Orientation starts tomorrow at 8am. A light week overall except for 2.5 hours of placement exams on Tuesday.

I rode my bike today to the Olympic stadium, or at least I would have if it hadn't broken on me 3/4 of the way there. With the rear wheel wobbling about an inch off center I parked it and walked the rest of the way.

Nothing you haven't already seen on TV. It was cool in person though. I couldn't get too close since the security checks were obviously all closed, but perhaps I'll try again when the Paralympics are on. The whole area around the stadium is just these huge (and, today, empty) boulevards with newly planted trees up and down. Very attractive.

Check out the blue sky! It was absolutely beautiful today. Not sure why it was so nice, but it was like being back in Kalamazoo.

Here's a comparison shot from my dorm room (see below). Notice how you can actually see the mountains north of the city when the haze is gone.

Anyway, this wraps up my pure leisure time, at least until our first break in October. Oh, and to finish the story, I took the bike back to the guy I bought it from and he fixed it up better than when he first sold it to me for free. The bikes are so few in Beijing that the nice wide bike lanes most roads have are pretty empty except at rush times, but it's still a great way to get around. Just keep in mind that, if you legally can go, you go no matter what and everyone just avoids each other. Stopping and waiting for somebody, whether car, bike or pedestrian, confuses things - just steer to go around them so neither of you lose speed. 

My sweet bike, with lock in the front basket.

So that's all for now. I took some time to walk around the old Qing Dynasty gardens here on campus which was very beautiful, but I think I need to look into a Flickr account or something so that this blog doesn't become one giant online photo album. I'll keep picking some here and there though to post on this site. Here's a decent one:

Still water at the edge of the gardens.

P.S. A tear for the not wholly unexpected Michigan loss, but a toast to many more TDs from Mr. McGuffie.