I've been thinking of doing this post for a while but never really got around to it, so I guess now is the time. This post is going to be a compilation of phrases me and my fellow classmates most often used in China (in no particular order!)

老外 - foreigner
算了- forget it!/nevermind!
我不知道 - I don't know
我不明白 - I don't understand
再说一遍 - Can you repeat that?
请问 - Excuse me
怎么走? - How do I get there
....在哪儿？- Where is ....
可以充钱吗？- Can I add money?
一份这个 - I'd like one order of this
这个 - This one
那个 - That one
天啊!  - God!
哎呀 - aiya!
为什么 - Why?
在中国，不问问题 - We don't ask questions in China
是吗 - Really?
真的吗 - Really?
这样子 - Like this
太可爱！- Too cute!
当然！- Of course!
我也这么认为 - I also think that way
可以吗？- Can I/you?
听不懂 - I don't understand
你有没有..... - Do you have...
我饿死了 - I'm starving!
我累死了 - I'm exhausted!
我想吃饭 - I want to eat
火锅！- hot pot!
很高兴认识你 - It's nice to meet you
我很开心 - I'm so happy!
什么时候 - What time?
等我啦！- Wait for me!
快点儿！- A little faster!
太贵了！ - Too expensive!
可以给我便宜一点儿？- Can you give it to me cheaper?
多少钱 - How much is it?
可是我射大学生！- But I'm a college student!
可是我这么可爱！- But I'm so cute!
我的钱不够！ - I don't have enough money
小心 - be careful
我不要！- I don't want it!
听得懂 - I understand
我会说中文 - I can speak Chinese
迷路了 - I'm lost
谢谢！ - Thank you
喂？ - hello (answering the phone)
再见 - good bye
帅哥 - handsome

Sunday. The day of my departure. The last day in this chapter of my adventure. Woke up at 8 after 3 hours of sleep to move my bike into Chelsea's room. Since she's coming back next term, she's going to try to sell it for me to one of the incoming students. Saw off the morning bus of people and said goodbye to them. Got breakfast with Melissa, which was an adventure. Decided we wanted Nanguazhou, so we went to a restaurant outside the Southwest gate, but it wasn't open yet. But the area outside the southwest gate had a ton of food vending carts so we ended up picking up some fresh youtiao and nanguazhou. I freaking LOVE youtiao. It tasted soooooo good. Headed back to the dorms and worked on finishing up the last minute packing, procrastinating, etc. Went to the store to buy snacks and use up the last of the money on my student ID. Before I knew it, it was time to pack my bags and load up onto the bus. I was worried my flight might get delayed because it was snowing and the roads were slippery. Made it to the airport in almost no time. Thankfully the traffic wasn't too bad today. Checked my luggage and got my boarding pass. Mona had a little bit of a problems with her bags, so Melissa and I ended up going on ahead. It's nice that Melissa and I have the same flight together. Took the shuttle over to the terminal and located our door. Good thing we didn't stop to buy water, because in China they confiscate any liquids before you get on the plane...a little annoying. Sadly, I didn't get to say goodbye to Mona because as soon as we got to our gate, the plane started boarding. It had taken us a while to get through all of the stations at the airport. The best part was the Melissa had the seat beside me so we each had someone to lean on when we wanted to sleep. The flight was long and the food was bad. I watched 4 episodes of Big Bang Theory and 3 movies (Brave, Total Recall and Curse of the Golden Flower). The movies were ok; they helped time pass by quickly. I slept for a while too. Melissa said she was surprised by how I just passed out on the plane. The service on the plane sucked. We had turned on the call flight attendant light because we were thirsty and wanted drinks and they never responded. I think I might complain about that. I hate bad service. Sleeping definitely made the flight go faster. I woke up and we were already over the north pole. Before I knew it, the plane landed in Newark and it was time for me to go home. My parents were waiting for me outside the terminal.

And thus brings an end to my study abroad experience in China. I can't believe the semester went by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was getting off the plane in Beijing and wondering what I had gotten myself into. I really wish I had the opportunity to stay longer but I guess that means I'll just have to go back soon! This is definitely an experience that I will never forget and I look forward to the next time I can return to China. It's nice to know that I have friends there, eagerly awaiting for my return. I'm so thankful that I was able to have this experience as part of my college career. Thank you to all of you for your support from America. I'm so happy people were interested in following my blog and keeping up with what I did; it really means a lot to me. I definitely have a lot of stories and pictures to share (not everything made it into the blog!) I hope you all enjoyed reading about my adventures as much as I enjoyed having them. Until the next adventure! Love Janell

Satuday. Last full day in Beijing :( Woke up early and got something to eat. Worked on packing and organizing for most of the remainder of my morning. Was supposed to go out into Beijing with Li Jiao, but I just didn't have the time. But I ended up meeting up with her before she left for the day. I gave her a pair of snowflake earrings and she gave me a belated birthday present. It was a really pretty neckerchief and a good luck charm for my cell phone. I also got to meet one of her friends. I was sad that I couldn't go along with them. Afterwards I headed back to the dorm to work on packing and organizing my things. Around 6 a few of us went to Cifu restaurant outside the Southwest gate for dinner. Ai and Melissa's Tibetan friend Devina came along with us. We had a fantastic dinner and all ate so much food! Then it was back to the dorms again.Li Jiao ended up stopping by at night to say goodbye to Chelsea, so I was able to see her again. We hung out for a while and shared pictures with each other. I had to skype my parents so I got to introduce her to them which was fun. Chelsea invited Hing over and we were hanging out for a while. Haibo called me and said he wanted to stop over so he came buy and gave me a gift. He got me a little box of tea. The tea smells amazing! I can't wait to try it out. I gave him an English sherlock holmes book that I had picked up at the store so he could have something to practice reading with. I think it's more interesting than the stories in his textbooks. I'm worried it might have been too easy for him, but I hope he likes it. I completely forgot to give him the card that went with it though. I guess I'll have to find someway to mail it to him. He stuck around for a while and we were chatting. He got to meet my roommate and talk with Melissa. I think all of the people coming and going from my room were making him uncomfortable because after a while he said he had to leave. I think he didn't want to interrupt us because people were stopping to say goodbye. Went back to Chelsea's room to hang out with her and Hing. We were hungry so we tried to order McDonald's ice cream, but they didn't have ice cream that late at night so we headed out to the convenience store to pick up some snacks. I tried to stay up for most of the night so I'll be nice and tired for the flight tomorrow. Managed to stay up until 5 and then headed to sleep for a few hours

Friday. Last day of classes. I don't know where my time in China has gone. I'm not ready for this trip to be over. After classes, we all went to Shaoyuan 7 for the farewell lunch. There were a few speakers from the University that came to give speeches. Some of our classmates gave speeches as well. They showed a long slideshow of pictures from all of the trips over the course of the term and showed student's kouyu videos. The food was fantastic, as always and there was so much. All of us received certificates from Beida for participating in the program. After lunch we all were running around the room taking pictures with everyone. It didn't hit me until much later in the day that the banquet was the last time that I would be seeing everyone all together. I'm kind of glad I didn't realize that earlier or I think the banquet would have been much more difficult to get through. After the banquet I headed back to the dorms and started packing my stuff and organizing my life. Around quarter of 6 I went to grab dinner and then ran off to Xidan to meet Moxi because he invited me to go ice skating again. Ice skating was a lot of fun. He improved a lot more this time around. His sister came with us too. I like her, she's really nice. After skating, he told his sister that I know how to do magic, so I had to give a performance for them. They really liked it. Chinese people really like magic. Then afterwards, it was time for me to head back to Beida. I hate saying goodbyes to people. It was really tough for me. Definitely killed my mood. I finally managed to pull myself back together and catch the subway back to Beida. Chelsea was already out in Wudaokou and waiting for me to join her. My classmates in the hallways at the dorms were trying to convince me to go to sanlitun with them but I really wasn't in the mood for going out. I was only going out because Chelsea was in Wudaokou and was waiting for me to join her. So I got changed and headed to wudaokou. Couldn't nab a cab since my classmates were leaving for sanlitun at the same time, so I ended up walking and then met up with Chelsea. We went into the club and she introduced me to 2 guys she had met a few weekends ago. One is a law professor at Renmin University. They seemed like ok guys at first but tonight was just not going my way. Chelsea and I were dancing, which was fine, but I really wasn't in the mood to be there. I only came because Chelsea wanted me to. I understand that she just wanted me to have fun, but I wasn't up for it. I got really angry because she kept trying to get me to dance with these random guys, which like I said I wasn't in the mood for. The 2 guys she introduced me to turned out to be jerks. They were trying to help her get me to dance with someone. Then another one of Chelsea's friends came. He was actually cool. I sat and had a beer with him and chatted for a while. Chelsea pulled me on to the dance floor again. I got so pissed off at them for trying to force me to dance that I ended up storming out of the club and went over to Bridge Cafe to get a hot chocolate. Chelsea came to meet up with me and we sat and talked for a while before heading to la bamba to meet her friend (the not a jerk one). We sat and talked for a while. Chelsea headed home, I stayed for a while and chatted with Hing. When it started to get late, we parted ways and I headed back to the dorm. I can't believe tomorrow is my last day in Beijing. I have so many things I want to do and I know I don't have the time for it. Sigh.

Thursday. Don't know where this last week is going and I want time to stop. After my classes, I took a bus to a stop in southern Beijing to meet my friend. I sat in McDonald's waiting for him to get off of work and did some of my homework. He helped me finish my homework and then we went to a nearby park to take pictures of the winter scenery. Beijing looks really pretty when it snows. I wish I would have time to go to the forbidden city. I hear it looks fantastic in the snow. Sadly, there's not enough time for that. After the park, he took me to his friend's music studio so I could play piano. I haven't played piano in soooooooooo long! It was really nice to be able to sit and play again. He really liked my music and insisted on recording several songs on his camera. After the studio, we met up with his sister and went for dinner at a local hot pot restaurant. The food was...interesting. It tasted delicious but....I thought they said it was beef.....turns out it was goose! Can't say I've eaten goose before so it was an interesting experience. While we were eating dinner it started snowing pretty badly. We were planning to do karaoke but they decided against it because the roads were starting to get slippery. So they drove me back to Beida and dropped me off at my dorm. I didn't get back until pretty late and spent the next hour and a half studying for my quiz and finishing up the last of my homework for the term. Last day of classes tomorrow :(

Wednesday wasn't anything special. After class, I headed off to explore Beijing a little. I went to the Silk Market in search of soccer jerseys, but no luck. I don't like the atmosphere of the silk market much. The people here are pretty aggressive. I definitely like the pearl and zoo markets better. Since my search was futile, I walked around the area for a bit looking for The Place, which is a shopping center by the silk market. They have a really good book store and bakery there. Sadly, I wasn't able to find it...I think the address in  my tourguide book was wrong. After walking around the block, I headed back to Beida and went to have coffee with Mariah and swap stories about our recent China adventures. When it got later, we grabbed dinner from the cafeteria next door and then returned to the cafe for our small Christmas party/white elephant. There were 4 of us and 3 of our Chinese friends. We had cookies and chocolates and other snacks to eat. Melissa's gift was Peanut butter and oreos and we taught them how to eat peanut butter oreos. At first they thought it was really strange, but they ended up liking it a lot. Li Jiao couldn't stay long because she had bamboo flute practice. I wish I could have learned how to play while I was here, but I didn't see any clubs for it. After the gift exchange, Loomis had to leave and then the 3 of us plus Niki returned to the dorms to continue the party. We were hoping to find a Christmas movie to watch, but it's surprisingly hard to find them online. We ended up sitting around and talking and showing our kouyu videos and making paper snowflakes. I had a quiz to study for so I eventually headed back to my room to study and then went to bed.

Looks like I have a lot of catching up to do. I haven't had much time on the computer this week so I haven't been able to update my blog.

Tuesday was like any other Tuesday....it just seems to drag on forever and ever and ever. After my last class, I met up with Haibo and we went to Wudaokou with 2 of his roommates to get dinner. It was absolutely delicious! I ate way too much food. His roommates were nice. They thought I was really interesting...although one of the reasons they said I was interesting was because I ate so much food. They said they don't like going out to eat with Chinese girls because they're so picky about what they can and can't eat. Dinner was nice but this was my first experience being with a group of all Chinese people. I can handle one on one talking, but a group is a bit more different. They talk a lot faster and way above my head. I felt bad that I couldn't contribute more to the conversations and I definitely had some trouble understanding them  but overall it went well. I'm shy even when I'm in America so it wasn't that much different, I just couldn't understand everything that they said. After dinner we went back to Zhongguanxinyuan to go bowling. It was a lot of fun since most of them had never gone bowling before. We had a tournament and the team I was on won. After bowling, it was back home and off to bed.