Saturday, March 7, 2009

First Month Photos

Hello all!
It's a beautiful Saturday evening and I'm going to wander out soon for some dinner, but I thought I'd do a little photo-uploading first. We've been here a month now--very exciting! School is going well and Chinese gets better all the time. I have favorite restaurants and study places and daily routines. I can't believe how quickly the time's going. Really, I know everyone always says that, but it's crazy how fast the weeks pass. I could say more, of course. But I've decided to post some photos from the last few weeks instead. Some may be replicas from the slideshow, but I don't think that worked too well anyways, so who's gonna know the difference. I hopes you likes...
This is the gang: Brett, Nick, M, Rebecca

The most cuddly zoo pandas in the world!


This was the view from my living room window one snowy Beijing morning. My favorite noodle place is in the strip of tiny buildings down to the left.













Bamboo walkway at the most wonderful park near our school.


Great Wall Success!

Printed windows at the Palace Museum in the Forbidden City. We had a field trip here for our religion class, 'The Sacred in China'.












A certain excited Temple of Heaven visitor.





View of the enormous Forbidden City from beautiful Jingshan Park. As it gets warmer and I get better at the bus system I think I will go here often to wander around and read my books.

Drinking tea with Dekyi and Dan at Dan's place. Dekyi is our friend and Tibetan instructor. Dan is the program director and head professor for our anthropology classes.


Looking down a narrow Beijing hutong. Beijing is famous for these long, neighborhood alleys, first established in the Zhou dynasty over 600 years ago. We visited the well-known (and touristy) Shichaha hutong in our 'Social and Cultural Transformation in Contemporary China' class.











Today the hutongs house a hugely significant proportion of Beijing's population. Many families and their businesses have been there for generations.



Sitting next to a lake at the park near our school. There's lots of small lakes here, and people walk and fly kites and gather to sing Chinese songs.









Hanging out at the park on the first of many warm days to come!









So much love to you all!
Makenzie

4 comments:

  1. There's more water and trees near you than I realized. The photos are fantastic! Con mucho amore, mama

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  2. Kenzie, I love these photos and I want to hear the stories behind them. I'm in the library right now, as always, procrastinating on a paper and trying to ignore Alyssa, who keeps veering off into whispered rants about various imbecilities in the study of history. She says "hi" though, wants you to know that she has a panda mask (?), and is anxiously awaiting your gift. Love from your girls, holding down the home-fort.
    Elizabeth & Wifman III

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  3. Temple of Heaven shot is by far and away the best! i want this framed. for my birthday. march 27th.

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  4. Hi Mak- you are probably swamped with tones, and sights, and noodle delights. Here in the U.S. Mid-West spring is teasing us with its promise of warmth and all things green and yellow and pruple. Spring break for students. We would love to hear and see more from our linguistically talented slack line balancing fantastically courageous internationalist --- but in the meantime know that your family and friends are sending you love. You are in our hearts and thoughts.

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