Running out, day 5

 
This post is going to be short. I don't know whether you have ever heard this 'fact' about studying: There is a triangle in student life, with 'sleep', 'social life' and 'study' in the corners, and you get to choose two. So now I just came back from the first night out with people form the U. school (it's a traditional night out, but they go out on every night), and 

I wonder... is 6 hours of sleep enough, and how long can I possibly keep that up? Chinese is proving harder than expected 'By end this week you learn 100 characters!' 'Eh... nope, haven't even got the first twenty completely figured out! Sorry 'bout that...' And the social life is proving extremely tempting, although rather expensive. Today after school I went to the temple of Heaven and ate dinner at an Arab restaurant. One of my friends, J., is from Papua New Guinea, but he lived in Abu Dhabi for a while, so he knows all about the food, and we got some really nice stuff.
Also, I've figured out what is so funny about the whole situation. We have students whose parents have huge flats in the middle of London, students who've been to Harvard and Cambridge, etcetera... and we are living the life of working, everyday Chinese people- using the subway during rush hours and eating from the street and in random tiny restaurants. I mean, I have lived in countries more similar to China in South America, but never in the role of everyday, common citizen, and neither have these other people. It's really amazing actually what we can do- how clean and safe Beijing really is! It gives us the possibility to try out all kinds of things that would be quite risky otherwise, being an outsider and all. Sorry, I'll get some pictures out tomorrow! For now, it's my super-hard bed for me!