I’m starting to think that this is going to be a very long and stressful trip. I don’t really know for sure, but so far, it has been pretty rushed on some things. It’s more like a tour than a vacation because I have no idea about what is around me or what the plans are more than a day or two in advance. I’m starting to crave familiar food. I ate all of the potatoes we had at dinner. I’m even eating the non-precooked kind of green beans that I normally wouldn’t touch in the US because they’re one of the familiar foods to me. Alas, I may need to start asking to go to places I’m familiar with a bit, like KFC (which is very popular here), McDonald’s, 85C, and Pizza Hut. I miss choosing what to eat 
Anyway, today we went to a (the?) major university here in Hangzhou and met some of Julia’s old high school friends. We ate at the school’s nicest dining hall, which they said was more like a restaurant than one of their dining halls. The food was varied. Some I liked, some I didn’t. One of the dishes tasted like it came from Panda Express! XD We then went downstairs to the regular dining hall, and I got a Coke. I don’t know if it was the heat/humidity or the actual coke itself, but it seemed to taste better than coke in the US. We then wandered the university in the blazing sun for several hours, visiting a dormitory (they have 4 people to a room that is just barely bigger than triples at UCSD), some classrooms, and a river/lake. We also went by some basketball courts, some tennis courts, the architecture building, and the theater. We also took a break inside of the library because it had AC, but we couldn’t go into the main part of the library because we weren’t students. I felt kind of left out of a lot of things because of the language barrier. All of the people we met could speak English, but Julia and Lillian talked in Chinese the whole time, so I felt pretty left out. Next time I travel to a country that doesn’t speak english, I’m either going to know some of the language or I’m going to go with someone else who doesn’t know any too, because Lillian really doesn’t count in that category at all. Overall, the university was big, hot, and there wasn’t much to do. Nice plantings and it was much cleaner than the rest of the city, but the buildings were dirty
On that note, I’m going to make a general observation about China. On almost every building that has non-glass surfaces on the top of it (most buildings), it looks as though it has rained lightly and the water has started running down from the top of the building. The only thing is, the “rain” running down is black and it’s completely dry. It’s an ugly, ashy tinge in the roofs and sides of the buildings, and the same stuff covers the curbs and sidewalks that aren’t cleaned. It’s very likely caused by acid rain/pollution. Very sad. Also, with the exception of those at the university, ALL of the sidewalks that I’ve been on here could use a power-wash. They need to be cleaned. This country has a LONG way to go in terms of pollution. I can’t fully understand what though, because I can’t see any smokestacks other than those for power plants, and those are very uncommon. I saw 1 building with solar panels and a couple windmills, and it gave me a little hope.
On the way back from the university, we drove through what Julia called a “tourist area,” which was basically a gigantic park, full of lakes and pagodas, forests, and such. It looked nice, but it was very hot outside. I think we’re going there again after the trips to Beijing and Xian.
Anyway, going to Beijing tomorrow and hopefully, we’re gonna meet Will for dinner! I hope This trip starts to head in the opposite direction for almost everything because the only part that I felt relaxed was the taxi ride through the tourist area =/
