Yuanming Yuan and Living in Beijing pictures

My lovely dorm room. Don't be fooled by the appearance of the bed; it's actually rock hard. It's a wooden plank with a sheet and a comforter. The only thing I have slept on that is harder is the concrete floors in Alaskan churches. There is a decent sized TV in the lower left hand corner just out of sight. My bathroom (see below) is basically right behind my bed; the door is across from the sink in the entrance.

This is my bathroom. It's not as good as at NUS because the shower is pretty much part of the toilet and there is a sink and mirror in the shower, but it's still a private bathroom, so I am not complaining. We also have a real toilet, thankfully (see below).

We have real toilets in our dorms, but every other toilet in China looks like this. I took this picture at NUS, so imagine it dirtier and without the nice trash can and toilet paper. Fun.

The dark blue bike with the dark yellow lock is mine. I really like it, especially the bell. Cross your fingers that it doesn't break or get stolen any time soon!

This is our hotpot dinner. You can see how we're using our chopsticks to drop in the raw beef (and have plates of raw meat surrounding us). We used the same chopsticks to eat, so we dipped them in the boiling water to sanitize them. So good!

This is the ruins of the main palace at Yuanming Yuan. It used to be a grand palace, the main residence and entertaining hall. It took a lot of manpower to destroy it so completely!

One part of Yuanming Yuan that has been restored is the maze. We all found our way through the maze to the middle, but not without a wrong turn or two!