An update. Obviously, I fail at regular updating so I'm just going to give a rundown of what's new. I'll try to post pictures sometime later.

About a month ago (can't believe I haven't posted since then!) Mandi and I went to Xi'an, one of the capitals of some of the ancient Chinese dynasties and home of the famous terra-cotta warriors. We spent three days there, taking the overnight train both ways, to and from Tianjin. The city itself was totally shrouded in pollution during our time there, which was unfortunate and grey, but we did enjoy biking around the entire old city wall and visiting the Hui minority section of the city. Xi'an is a good ways south and west of Beijing nearer the geographical center of China, and so it has a long history of different ethnicities from east and central Asia mixing together. The warriors were also really cool, though disappointing in that you can't approach them other than the very small number that are in museum cases. I will definitely get some pics up of these eventually.

That break marked the end of my first quarter of classes here at IUP. I've moved up a level though the format is largely the same until next quarter, when I'll have more freedom to pick individualized classes. The language is going really well, though. It's a joy to be able to actually carry on a decent conversation with somebody. And, for the first time in my life, I sat down on the train on the way to see Mandi and was able to pick up a magazine and simply read an article - which was neither highly complex nor interesting, but a new experience in Chinese nonetheless.

Immediately after coming back from Xi'an I had the joy of hosting my parents here in China as my dad had some business at the Beijing Language and Culture University, just up the road from Qinghua. We had an awesome time together, enjoying a beautiful day at the Summer Palace, eating some great Italian, Korean and Chinese food, and just generally showing them around my part of Beijing. I thought it fitting that one day was among the most polluted I've seen, giving them an "honest" view so to speak - but the rest of the time was blessedly clear. I was sad to see them go after only three days but they had a busy itinerary in Hong Kong, Taiwan etc.

So, those are the big events of late. Again, I'll post pictures in a follow-up. At the moment I'm applying to various Political Science Ph.D. programs and will find out in March how that went, so if you had any questions about my future you now know as much as me :) Thanks to everyone who sent a birthday wish on facebook or email! I'll miss being home for Christmas but the elf hats on the Chinese clerks at Carrefour almost make it worthwhile.