another Manic Monday...

Okay, so the rest of the weekend was great. Ming Tombs were interesting, I'm glad I saw them. Same goes for Peking Opera. (Pics from Ming Tombs and Peking Opera are above)

The Summer Palace was absolutely breathtaking...it was just enormous! The grounds were expansive, and the lake was beautiful. A bunch of us rented pedal boats and cruised around the lake for a bit.

Sunday was bittersweet, too, because we had to say goodbye to our kickass tour guide, Rock. He was pretty great, he knew so much about China and really wanted us to know more about his country. He even sang us an original ballad that he wrote about his home country! Just adorable (Don't worry, I haven't forgotten the Rock/Pebble love story matchmaking...it's coming soon.)

But today, Monday, was great. We got to sleep in, do laundry, run errands around the city, and we had to get all dressed up for a meeting. And since we were all dressed up, our professors suggested we stop by a super swanky hotel and go to the bar for a nice drink.

Well, the St. Regis happened to be the place. Check it out online...it was SO nice and we got the royal treatment. Our professor, Paul, is one smooth operator. The general manager of the St. Regis opened a private room for us and we were waited on hand and foot. It was surreal. My friend Lloyd kept telling me to "act like you know Anna" because I was so excited to be there and I was trying to keep it cool.

The hotel was just amazing...fresh orchids everywhere, an attentive staff--if you ever happen to stay there, EVERY room has its own butler-- and they have a special sunset ceremony every night at 6 with champagne. I couldn't tell you exactly what went on at the ceremony but I can tell you the champagne was delicious and they passed around hors d'ouevres trays complete with crackers and BRIE! I wasn't expecting to see or even taste brie until I came back home. So a slice of brie and a glass of champagne was glorious.

And on that note I am off to bed to dream of brie and champagne...first day of Olympic News Service training tomorrow! Bright and early...7 am.

Pictures from the rest of the weekend will be posted asap...I am working on an album on Picasa.