Update on Italy

We landed in Beijing Saturday morning to complete the last step of a graduate school application process that started back in Ocober. As I told everyone a few weeks ago, the last remaining piece of the puzzle was visas to go to Italy. I'm happy to announce that we were succesful in aquiring those visas this afternoon! It was a relatively easy process, actually, much easier than we had feared. We dropped off our visas and a huge pile of forms at noon, ate lunch, bought myself a knock-off winter coat in a flourish of confidence that we'd definitely be going to Bologna, and then picked up our visas at 4pm. Walking into the embaasy in the afternoon, I was a little worried that they'd inspect the fake Armani coat I'd just bought and renounce my visa on the grounds of stealing their intellectual property. It was tucked well inside a bag though and they didn't notice. Whew!

Now we have 4 days left to just explore Beijing. We already went hiking in the western hills yesterday and tomorrow we're going to the summer palace. Bryn and I kind of feel like country bumpkins here in the capital. Life in provincial kunming is a little different. We've felt a little embarassed exclaiming to our host here how amazed we were that we can flush toilet paper down the pot - a big no no in Kunming. We also feel a little racist whispering about how many "white people" there are here. We're miserable at taking the bus. In Kunming, it's a no-holds barred battle to claim your seat on the bus. Here, it's a more civilized process. We were ashamed the first day, but we're improving. 

We're off to swing dance now after nearly 4 months of only sneaking in a swing out here or there at salsa events or traditional Chinese dance circles. It'll feel good to get in some pure swing dancing with others. We still like each other, but it's just good to dance with others every once in a while.

With the Italian visa secured, we're feeling pretty good and readyto live it up on the dance floor.