Beijing, China. What's Happening to Me: The Eighth Day

I got up late, hit snooze again, so I got up at 540. I worked out with jump rope, abs, and push ups and squats. Madre and Dad called me and I talked with them before they went to church. I have been reading the Daily Readings and looking at the Reflections but I wish that there was true Catholic Church around here. There is one that the government controls here but it is not in communion with the Holy See. It is going to be a long time before I make it to church.
People on Facebook messaged me and this helped a lot with my homesickness. Talking to someone that I know is awesome and makes me feel better.

I had a good day, I was thinking of home in the morning while we were going through the forbidden city but I soon lost that as I wondered through various galleries that were rather offset, and therefore not crowded. lots of the outside areas were packed with people but on the inside, at least in some of them, there were galleries of ceramics and old things, these were not crowded. I enjoyed looking through them, and reading the misspelled English on some of the signs. Also the way that many of the signs were phrased was interesting. I took some photos.
Now I will go chronologically
After writing the first paragraph, I went down and bought myself two steamed buns and a banana along with the dragon fruit for breakfast. I may know why the fruit is called a dragon fruit but that comes at the end of the day. On the way to buy the buns I saw workers painting a wall with tiny brushes, this was a big wall as well, and it was all white that they were painting. It was rather weird. It was all very good. the dragon fruit was kind of like a kiwi, but blander, I have not decided if I like it yet. After eating I met down in the lobby/"restaurant" and met Pimpon, Pimpons boyfriend, and Chungli. We all walked to the subway station, it is pretty close. We are the Weigongcun Station, and we were headed to Tiananmen East. I used my transportation card to the first time today to get in, It is pretty awesome. We got on line 4, and went a few stations down where we changed to a line 8, I believe and waited for Tiananmen East. When we got there they ran us through a security check, there were a ton of police there. Pimpan's boyfriend told me that it was because they want to ensure that there are no protests against the government, that is certainly different from the USA.
We went through the security check and several others, every time onto a subway in fact. Before we went into the entrance there was a gigantic "painting" of Mao Zedong, I took a photo with it. We went into the main entrance courtyard; this place was huge in terms of area. The size of the buildings was not staggering but the complexity of each building and the design of it was and how many buildings there were. I probably saw 1/3 of the entire place that was open to the public and I was there for about 4 hours. If one zooms in on some of the photos you will see the design that I am talking about. I walked around for a while, 2.5-3 hours with the electric tour guide then found some of the galleries and worked my way out to the exit from there. There were gigantic iron/used to be gold plated vats everywhere, these were filled with water and used by the fire fighters of that day, all of the structures were wooden, or at least partially wooden. The galleries were good, there were some incredibly intricately carved horns and jade. It was these galleries that relaxed me and staunched my homesickness. Also the fact that today was very clear for Beijing helped. It was not as clear in the morning as in the evening but it was still pretty nice.
We made our way out of the east gate and walked through the touristy areas, they sell a bunch of crap. We made it back to the subway after a good walk. from the subway we boarded a very crowded train to go to the music district at the Ping'anli station. Pimpan's boyfriend plays the Ukulele as well. We ate there with a late lunch at a kind of upscale restaurant. After eating we walked around the area. They sell a ton of stringed instruments. I am thinking of buying a guitar, so if one has advice on that type of purchase please message me or email me.
I talked with all of the people that I was with. Only the boyfriend and I walked through the music district, the girls stopped at a store and we picked them up on the way back. we got back on to crowded trains and headed back to the CAAS. They told me that there is good shopping at the Xidan stop, so David I made be able to get you I Love Mao Zedong shirts there, and that the Beigongmen stop is the summer palace. there is also a stopped called Beijing Zoo so I may go there one of these days. We got back to the dorms and said goodbye to Chungli, I walked up and filled my water bottles then back down. We walked to a new supermarket, one that is two floors below the ground level with a sushi restaurant that all of the dishes come to you on a conveyor belt. That was really cool, I am tempted to go there.
On the walk there there was an old man flying a kite to unbelievable heights. In the photo I posted it is literally a dot in the sky. The sky was pretty clear today actually.We went to a store called Carrefour. Shopping today was good. We went to the imported aisle and I got jam and peanut butter. This was awesome. I also got fruit. I need to get a water melon when I eat all of the fruit I got. I got some jujube fig newtons basically they should be good, and some chrysanthemum tea which should be delicious and nuts and cranberries.
The line for checkout was incredibly long and it took us a long time to get though it. There was a very pregnant lady in the line as well. I talk to Pimpan and the boyfriend all throughout this time. He is a tomato person and tomorrow I get to go see his lab and the greenhouses he works in. We talked about the intricacies of English and how to pronounce certain words, also about the weather in Texas. We walked back to the dorm with our food in hand and bag. the sky was the clearest that I have seen it since I got here. It was pretty nice, so nice in fact that I went for a 15 minute 2 to 2.5 mile run at the pace I was going. I almost did not make it, you know the dragon fruit, how I wrote that I may know why it is called as such? It came to me with a vengeance, and on the run I was barely able to keep it in check. Luckily, I made it to my room in time. After that I went down and hard boiled more eggs and talked to some people down there.

It was a good day and I thank the Lord for it.