class is over, I start traveling tomorrow

Well I think I passed. I know I passed the written, and the oral professor was complimentary of my paragraph presentation. What a tough language to learn.

Today was my first day without study or classes. I worked out then had a long day planned, to see a garden based on a classic Chinese novel: "The Dream of Red Mansions". Then I was going to go to Tiananmen, Wangfujing foreign languages bookstore, the restored Confucian Temple, and the brand new Beijing Apple store. I made it to everything except the Apple store, but Erik has been nice enough to volunteer to check that out for me. It is very close to his apartment. My workout was good, if constrained. I didn't get a gym membership, so I am doing pushups, lunges, abs, arm curls, and rows. I use therabands and a 2X2' mat I bought on a diagonal to have a surface I am willing to put near my face or my hands. I have been trying to work out 2-4 times a week, but the last few weeks I really didn't have time. I needed the sleep more, and when I had time, I took long hikes to see sites.

I have been marking my routes on a map of Beijing. that is now very threadbare and hard to read, but the combined routes show what I have done. The map is not as informative as could be, it labels major roads, but they rarely keep the same name over more than 2-3 blocks. there are all sorts of modifiers- north south, big, or just slightly different, but the same....