Starting the Home Stretch

I do believe that when I last left off I had just gotten back to Beijing, having just returned from our trips to Xi'an and Shanghai. If that is not the case, then I'm afraid my reality has broken at long last, and I wish you all well from whatever plane of existence I happen to be currently inhabiting. But, seeing as how that's the last post, I'll assume we're still in the same world and continue with my story.
Our first full day back in Beijing was New Year's Eve. We still had class that morning (unfortunately) and we had the afternoon completely free. Everyone was still exhausted from traveling, so no one did anything special for most of the day. I found No Country for Old Men online and watched that to while away my time. Once dinner-time rolled around, we all met up and walked about 15 minutes to a big karaoke place. We had reserved their largest room, and a buffet was provided. The room was pretty big (it easily fit our party of 31) and there was a big-screen TV that the videos/lyrics were displayed on. Mics were around the room, and whoever wanted to pick a song and sing was certainly encouraged :) It was a blast, especially considering the fact that more than a few people were feeling a good buzz at that point (no, myself NOT included!). There was great fun had by all, and at eight we headed back. The fireworks had been going all day, but they were picking up since it was finally dark outside. We stopped for a little bit outside a restaurant to watch them launch their array of fireworks... Of course, scientist that I am, I'm wringing my hands and bewailing all of the safety precautions that aren't being taken (like setting them off under trees, near power lines, etc.), but I still managed to enjoy myself (and no one was seriously injured). As I mentioned before, fireworks were going off across the city throughout the day, but the closer it got to midnight the more there were. At a quarter to eleven the city literally became a city of exploding light, and thunderclaps and explosions filled the air with brilliant stars of green, red, and purple. This continued until about a quarter after midnight. Yeah, and we think Fourth of July fireworks displays are spectacular :P Granted, fireworks were invented here, and they're a lot cheaper...

Woke up today (New Years!) and went to another part of the city for a Temple Fair. It wasn't actually in the temple, but it was nearby. Now, up to this point the streets of Beijing had been fairly quiet; one could readily believe that most of the population had gone away, or disappeared. But upon coming to this fair, it was obvious that China is certainly a large country, and Beijing is certainly a large city. Throngs of people filled the sidewalks of these temple grounds. Just imagine New York subways at rush hour, and you'll get an idea. There were stalls selling everything absolutely everywhere (in true China fashion), and it was really exciting being there amidst the festivities, in spite of the crowds. They had some interesting snacks, of which I partook (fried dough balls made of rice and ox cheese; they were really good). After wandering there for a while and seeing what was offered, we met with Pong laoshi and began the trek to the actual temple. The trek ended up being a journey of about two or three miles past dozens of vendors selling incense (for use at the temple) that concluded at the end of a ridiculously long line to actually get into the temple >.< So we missed that, but we saw plenty of the back streets of Beijing. We came back here and worked on classwork for a while, and went to a local dumpling restaurant for dinner (probably also the only one open today, aside from McDonald's).
The next few days are mostly class with free afternoons. On the 26th we're going to Tianjin, so look forward to that! Until next time!