My Last Week in Beijing, in a Nutshell

**This post was written in July but I forgot to post it. Apparently blog maintenance takes more time and effort than I anticipated - my bad**

Wow, I can't believe it's already that time to say goodbye to Beijing and all it has to offer. Living abroad is very different than being a tourist abroad. As my last few days in Beijing creeped up on me; I realized I didn't do all those wonderful touristy things one should. Sure, I went to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and Temple of Heaven during my time here but I've been slacking. So, Jules and I put our heads together and planned out a week of tourism in Beijing. This post is a recap of my last week in Beijing.

National Museum

Our original plan was to go to the Eunuch Museum, but due to the rain we were forced to choose a more suitable venue. The Eunuch museum has outdoor displays and statues, and we didn't want our experience to be ruined by the rain. So, we decided to eat at Capital M (delicious) and then make our way to the Nation Museum of China. Upside: this museum is free. Downside: Chinese history/culture is very rich and it was a little overwhelming trying to take it all in. At one point, we realized we were wandering around aimlessly staring at pots, vases, scrolls, etc. It was at this point that we decided to make our exit. I was satisfied with the visit, and now I can tick it off the list. 

Ditan Park (Temple of Earth): A failed attempt at finding the wax museum. 

After the National museum, we were on our way to the wax museum that is (allegedly) located in Ditan Park. We successfully found the Temple of Earth but as we wandered through the park, we realized that it would have been a good idea to do a little more research on the exact coordinates of this wax museum. After walking for what felt like hours, we were not successful in locating this museum. We were, however, able to escape the hustle bustle of Beijing; the park had virtually no people.

Chaoyang Park
I can't believe it took me nearly five months to wander through Chaoyang Park. I suppose the trip to the core of Beijing doesn't seem all that appealing when one lives 40 minutes away. I had no idea that there was an amusement park in Chaoyang park. There were couples throughout, taking wedding pictures. It wouldn't be my dream location, but there were at least half a dozen couples there that afternoon.

Acrobatic show

If you have a chance to go to the Chaoyang Theatre to see an acrobatic show, I would highly recommend it! Rather than buying our tickets directly from the theatre's box office, we used an online service. We pre-ordered three tickets and met with Dragon (yes, that is his name) just outside the theatre. It saved us some money and we scored some pretty decent seats!

Cooking class

I wanted to attend a cooking class before I left Canada. I talked about it often but never took the initiative to do it. My time was running out and I wasn't leaving China without going to a class. On the menu was braised duck, shrimp, xihongchaojidan (egg fried tomatoes), a chicken dish and fried broccoli - basically the staples of my diet while in China. The instructor was hysterical and super fun. We whipped up tasty dishes and I learned that my chopping technique needs a lot of work. I'm convinced I will chop a finger clean off if I don't improve. It was a great afternoon spent with some great friends!

One last night at Helens

To end the term, most of my classmates got together for one last go at Helens. We started at 3:00pm and stayed there until midnight? I can't remember what time we stumbled out of there, but I know some stayed later than others.. I won't go into too much detail on the night's events but let's just say we had a BLAST! We may have been the lowest level of comprehension, but we were definitely the tightest knit class.