October Holiday: Beijing part 2

Ironically, my favorite thing about Beijing is not Chinese.  When I was visiting the Bell Tower I stumbled across this little American style coffee shop that looks like it dropped out of Seattle.  It has a courtyard with tables and chairs in the sunshine with a little dog running around people's feet.  The whole place had the cozy but run down feel of my favorite coffee shops like Fremont Coffee Company or Cafe Ladro.  Inside had these huge posters of old movies and bookshelves filled with old books (all in Chinese, unfortunately for me).  There was this cute little white kitten that sat on my lap for a while before jumping out the open window.

I have really been enjoying the expatriot life but I do miss living in Seattle pretty much every day. It was really good for my soul to drink hot coffee in the hot sun and pretend like I was back at FCC during finals.  Plus the cat and dog were super cute and I got some cuddle time.

The day after the coffee shop I went on a tour of the traditional historical sights of China.  First was the Summer Palace.  I met some people from Spokane to hang out with, which was awesome.

The Forbidden City was also a zoo, most of the reason why I went with a tour was because I didn't want to stand in line for 3 hours to get in, which is what would have happened had I gone on my own.

There were a lot of Chinese tour groups because it was the National Holiday and we followed this really cute group of students in their uniforms.  Chinese kids are funny and are just like American kids on tour, not paying too much attention.

I went to this place that my students all called 'snack street' and I can't remember it's real name.  However, it has two blocks of crazy things to eat on a stick.  I went with two of my new friends from Spokane who kept my company on the Forbidden City tour.  We ate some normal stuff, like pork filled buns, dumplings and chicken on a stick, as well as some pumpkin cakes which are pretty good (but better and cheaper at Sias).  This picture has some of the weirder stuff like sea stars, sea snake (ate it!), shark (ate that too!), sea urchins, silk worms, scorpions, octopus, sea horses, ostrich, deer, whole pigeons, chicken hearts, intestines, tofu and the like.

I took my dad to snack street as the first thing off the airplane.  Half way through I realized that maybe that was a pretty intense 'welcome to China' but he handled it pretty well.  We did find some pretty good kung pao chicken at resteraunt near by.

Dad and I climbed the Great Wall too, but he has the pictures from that, so maybe that will be a later post or a facebook only deal.  When I say climbed, I mean CLIMBED.  Now we are both Real Men.  Or at least that's what my students said to my dad when we talked about climbing the Great Wall and I didn't wan to be left out.  Saying that I'm now a Real Woman doesn't quite feel the same.  (Don't get angry with me, feminist friends!!)

And of course I made plenty of new friends during my time in Beijing, especially the ugly stone dragons that ward off evil spirits. They are just so ugly they're cute!!

I Can't Believe I'm Back

These last two days have been busy... between training, getting to know my teammates, and unpacking there has been very little time to stop to breathe.  My jet lag is getting better, last night I slept a full nights sleep thank to NyQuill (used both for my jet lag and for my sore throat I picked up on the plane).  The night before I woke up at 3:30 and couldn't fall back asleep.  Ugh.

I finally feel like I've pulled my apartment together, I went shopping to get cleaning supplies to clean out all my drawers.  Here is the deal about China:  nothing is ever really clean.  Ever.  And things get dirty fast.  This is one of the reasons my mother should never live in China.  So before I put all my clean clothes away, I cleaned out my drawers and closet to at least make me feel better.

The Chinese Culture Students took us shopping and to the bank, which was incredibly helpful.  I went with two girls named Amanda and Jessica as well as another American family.  Becky and Eric and their four children ages 4 months to 10 years old.  They are really brave people. 

We took a taxi downtown to the bank and to China Mobile where I got my new cellphone.  It is a little, really basic phone; basically the cheapest they had.  Amber was able to bargin it down to 190 RMB, which is about $27.  All phones in China are pay-as-you-go phones, so I put mintues on mine and am collecting everyone's numbers.  I still need to look into getting a skype number to call people back home.  Its nice to have a new phone, though.

We then headed to a little store across from Sias called the Superman store by the other Americans here.  They call it that because it has everything one could possibly need for the teachers and if he didn't have it than he could find it.  It has now changed hands, but the name has remained.  There are a lot of names like that, since we don't know the Chinese.

While I was in the Superman store, I looked down to find this surprise:

Kittens!  They were so cute, sleeping in the box of trash bags.  There are apparently a lot of cats on campus, so I will get a little bit of a cat fix after leaving Carmella behind...

I tried to buy the whole store while I was in there, but I needed a lot of things.  White boards for my room, shampoo, trash bags, hangers, pens, paper, rags, soap, tide, a sock clothes-pin circle hanger, a clock, tp.  Lets just say I made the woman behind the counter's day.

Everything about this city reminds me of Tai'an.  They are basically the same, the stores and the streets and the styles.  It looks just like Tai'an, which is nice because I know what to expect.  Its also surprisingly comforting, knowing that its not that different and familar enough to make me feel like I know what I'm doing.  It helps prevent me from being too overwhemled.

I will post about my apartment next time.  The Chinese Culture Students are teaching a class called Survival Chinese, which I need to attend.