Pingyao... and stuff

Hey folks...
Sorry for the lack of updatage... and Tim I'm sorry about not putting up an Olympic post yet, I am still collecting photographic evidence of all the Olympic paraphernalia.
Anywho, last weekend details...they even bore me... But we saw a lot of old buildings, bought a lot of stuff (including a monkey king thought that it would be relaxing and it wa the IES program had a long weekend (similar to our trip to Yunnan but much shorter) in which I went to Pingyao. Pingyao is in the Shanxi province (near the capital Taiyuan) and is a UN recognized Heritage Site. This pretty much means that its a really well preserved old preserved city in China that had a lot of influence on China's history and stuff. As far as I could tell, it was probably at one point a financial hubub of China (it has the First Bank in China, apparently) but now its just a bunch of souped up old buildings and touristy stuff. Is, but also boring sometimes with nothing to do but shop and sometimes I wished I had gone somewhere else instead. I don't want to bore you with the Chinese opera mask), saw a vinegar and a coal factory, were mobbed by Chinese children in Taiyuan because they thought we (and by we I mean Topher, because he looks like Harry Potter) were celebrities and asked for our autographs, and did a performance of a court scene where I played the judge's assistant (I only had two lines....dumb) in front of a bunch of Chinese tourists...cuute.

Anywho, to update on my life I've changed my major. I am now officially no longer an Economics major, but a Foreign Language and International Affairs major with a concentration in Economics--the language being Chinese of course. I am hoping that this decision will work out for me and I've not done anything too crazy.
Friday I went to the doctor about my serious cough that has been going on for about two weeks now and was basically told that there's nothing wrong with me except I probably got sick and the pollution here in Beijing made the sickness stay around. He gave me cough medicine with codeine to help me sleep and sent me on my 'merry' way. Luckily, by the hospital there is a pretty awesome DVD store where most of the DVDs are about 10 kuai (1.50 USD) and work really awesomely. I perused there for awhile and then came back to campus only to find ANOTHER DVD guy on the street selling them for 5 kuai....oh China.
Yesterday I went to the zoo, which was more sad then cute. The only animal that seemed to be contented was the Panda, not surprising for the national animal of China...but still, the elephants getting less room then one tiny panda? Come on!
In terms of other goings on around China, lately there has been a lot of attempts by the Chinese police to get illegal foreigners out for the Olympics to make it a 'safe' enviornment. This basically means that they will check randomly to make sure that you are carrying your passport and visa at all times and if you aren't they will take you to the police station. This means that the Chinese police skulk around places where foreigners like to hang out (ie all the places that I like to go) and just question random people. Also apparently there's been like drug trafficking or something going on in Sanlitunr so last weekend or something they took a dozen or so foreigners to the police station for not having proper ID. I personally have never been asked to present any form of ID but sometimes I feel like its only a matter of time.