I'm officially into my second week of the language pledge and I don't see any chance of it getting easier in the next 6 months. I've been keeping busy studying, going to the gym, and chatting it up with my roommate. Tomorrow we're going to go and set up the internet in our room which will be really handy.

It's been raining pretty much constantly the past three days. And this isn't just a slight drizzle kind of rain. I'm talking thunder and lightening and small lakes and rivers forming in the streets kind of rain. I've kind of enjoyed it, but I'm definitely ready for some sun.

Every weekend we have organized trips to random places in and around Harbin. I think I'm going to try and make most of them since they'll be a great way to see the area. I'm super excited to have a little bit of free time (one can hope) so I can do some exploring of my own.

My roommate's hometown is south of Beijing, so I think we're going to travel down that direction together at the end of the summer session.

P.S. I don't know the guy in the white shirt in the picture. He's some poor guy that we accosted for our scavenger hunt. He definitely looked confused :)