Maybe it was the fact that I haven’t been in a classroom in months, maybe it was the fact that Emmy and I were matching in our polo shirts tucked into our little black skirts, but today felt oddly reminiscent of all the days I’ve spent reveling in my perpetual same-sex education. We must bear in mind that our group of Americans is primarily young women and that I spend all of my time with girls anyway. Mandarin looks like it’ll be hard (says the girl who hasn’t seriously studied a modern language, ever). That being said, I’m not one to turn down learning opportunities, I’m a nerd OK, and out teacher (loucher, sp?) seems to be great at his job. It’ll be interesting to see how the test Friday goes…After class we had lunch on the fourth floor, it was a yummy meal, and we went to The Bank of China. The building was breathtakingly beautiful. Just so cool. The geometry of the ceiling, the 16 pyramids were spectacular, on top of the topography of the floor, I’m referencing the imported bamboo and the little lake, was out of this world beautiful. I was really taken aback by how meaningful and pointed each choice in the architecture and the layout of the building was. Everything seemed to have been chosen for a reason and seemed to be picked to represent something meaningful. This seemed super cool to me in addition to vastly different from how American business buildings are built. It seems like in America a bank building would be built for how energy efficient or how quick to take shape it could possibly be. The Bank of China however, seemed to be filled with symbolism in addition to simply gorgeous touches. Interestingly, when the Chinese students visited the Bank in NY, they got a presentation. We didn’t listen to a presentation when we visited the Bank here but maybe that will happen at a later date. Long story short, I really enjoyed today and am excited to see where the rest of the week takes us.