Laoshi Lib: Part 2

Where were we?

Oh right

THE GREAT WALL OF FREAKING CHINA!

That's me and my Capt'n. And that's his face right after I kissed him! (on the cheek)

Sometimes I act So COOL people want my picture (or it's cause I am white... and my overalls looked great)

All I can say is

It will eternally feel surreal to say “I’ve been to the Great Wall”.

After the great wall we piled into a little taxi towards the subway stations, stopped at the Olympic nest and headed back towards the hostel to pick up our bags and go to our new hostel.

Throughout the trip we had been acting just as ‘Oogling’ towards the foreigners as the Chinese are towards us. Seriously… Go 4 months without seeing another white person (besides the 3 you work with), when you do see one you can’t help but squeal a bit.

That being said, Noelle and I were slightly stalking all the white people we saw, getting a kick out of hearing English… It’s weird, I know, but it felt so great to eavesdrop. As we were following two girls up the subway stations escalators (we are creeps), one of them turned around and complimented Noelle’s hair.

OH the GLORIOUS moment when you can speak to someone other than the 3 people you see EVERYDAY (no hard feeling guys).

These two ladies were actually meeting up with some more friends and invited us to dine with them.

It was a lovely evening filled with some of the rather quick and somewhat meaningless conversations, but NONE of us cared. We LOVED speaking! and fully being understood.!They were all teachers in Beijing. They were really nice and we talked about things we liked or disliked about China. They were shocked at hearing we did not even have a Mcdonalds within an hour to run to on hard days. I have come to the conclusion life in a bigger city in China is quite different still from life in our little corner of Jiangxi. (I’m guessing I’d like it more in a city but since I can’t change it I try not to dwell)

After dinner and grabbing our bags we headed towards our second hostel, located near the Forbidden City. We got lost again, more walking back and forth with Tessa at the lead. She also said we had 15 minutes to get to our hostel or it was closed. WHAT?!?!

When we did finally get there (FINALLY) they were very much still opened so I wonder if we misunderstood her, or if Tessa just likes to give me heartattacks and nightmares of sleeping on the streets of China.

The second hostel was full of forigners and felt very “westernized” I loved it. The check in room was back past the Café/Bar. They played Queen, Mika and the Beatles and everyone at the bar was very nice (and very drunk).

Here is our room, Garth's room and my toe doing weird things from all the walking:

The next morning we awoke early for the MAY HOLIDAY FLAG RAISING CEREMONY!!!! Dunnndaadaadaaaa *trumpets*

Tessa had told us how it was some huge deal and we had planned out events to be there on that day.

Early though it was, we were still a bit late and began sprinting towards Tian’anmen Square. The square was FILLED with Chinese and no white people. This was it! So cool, so cultural, the only white people there…

And they raised the flag.

It was an Micheal "I don't know what I expected" moment...

All she had said was "a flag raising ceremony"

So it was what it was promised to be.

I just expected Fireworks, celebratory music, obnoxious traditional outfits… something… But to no avail.

It was just us watching a piece of cloth be hiked up a pole amidst a sea of people.

Noelle got to see the lovely and oh so considerate view of two small children’s butt on their parents shoulders.

Afterwards we walked back to our hostel for a bit more Z’s, a shower and some breakfast a nearby eatery.

The sun rise was pretty.

We played that day around the square, taking photos

and having photos taken of us. We estimated the number of photos we will be featured in in random Chinese family Photobooks was a couple hundred (during the whole time in Beijing not just that day). Though we joked about charging per photo, it flattered me more than bothered me. I thought of it as excellent practice just in case the fickle friend known as ‘Fame’ wants to put my name in lights for 15 minutes.

Also this guy's outfit was SWEET:

We then nomm-ed on some magical ice-pops (they were magical in flavor and in the fact that they were being sold out of cardboard boxes on the street, yet were still frozen solid) and rubbed the lucky knobs in the Forbbiden City.

Sad face for construction:

We walked where we were allowed and I felt more like cattle than royalty.

The children added to the cattle effect by dropping giant dookies… I mean I get that they do it in the streets, but in a palace courtyard? Really?

The rest of the Day was filled with more walking and Subway-ing.

We stopped by a mall in “uptown” Beijing. We ate hot dogs and ice-cream (Merica!) This is me screaming for Ice-Cream:

and were having a lovely time watching all the different people (like these French little girls I heard talking about my hair)

and listening to all the accents and languages around us when Tessa informed us that she was uncomfortable there because everyone was so different. Again, she is from a smaller town plus, it really is SO weird to see anything but Chinese people in China and there we were in a mall full of diversity. It was an interesting moment because as Americans it didn't seem weird to us, it actually felt more like home, but for her it was very different and unsettling.

RANDOM STORY WONT FIT IN NICELY SO INTRODUCE IT WITH CAPITAL LETTERS THEN SPIT IT OUT: HERE GOES: There was a group of 3 or 4 girls taping these flyers to the ground in the shape of the Chinese character for water. The flyers talk about water conservation in a somewhat argumentative manner. After they finished taping this they scurried away quickly. I wanted to mention it because I think it was a rare sight for China and I think they were brave for doing it.

The next few days we did lots of things just around Beijing. We shopped around.

Garth bought funny-shop-keeper some ice cream.

We went to the Temple of Heaven.

On our way there we got lost and talked to the first white person we saw. He walked with us in the right direction. His name was Luke. He grew up in South Korea and was on a couple different basketball teams around Asia. He helped train the Olympic teams during the Beijing Olympics at This stadium.

And was a member of the first basketball team allowed into North Korea. He was nice and cool and tall.

We also went to the pearl market.

My ATM had actually been being silly so I was running short on cash and so I was disheartened not being able to join in on all the bartering there. Hopefully we can find something similar when we are in Shanghai. I didn’t want to run too low on cash so I only bought thing I couldn’t get somewhere else, like Tee Shirts and Keychains that say Beijing…

Oh and a Blue Wig because… I needed it OKAY!

We saw Mao's "body". That story begins with us walking around the WHOLE square because everything was roped off weird and had no flow and when we did get in line a man grabbed my hand and pulled me and started running. I grabbed Noelle and we ran BACK across the square and had to pay to check our cameras because they weren't allowed in. Then the man who ran us asked for a tip. So the "free body veiwing" ended up taking like an hour to get to, running and walking around like 3 miles and 30 yuan. TO SEE SOME DEAD GUY!
He was glowing orange and it TOTALLY looks like a wax figure.
China I'm calling your bluff.
This is from the internet because I didn't have my camera but this is what it was like:

PEOPLE LET ME TELL YOU BOUT MY BEEEEESSSSTTT FRIIIEEENNNDD, She’s my sister and I love her and her names is Aunistee. She collects Coke bottles so ever since I set foot on the Asian continent I have been keeping my eyes peeled for one for her. I didn’t want to bring home a Can or a Plastic bottle because that’s not a collectable, that’s TRASH! Anyway Beijing was the first place I saw them and I had to buy one! But like this Yummy milk-like-yogurty drink

you are suppost to drink it in the shade of the shop and then leave the bottle. Now I’m not gonna lie I am getting pretty Okay at Chinese and I understood the lady when she explained this to me… But I mean… It’s AUNISTEE!

So after I paid I started to walk away and she said “drink it here” (in Chinese) and waved her arms back at me. I turned around and said “I don’t understand” (in Chinese) and pretended like I thought she was just waving goodbye and waved in return. And that is the story of how I paid for but kind of stole THIS for my Sister.

This is a picture of me using my camera screen as a mirror to apply sunscreen and Noelle guiding me like a blindy (if you are blind and reading this I am so sorry… wait…).

Another thing we do that screams THESE PEOPLE ARE WHITE besides having white skin is apply white cream to help us not cook in the sun. It was weird and fun explaining that to Tessa and having people watch us any time we put it on. The Chinese simply wear long sleeves year round if they want their arms to stay pale. PASS. I had sicckkoo pit stains already, I can’t imagine long sleeves all the time, but they do it. They also wear these girly sun hats! There were some very much more flamboyant and huge!

Other popular head wear included Bill Murray Umbrella Hats

And these Amazing 5 way reversible paper multicolored hats.

I like to go with something that says “Im a tourist” so I bought this headband/hat thing:

just kidding it’s Tessa’s. We bought cool PANDA HATS! Which I was glad to wear all week and to Tessa’s house.

Oh you didn’t know we were going there for 2 days? Me neither. Hahahaha
Well I knew we were going there but I didn’t know we were sleeping over for 2 nights,
but I am getting ahead of myself.
First lets say “Peace Out” to Beijing and get on the Train home:

This was really good even though my face seems gross

DEAR BEIJING! Thank you for the FOOD! THE GLORIOUS GLORIOUS FOOD! I’m sorry I ate nearly half of all the dumplings and steamed buns you had! … but really no im not sorry. I liked (almost) everything I ate there (some of the filled pastry things weren't for me).

Peace Out my friend:

I ate my last dumplings

and got on the Train back to Nanchang! THIS TIME it was a SLEEPER TRAIN! It was more fun than it should have been. To us sleeper trains mean comfy blankets, seductive posing, cheesy bunk photos and unlimited Harry potter references.

“Anything off the Trolley Dears?”