Back from Hong Kong

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens.  --Ecclesiastes 3:1

Seeing as I've been in China for three months now in a large city like Beijing, I think I've hit a sweet spot where I've gotten into enough of a routine to feel like I'm living a normal student life but at the same time I can take a break and go to a new spot to revisit the novelty of seeing this place through a tourist's eyes.  A typical week here can consist of long study hours in cafes and daily runs on the treadmill alongside birthday celebrations, day trips to the Summer Palace, and a flight to Hong Kong.  

The long corridor of tourists in the Summer Palace.

The view at Summer Palace.

Trying to learn to play Three Kingdoms 三国杀and mostly just feeling confused.

 I was in Hong Kong for the past week mainly to attend a cousin's wedding, but there are probably a million other things I appreciate about going back to the place where I spent my childhood summers.  To name a few:

A respite from the Great Firewall of the mainland.

Blue skies and cleaner, albeit extremely humid, air!

Cute old people.

Eating home cooked meals every day with cute old people.

Witnessing family traditions.

Seeing the passage of generations and thinking about how time really does change things.

Cute young people.

Seeing everyone dressed up for a day of 10238123+ photos.

饮茶yumcha all day erryday

Reminiscing the past.  (old photo of my parents' wedding in HK)

Coming back to Beijing with a fully stocked snack pile.

With this wedding and hearing about friends in the states graduating as I begin the last month of my semester here, I start to think a lot about what it means to make the most of what we have in the present.  One more month...:(  It's gonna be hard to say goodbye.