random

Last Friday I went to Beijing's one and only IKEA store with a classmate from England (her name is Tina). I would never have thought of going to IKEA but Tina's a great home-maker and she wanted to make her room look inviting and warm, so off we went. Oh right...that's not where I bought this bookshelf. I actually bought a closet organiser (very very useful, by the way!) at IKEA for a whole $5...Then on Sunday we went to Carrefour (big French supermarket chain) and that's where we both bought this very sturdy (I'm being sarcastic here...) bookshelf for around $15. Only thing is we had to build them ourselves and I'm not very patient with these kinds of things. Oh well, I built it Sunday and we're Wednesday evening and it's still holding out so I'm happy.

It really helps me. I was finally able to un-pack and put my clothes somewhere (the closet's too small to fit all my clothes). And now I can put my books somewhere other than on my desk (so I can actually use my desk!). All in all, it was a really good idea, and I never ever would have done it without Tina, so thank you Tina, for making my life easier.
Here's the birthday cake I bought for my roommate MinJi's and my Japanese friend Yosuke's birthdays. Both have their birthdays on September 11th!!! I dived right in and went to the bakery store myself to order the cake and everything...didn't realise the inside would hold pineapple stuff (which I didn't particularly like), but MinJi and Yosuke enjoyed it so that's the main thing, I suppose (at least they pretended to...).
Kenji and Yosuke on their last evening in Beijing. The evening started out all right with us just hanging out and taking pictures in my room...