American Idols

Evidence that the Asian stereotype of taking "selfies" is founded in some truth.

Last night I was trying to sign up for a 微博 (weibo) account, the Chinese version of Twitter, but I was hindered by the requirement of Chinese ID Number (similar to one's Social Security Number) to create an account.  Besides being beyond frustrating for me, the government-mandated requisite removes not only the anonymity of users but also limits foreigners' involvement in the social networking site.  I have found since being here that I took the ease of information access in the United States much for granted.

All of the NSLI students spent the morning teaching Chinese elementary school students English. The kids tended to swarm and were even hopping up and down in front of a window to glimpse into a room where we were.  They all wanted our picture and autograph in a desperate way; the benefit was that by rewriting my Chinese name one hundred times my signature advanced from a carefully constructed beginner's to a realistically expedited version more comparable to a native's.

The mini mob only grew when we students convinced them
that one of  the students in our program was Justin Bieber's little brother.

Weirdest thing I ate today: red bean flavored doughnut (wonderful!)