Temple of Heaven and the Final Days

I continue to delay the posting of my blogs, even though we're winding down to these last few days and we've got a bunch of free time. Only one and half left as I write this. It's really gone by quick, but I'm excited to be coming back to the states. I think there's going to be some reverse culture shock for a little bit, which will be fun :)
Day before yesterday (that being the 30th) we had classes in the morning and used our free afternoon to accompany Pong laoshi to the Temple of Heaven. Now, the Temple isn't really so much an actual temple as it is a place where the Emperor himself would go to pray and make sacrifices (animal, China never did human). It was built at the same time as the Forbidden City, and the similarity in style was immediately obvious. The construction is all done without nails (like the Forbidden City), and the temple itself is circular. Those two combined just kind of blow you away, though I suppose ancient carpenters were called "joiners" for a reason. The temple was really nice, gorgeous grounds (I can upload pictures now, yay!). After we thoroughly explored the grounds, we left and literally crossed the street to the Pearl Market. I was led to believe that the Pearl Markets would sell a whole bunch of pearls, but it was actually almost identical to Silk Alley, just with a little more room between the stalls. We didn't have a whole lot of time there, unfortunately, but I did get a great deal on some ties: seven for about two bucks each. I love that silk is made right here in China :)
Believe it or not, we didn't really do anything on the 31st. The language classes were all wrapping up with finals the next day, so everyone was studying for that, and we had presentations for culture class as well. So it was classes in the morning and homework in the afternoon for literally everyone. Today wasn't much different, except that now everyone is done with those presentations (had another culture class period this afternoon so we would have time to finish all of them). Nearly everyone here is sad to be leaving already, myself included, to some extent. I've had a blast over here, it's been a great experience, but I'm also looking forward to seeing friends and family again and sharing stories with them.
So tomorrow is our last day. It's completely open, and everyone is taking the entire day to go shopping. I still have a couple things to look for, but I definitely need to get a picture of what it's like in Silk Alley. Speaking of new photos, I've uploaded a bunch today already, so check them out. New material starts on page two with 18Suzhou18. Well, that about wraps this one up. I'll post about tomorrow, and I'll probably post some stories of reverse culture shock once I'm back home :) Until next time!