Day 12- June 12: There Is Nothing Like A Relaxing Day At The Summer Palace

I do not want to say that a relaxing day of just being a tourist around the Summer Palace is the perfect way to follow up a ridiculous music festival, but it is about as close to perfect as you can get. Yuan made the decision to take us to the Summer Palace at 1:00 pm (giving me the opportunity to sleep until noon). But he failed to mention that we would not be having lunch before our tour, which made it a little bit less relaxing for a while. So, instead of lunch I ate two ice cream cones and decided that was a sufficient breakfast/ lunch combination. To get to the entrance to the Summer Palace we took a bus and it was my first time on a Chinese bus, where they speak no English…that was kind of nerve racking, but I (with the help of Yuan) handled it like a champ. The Summer Palace was really beautiful and it was the first chance that I have had since I arrived to take a large number of pictures. The architecture was just what you would imagine when you think of ancient China. We spent about four hours hiking around the Summer Palace. Yuan led us every step of the way, eagerly telling anyone who would listen ancient stories about the Summer Palace and ancient China in general. He took us to his “favorite park on the planet” where there was a stage set up with a peaceful music performance and a few silent plays. We also hiked to the top of the Tower of Buddha Incense, which allowed us to have a marvelous view of the city and the small lake that bordered the Summer Palace. After the tour Yuan took us to a western Chinese restaurant. As is custom in China, we all shared a variety of dishes. As we were eating I took note of how great of a chopstick user I am becoming…seriously, I can pick up anything now. The dishes were all pretty good. I am finding that I have a hard time describing all of the dishes that I am eating. For one, trying to remember fifteen different dishes after taking two bites of each is not an easy task. The main course at this restaurant was a type of flour pasta that tasted like…well honestly nothing but pasta and you dipped it in either a mushroom, lamb, or vegetable soup (I chose lamb). After dinner we rode home on the subway and I completed a short one-page write up for Econ 328 about my internship thus far. Then I met up with a few people and we went and got a milkshakes. Later that night I got to Skype with Lindsey for about an hour (maybe thirty minutes of talking time because of a bad connection) and then I went to bed eager to start my next week of work. It was a relaxing day and a great way to finish the weekend.