Sorry for the gap in my blog.  I was preparing most of the week for my Chinese mid-term.  It was quite long and hard but I think I did well! I’m so happy it’s over that I celebrated with a long nap.  In the evening, I decided to go to a free performance of a Beijing opera on campus.

It started off with this woman singing.  She was excellent!  She incorporated some arm gestures into her performance which she taught to some audience members afterwards!

The next performance was an Emperor telling a story.  I had a hard time following along since he was singing in Chinese.  At first I thought he was going to cut off his own leg but I was wrong! Thank goodness!

The last performance was my favorite.  It was a scene from the opera where a young girl is a messenger between the Emperor and his wife.  It was very funny (I think, I just laughed along when everyone else did!) Plus, the girl who played the messenger was really great.  Someone even gave her a big bouquet of flowers at the end! Seeing a rendition of the Beijing opera was a neat experience since I learned all about it in one of the chapters in my Chinese textbooks.

I went to bed early because today I am leaving to fly to Szechuan Province in Southern China!  This week is our independent travel week so I will be in the city of Chengdu from Saturday till next Thursday! So I will not be able to update my blog until I return. I’m flying to Szechuan because they have the most famous nature reserve of pandas in China! I’m going to see pandas! I’m so excited! I’ll also be doing some hiking and exploring! Feel free to e-mail me but no updates on this blog till Friday.

Have a great week!