This summer has been a much anticipated vacation for both of us. Steve just completed his first year of law school (doing excellently I might add) and I finished my first year of teaching and the first year of my master's. It was a lot of work for both of us, but we loved every minute of it (well, maybe about 70% of the minutes for me). We made a lot of great friends that we are looking forward to spending lots of time with this coming year.
Steve is currently doing an internship at a public interest law firm in Beijing, named Zhicheng. The firm works with many types of cases, but mostly migrant workers. They also advise the congress on new laws concerning public interest. Steve's project for the summer is researching how to build a trust for a lady's two disabled children. The trust will be the first of its kind in China. Along with his research project, Steve has been working on a side project of ping-pong and basketball playing with his fellow interns.
Because of different school schedules, Steve has been in China for a month longer than me. After my classes got out, I had a few beach days and headed to Utah to see my family before heading off to Beijing. In Utah, I was able to spend a lot of time with Steve's family, due to his grandfather's passing. I went to quilt class with my mom and she helped me plan some projects to do when I get back. While I was there, my parents and I went to the Oakley Rodeo. It rained a lot, but it was a ton of fun.
Now, I'm in Beijing with Steve. We were so happy to see each other after being apart for over a month. Here are a few things that we've done:
The first day I went to a street called Wanfujing. It's the tourist center of Beijing-basically like Times Square in New York, but not nearly as impressive. I did find a picture of everyone's favorite basketball player though:
That night we went out to a nice restaurant to celebrate one of Steve's coworker's birthdays. It ended up being really expensive, but it was super tasty. We had dishes called Mandarin Fish, Lion's Head, and lake shrimp among others.
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| Steve with the Peking Man |
Near our apartment (relatively speaking) is the Peking Man site. The Peking Man is one of the earliest known hominids. It was discovered in the 1920s by a Swedish paleontologist. The site consists of several caves they have excavated as well as a museum.
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| Steve and Allie on the bus to Peking Man Site |
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| Everyone needs this sign sometime in their life. |
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| Town below the Peking Man caves |
Also near our apartment is the Beijing World Park. Think Chinese Epcot, minus food, cleanliness, and rides. Actually, we were both very impressed with the park overall. It took us a few hours to walk around the entire park. Unlike Epcot, it wasn't divided into countries, although there were some thematic areas. The park was only models of famous landmarks, but many of them were really well done.
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| Quarter rides outside our apartment (Teletubbies, Angry Bird in a dress, Pleasant Goat) |
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| Steve and a famous Japanese tower (we think) |
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| Gates of Babylon looking onto the Taj Mahal |
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| Sidney Opera House and Easter Island |
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| The Great Sphinx |
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| Never knew the pyramids were so short, huh? |
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| This is always how Americans dress when strolling along the Golden Gate Bridge. |
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| The Almost Grand Canyon |
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| Neuschwanstein |
Hope you are all doing well!
