Beijing World Park

So last weekend's trip to World Park was a little bit of a disaster mixed with a lot of adventure. China threw us another curve ball today in the form of all-day-make-you-want-hot-chocolate-and-a-good-book rain...Well we went to the park anyways like good troopers and it was a blast! Taking the subway still took forever, although not the three hours it took us to get there last time. I was worried the weather would put a real damper on our moods, but everybody rallied last minute and we took some great pictures at the park! I even got to sit on a camel, so naturally it was a perfect day. I have only included some of the pictures because there are over 100 world monuments at the park, however we weren't able to see all of them because after a couple hours everybody was tired and hungry (traveling the whole world in one afternoon will do that to you). The only bummer was the trying to get a cab after lunch. Because of the rain and traffic all the cabs tried to charge a flat rate of $100 kuai (three times the price it would have been if they had used their meters). Eventually Jayson and I got tired of arguing with the drivers while standing in the pouring rain, so we got in a cab that we bargained down to $60 kaui...still it only should have cost $30 to get back to campus. There just comes a point when you no longer want to stand in puddles while cabbie after cabbie after cabbie tries to rip you off while you are shivering and soaked to the bone. The $60 kuai ended up being worth it just because we knew dry clothes and heated rooms waited for us back in the dorms. (And yes, they have finally turned the heaters on!!! On that note, it was supposed to snow today but we just got crappy rain.)