Fire!!!!

Last Thursday, our building caught on fire.  Interestingly, we wouldn't have known, except that we heard the fire trucks and decided to look out the window.  Seeing a lot of smoke above us, and parts of the building floating to the ground, we decided it was probably best to get out, just in case the fire got out of control.  It turned out the fire was only on the outside of the building, and was fairly far away from our apartment.  The firemen put out the fire using their hoses from the top of the building.  We could feel the spray drifting down 40 stories below.  Luckily, Jenny remembered to grab the camera before we headed down, aren't these great pictures?

Football!!! (I mean Soccer) Again

Here's some soccer photos from our most recent game.  This semester, the European exchange students aren't quite as intense as last semester's, but they're still a heck of a lot better than I am.  I was hoping my new shoes would help me play better, but I still think I'm the worst player out there.  These photos were taken by Jenny with our new camera: unfortunately for me, it's a really good camera and Jenny's a really good photographer, and if you zoom in on the pictures, you'll see why it's unfortunate, the camera captured some of the funniest facial expressions I've probably ever made.  

Matt Meyers in Guangzhou - Day 2

On day 2 with Matt, we started with a 7 mile run around the Sun Yat-sen University campus, then along the river.  We crossed the river, but then ran into dead ends, so we turned around.  We then headed to Shamian island and the White Swan hotel for Dim Sum.  Walking around Shamian, we ran into some classmates that were showing some exchange students around Guangzhou.  After leaving Shamian, we headed to Yuexiu Park.  Here we saw the 5 rams statue - a tribute to the 5 immortals who founded Guangzhou - as well as a lot of beautiful trees and flowers.  We also visited the Guangzhou city museum, which has some cannons from the Opium wars, which apparently make a good modern day playground.  Lastly, we saw a memorial to Sun Yat-sen.  

Matt Meyers in Guangzhou - Day 1

Over this past weekend, Matt Meyers, OSC 2007, currently studying in Korea, came for a visit.  After a cup of joe for breakfast and a bowl of 粥(zhou - pronounced the same as joe) for lunch, we headed off to White Cloud Mountain （白云山）. After a year in China, we were very pleasantly surprised to find a park that had unpaved hiking trails.  We happened upon them by accident, having taken a detour to look at a tea field, and continued on up to the top.  During the entire hike to the top, we ran into only 2 other people - 2 very active Chinese ladies.  At the top, we were treated to some very beautiful scenery of Guangzhou city from its highest point.  That night, after returning home, we headed out for dinner at our favorite all you can eat and drink sushi restaurant.