Today Dian and Jiao planned a trip to a Buddhist temple nearby. We met up at the cafeteria and left for the subway after lunch. The subway was surprisingly packed for a weekend, and we had to transfer lines to get to our destination. Upon entering the temple there was an area for visitors to light joss sticks, and we all picked up a few to light ourselves. The temple was well decorated with colorful statues depicting buddha, and the buildings were all constructed with traditional chinese architecture. After we walked around for a bit, we took a break and sat at some tables near a garden. Dian had brought his Uno cards along with him, so our short break turned into an intense, hour long game. While we played, a kitten had noticed our presence and came purring to us in all its cuteness. On our way back home the subway was very crowded, and we all ended up riding distant from each other. Before getting on, Dian reminded us to get off a particular stop to transfer to line two. Once the stop came we realized we were missing Samson, and he ended up being unable to get off in time. We laughed and waited for him to ride back to our stop. In the evening we returned to our area and went to a japanese restaurant for dinner.

This morning Dian's apartment was having some construction done, so we decided to go to a billiards place on campus to wait for him. The billiards place was also undergoing renovation, so we got to play there for free! The billards room was thick with the smell of smoke, but regardless we all played and had a good time. Once Dian arrived, we played we couple rounds with him and found him to be better than any of us. After we finished, we headed over to the mall to do some shopping. Just like the malls we saw in Shanghai, the mall here was huge and had many floors. The mall had a floor dedicated to food, and we got to try some new snacks we hadn't seen in Shanghai. Guthrie tried fried squid, doughy balls with octopus called takoyaki, and kiwi juice. Christine and Crystal had fried potatoes, and Dian and Jiao had frozen yogurt. After walking around for a while, we decided to catch a movie at the cinema. Lucky for us they offered some movies in english, and thanks to Dian and Jiao we saved over 50 yuan per ticket. We decided to see The Secret Life of Pets in 3D. Afterwards we were all tired and decided to spend the rest of the day resting.

Yesterday we had let the forecast ruin our plans for the day, but today we determined to go out come rain or shine. We met up at the tea house after breakfast and made our way to the subway. We set out to visit the famous Yellow Crane Tower; a traditional Chinese tower that was originally constructed in 223 AD. The forecast for today was actually correct, as it turned out, but it only lasted through the morning. It was the first time we used the subway in Wuhan, but the process was very similar to that of Shanghai. Once we arrived, we noticed there were not many people there most likely because of the rain. Since we still had to walk some distance along a stone path in order to reach the tower, we opted to take a tram instead to stay out of the rain. The tower was built on a on top of a hill surrounded by gates, pavilions, and trees on the outside. There was a huge temple bell located in front of the tower's entrance, and visitors were lining up to ring the bell. Each floor of the tower contained a different exhibit; one of which detailed the building history of the tower. Walking along the outside of the rooms gave a beautiful, panoramic view of Wuhan. Afterwards we took a taxi over to Tanhualin, a famous street block filled with antique shops, coffee shops, and historic buildings. The street was about 2 km long, and we spent the rest of the afternoon checking out the different shops along the street.

Today after breakfast we had originally planned to hike up a small trail behind the campus similar to UCR's hike to the C, but the forecast for today claimed it would rain again. Instead we decided to head to head to a tea shop to play some Uno with Dian and Jiao. Apparently Uno was a popular card game amongst the students in HUST although their rules were slightly different than the rules we use back home. Soon after we decided to go to a nearby KTV place to avoid the impending rain. As it turned out, it actually never rained today. Nevertheless we had a great time singing karaoke, and we showed off our skills once again singing songs like “How Deep is Your Love,” “Superstition,” and of course “Anaconda.” Dian also invited one of his friends to join us for karaoke, and the both of them sang a duet together as well. Somehow Dian managed to arrange our karaoke session for free, and we only payed for a few sodas we had. We ended up spending the rest of our afternoon their, and in the evening we returned to campus to have dinner at an american style restaurant. During dinner Samson had ordered a cold milk tea boba but received a hot boba-less tea instead. The tea was not like the picture on the menu, but the waiter argued it was the same tea. After a lengthy discussion, Dian persuaded them to replace Samson's drink with the one he had actually ordered.

Since they had already taught us how to order food at the cafeteria, Dian and Jiao allowed us to fend for ourselves and get breakfast this morning without their help. We survived and ordered our breakfast noodles without much trouble. After breakfast we returned to our apartments and awaited the arrival of a technician who was going to set up our internet. We were again reunited with the internet and had a place to go and post our pictures of food. The team had still not submitted the required self photos to the registration office, so we set out to take our pictures and make copies of our passport. After we submitted the required documents to the registration office, we decided to do some more exploring of the campus. Dian and Jiao took us to a beautiful garden that had a pond full of water lilies. The forecast for today said there would be a thunderstorm in the afternoon, so we decided to spend the rest of our afternoon at the gym playing table tennis. For dinner we went to a restaurant on campus that was a self hot pot style all you can eat buffet. Rather than paying for the amount of food we ate, we instead paid to eat there for two hours which was different. After dinner we stopped by a nearby bakery for dessert and made our way back to our apartments.

This morning we met up with Dian and Jiao for breakfast at a nearby cafeteria. We had dry noodles for breakfast which we were told was a very popular breakfast dish all over China. The noodles were very good, and they had a sesame flavoring that reminded me of peanut butter. The food here was also very cheap; our breakfast was less than three yuan each! It was cheaper than Shanghai and way cheaper than the food back home. We also got a chance to get our own meal cards that we can put our own money on. This way we could pay for our meals more easily. After dinner we took a walk to the local market on campus to buy a few supplies. While we were at the market, Dian purchased a special snack that was popular in Wuhan. It was duck tongue mixed with spicy flavoring, and it tasted very unique. Later we had lunch at restaurant off campus, then headed to a larger supermarket to buy a few additional supplies we could not find earlier. We returned to our apartments afterward for a short break to meet with Albert one last time before he returned home. For dinner we went to another cafeteria, and later took a walk through the campus to try and get familiar with our surroundings. We ended our day at a tea shop on campus where we talked more about the schedule for the next upcoming weeks.