely we weren't being openly approached as prostitutes or drug dealers? Turns out they wanted to know the time, which was a welcome relief.

It has been a whirlwind of crazy adventures China side over the last few days. We have now experienced KTV (karaoke) a major pastime here- we made like locals and went to one a little off the beaten track, fully decked out with the requisite tacky neon and even 'cave' themed rooms. There was Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Disney, Taylor Swift, Usher- Jordyn, Jess and I sang and danced the winter cold (and our massive dinner) away and almost certainly scarred the staff for life. 

New Year's Eve dawned bright but very cold. Friday excitement was in the air, personified by a bubbly Jordyn who ran into my class during break only to find my teacher mid-sentence as we were still avidly learning (cue embarrassed flee from Jordyn and much amusement from my class). After a morning of grammar-heavy class and an afternoon of hectic shopping, we were smashing the coffee at 5pm and dreading venturing back out into the cold. We had a huge dinner and then more KTV (we are practically Asian) before hitting up a local nightclub. We fought our way through the dancefloor, found a prime position and cut loose. The music was all western and great for dancing- I had soon rushed to the bathroom to stuff some unnessecary thermal layers in my shoulder bag, and a pair of tights or two. Dancing with a lovely blonde girl from Germany, Jasmine, who is in my class at uni, we certainly made quite the impression- while a student frequented club, we were still three of maybe 5 caucasian girls there and soon became quite adept at using elbows, hips, and even fists to remove unwanted male attention. However, we found a spot on the stage well within the eyelines of the take-no-prisoners bouncers stationed around the dance floor, and our unwanted male admirers dropped away. Had an amazing time, and will probably become Friday night regulars- nothing like hours of dancing to destress after a week of hard study. 

On Saturday we headed to Silk Street after an amazing lunch at Jess's grandparents- a famous shopping market, i.e a complete tourist trap. Catering purely to foreigners, I could finally shop without feeling like a monster due to my inability to squeeze into a size zero. However, the prices reflected the increase in size range, but Jordyn and I were ruthless- being able to barter in Chinese certainly worked in our favour. Silk Street had everything from jade jewellery to Gucci wallets (the real deal, of course), fur coats to tailor shops, random classmates from uni to shedloads of Russian tourists. Jordyn even found herself a potential girlfriend- a petite female stallholder was quite taken with her; 'I like you! Do you like me?'

Yesterday we collected cameras, packed our lunch, put on our walking shoes and set off for the Summer Palace, one of Beijing's prime attractions. A half hour taxi ride from our apartment and still well withing the city bounds, the Summer Palace was a royal retreat back in the dynastical days. A man-made lake that is entirely frozen over, delicate, vividly-coloured temples, stunning imperial era buildings jutting out of a hill overlooking the lake with its myriad of islands and relaxed tourists strolling on the ice- words really can't describe the scope and serenity of this oasis (though that may be because my english has been increasingly struggling as I load insane amounts of Chinese into my poor brain). We wandered over bridges and through temples, clambered up circa-1700's stone steps and slipped across the ice. Tea that cost more than our average meal chased the chill away, warming our hands as we nursed the flimsy cups and watched children and adults alike playing on the ice. We finally wandered out past the stone lions dutifully guarding as the sun disappeared, somewhat regretful to leave such a place. 
As the weeks slip by and days disappear into a blur of class, sleep, sights, and mighty cold weather, we are starting to get a panicky feeling that it will be all too soon that we have to pack up and leave. With the sense of desperation that brings we are embracing everything- the weather will not hold us back, and neither will class, or poor language skills, or anything at all. 
Happy New Year to eveyone, hope everyone is well!

Much love,
Lu Fei.
-Below snaps are all from the Summer Palace, bar the food which was lunch with Jess's family, and one of the most delicious meals we have had so far.

Now I have your attention I should probably elaborate before I have my parents calling people and people calling my parents. T'was a cold Tuesday afternoon when, unable to get a place to study at the library, I began a fateful stroll home to my apartment. iPod blaring out some sweet Shakira in my ears (don't judge), I was blissfully unaware of the police van at the entrance to our apartment complex until I was hauled inside it. Registration papers were demanded, thankfully in English once they realised my Chinese consisted of me saying 'Sorry! Sorry! I don't know! Sorry! I don't understand! Sorry!' However, my papers were tucked away in the very apartment I was trying to reach, which earned me a solid finger-pointing talking to. Luckily I  was registered, and once I was found on the extensive database I was released, shaken and thoroughly told-off. Jordyn then thought I was trying to break into the apartment, and was very reluctant to both come to the door and then actually let me in. Just living up to my 'just been arrested' lifestyle change I suppose!
The weather continues to get colder, with snow this morning! Unfortunately the fall was brief and had melted by the time we got out of class to go and frolick. With the brief snow came the coldest day so far, which led to a rush to our market this afternoon for scarves and mittens. I have my haggling down to a fine art- I pretend I don't know what is going on (which isn't entirely pretending) and repeat my price until they get so sick of me they just agree. You can get everything for about 60% of what it is offered at, so my scarves went a little like this:
"(in broken Chinese) How much?"
"58 kuai"
"Sorry, I dont understand. I give you, 30 kuai."
"(cue fast paced reasoning as to why such a price is simply impossible)"
"Sorry. I speak Chinese very bad. I give you, 30 kuai."
So on and so forth, until I ended up with 2 for 65 kuai ($10) and a pair of mittens. 
Unfortunately, when ordering in restaurants I would find my Chinese still to be inadequate- While I thought I had successfully communicated my vege-ness at a Korean restaurant the other night, my soup which was ordered with no egg or meat came out delightfully garnished with both. However, things are starting to look up- at a street-side baozi (steamed bun) stand a lovely, heavily-bundled lady gave me a selection of vego baozi, and while sometimes I may be overkilling it a little- telling the lady who only sells vegetarian noodles yesterday at lunch, quite unessecarily that 'I don't eat meat', at least I am becoming more understandable. 
An amazingly cute Asian thermos has been a godsend for early classes, hot hibiscus or jasmine tea makes 8am starts bearable AND cute. Giving a speech about Australian sports to the rest of the class was quite a hoot, as they don't have words for cricket, netball, AFL, or kiteboarding, though I didn't find this as distressing as the poor French girl when she found out they don't have a word for 'petanque'. 
Here are just a few snaps from the past few days, I hope that everything is awesome down under.
Will write again as soon as I have something of note to report- getting arrested, etc.
Much love, Lu Fei.

I may have been a bit premature in labelling Beijing as 'frosty' last time I wrote- a few -6C days later and potential frostbite of my toes every morning on the way to class,  I am only now truly coming to grips with winter in the crazy country. However we have still had a lot of sunny, clear days, which has lead to sunburn (!!) on occasion but also awesome photo oppurtunities and a wondeful reason to meander through the bustling main streets and winding alleyways of our new home. 
This week was a week of firsts- first class, first taxi ride, first subway excursion, first tourist site visit... an emotional rollercoaster. Class has been hard- taught all in Chinese, its incredibly overwhelming and exhausting- after 4 hours of class and then 2 hours of one on one tutoring my brain doesn't know which language to be thinking in. The 2 or so hours of homework piled on top of that are a real struggle, but worth it when you understand just that little bit more the next day. Our tutors are lovely and eager to both help and laugh at our attempt to explain shopping, exercise, work and our country in very stilted Chinese. Its amazing to hear about their culture in return- much to our shock on Friday we found out that they can't swim, and in fact most people in China can't! 
We spent Christmas day exploring the Great Wall; steps, steps, 2 pairs of gloves and every piece of thermal clothing I own, more steps, and lo and behold, more freakin steps. However, once we reached the wall aching thigh muscles and frostbitten limbs were soon forgotten in light of the breathtaking views and the amazing scope of the wall. Winding over sharp peaks to the horizon and beyond, watchtowers dot the stretch of the wall, causing the imagination to run wild with visions of Imperial China, of fires lighting up the sky from tower to tower, and  messages being relayed over vast distances. We had an adventure of a time, clambouring onto the top of a watch tower, jogging down stairs to warm up and then de-layering at the top of steep climbs. 

No work was to be  done on Christmas, so last night we headed out for some night shopping in another district of the city. With Jess's awesome memory and the help of a phone call or two to chinese relatives, we found XiDan shopping centre- a maze of yummy food-type smells, stalls, department stores both western and chinese, christmas decorations and (it seemed like) at least half the population of Beijing. A bit off the beaten tourist track, I attracted an awful lot of attention- I could get used to being an exotic beauty! The guy who made Jess's smoothie was quite taken with me, a lady let me pay cash for my food rather than going through the tedious process of a pre-paid card system- though when people touch my hair it can get a bit much. 
The weather may be getting colder and the work harder, but settling into life here is still an adventure every day. Hard days of Chinese pay off when I can understand guys telling Jess what a beatiful friend she has, and immersing ourselves in the culture with streetside food stalls and tourist site visits makes the language come alive. Cultural differences are intriguing- explaining what sports Australia likes in class got a bit tricky when (much to the dismay of a few British guys) much dictionary searching revealed China dooesn't have a word for cricket but uses the same term as for baseball. 
Hope to write again soon!!
Love, Lucy.

Ni Hao from a frosty Beijing. Jordyn and I have been here now for almost a week, and are already plotting how soon we can return to this city of smog, street stalls, unbelievably cheap shopping and hectic classes.
We have set up base in an apartment just a few minutes walk from Beijing Yuyan Daxue, our university for the next five weeks. We aren't home much, except to enjoy the children's channel of CCTV (which is still way too fast for me) or a steaming glass of jasmine tea. 
From tai chi on a chilly morning to basketball and basking in the afternoon sun, our university is beautiful to meander through with a steaming sweet potato in its skin for lunch, or to race through at 7:50am to class grasping an apple or a stick of sugar coated sour berries (of which i have consumed large amounts). Avenues lined with winter bare trees wind through teaching buildings, a four storey (!!) dining hall, a fitness centre and numerous domitory buildings. Most of the students are Korean, which means my hair and Jordyn's height still draws the open stares, double takes and nudges to friends that accompany us everywhere we go.

Shopping is a whole new ball game, with malls filled to the brim with warrens of stalls everywhere you turn. Bargaining is expected, and could be deemed an extreme sport: rapid fire chinese and feigned 'I'm leaving, no, I'm really leaving' results in exhaustion but seriously cheap, quality goods. 
Food is a new adventure everyday- the four storey dining hall mentioned above should hint at this, and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Choose your own hotpot adventure, steamed corn on the cob from a street stall, an amazing lunch with a friend from Australia's Chinese grandparents, mystery pastry parcels and amazingly sweet, dense 'mooncakes', China is certainly proving a culinary tour of awesomeness. At night the bicycle fruit stands, chargrills and savoury pancake stalls come out of the woodwork and set up in the middle of a small road just near our apartment. The atmosphere at these chilly night markets is welcoming and a haven of yummy goods at the end of a long day- barbequed eggplant, tofu, mushroom... the locals recognise us as fixtures now but still laugh at our enthusiastic and well-meant but stilted Chinese.

Only in China would you be able to go skiing when there has been no actual snow fall yet this winter: yep, an entirely artificial ski resort embodies the Chinese attitude of being able to do anything they want. However, the 'real artificial' snow as it was dubbed proved great skiing, and we had an exhausting but exhilarating time skiing until the moon was high in the sky. Highlight: Jordyn taking on a black run, but then falling off a slow-moving conveyor belt leading up from a green run. I laughed so hard I almost joined her!
Reality set in with our placement tests on Monday, conducted entirely in Chinese. Class began today: 8am -12, then 1-3pm private tutoring. Class is also all in Chinese, as are our books, the notes on the board... quite a shock to the system, but we will certainly improve quickly- we are doing the equivalent of one week of class back home per day. 

Between hilariously bad Chinese to English translations on signs, 6 hours of class a day plus my self-professed 'god of homework' of a teacher, $2 dinners, joining in with fan dancers outside our apartment, meeting awesome people from all around the world, we are quickly and happily adapting to life in this unbelievable city.

Lots of Beijing love,
Zaijian, 

Lu Fei.