Today I was surprised to find that I slept extremely well. Maybe the Chinese know that hard beds are better for sleeping? We’ll see as the weeks go on. I woke up around 7:30, and took a shower before breakfast. I have to say I am very happy we are staying in the hotel with hot water, as opposed to the dorm rooms which may not have had hot water! Breakfast was very interesting this morning. It was definitely good, but I had an odd assortment of foods ranging from French fries and rice to eggs and vegetables.
Next, we attended our first lecture with Claudia. Her lecture was very interesting on the historic sites of Beijing. I felt like I really got a sense of the history. Specifically related to engineering, we learned about the architecture of the buildings in the Forbidden City. I found it cool how the different levels correspond to different powers (people, Emperor, Heaven). Afterwards, we attended a welcome lunch at a very nice restaurant. I enjoyed having a separate room for the whole party with a rotating center for food. This is very different than in the U.S. I like this China culture better in that aspect. People order a variety of foods to share, which I think is much more social and enjoyable. This time, I liked every single food we ate. Everything was very good, especially the Peking duck.
After a short break that involved exchanging money for the first time, we took a bus to the Tsinghua University campus. I was shocked to see how big the University was. It would have taken a very long time to walk around everywhere, so we saw the highlights. The architecture was interesting here too. Part of the campus was very Western, while others were obviously Chinese. The Chinese sections were extremely beautiful. There was lots of water and gardens that most city schools would never imagine in America. I would love for my school to have such a peaceful place to study. When we were done touring the campus, we stopped at the souvenir shop and all got free T-shirts thanks to Vivien. After taking a nap, we eventually went to the U-center to eat, which was not the best dinner experience since they kept running out of food. The night ended after attending a bar called Lush to see the Chinese nightlife, but it was very Americanized and didn’t seem much different than any bar in the U.S.