Beijing Baby!!

Hi friends! I'm in CHINA!!!

I haven't had access to my blog and Facebook because of China's firewall, but I got my VPN to work so now I've got some catching up to do! 

The flights weren't too bad but I wasn't able to get much sleep so I ended up being awake for over 24 hours by the time we got to our hotel. It's a nice little hotel right in the middle of a hutong which is like a little neighborhood made up of narrow streets/alleys. It is so cool! There are always people out on the streets selling food and playing cards and such. Right outside the hutong there are bigger, busier streets full of shops and restaurants. It is pretty hot and quite humid here and there is not a lot of AC. It was rough at first but I think I am getting used to it. I've learned that the men around here deal with the heat by walking around with their shirts pulled up over their bellies (no matter the age or belly size) or no shirt at all. And they slap their bellies! We also saw one guy just hanging out in his silk PJ bottoms. No shame!!

Hutong early in the morning before it was busy

Day One: Saturday, August 23
Even though I was exhausted Friday night when we got to the hotel, I still woke up a like 3 am thanks to jet lag! Luckily I have adjusted now, though that makes it harder to get up early. Lindsay and I were up pretty early and had some time to walk around the hutong and buy our first Chinese meal for a sweet lady on the street. We tried  frthisy bread type stuff and I tried a little bun of some sort covered in seeds. Lindsay also got bouza which is like a dumpling. We bought it then found some steps to sit and eat on when some sweet lady came up to us to give us some cardboard to sit on, it was so nice of her! Them we all gathered in a conference room of the hotel for some ESL and language training. We learned some mandarin words and phrases and a little bit about how to teach English. We also got prepped for our trip to the Pearl Market later that day by learning how to barter in Chinese. 

After training we went to a restaurant for a group lunch that was pretty darn good! We had a family style meal which means they bring out a big bowl of rice and then a bunch of other dishes and put it in the middle and you just serve yourself! My favorite was the kung pow chicken. We also had these like green beans that were crunchy-ish and salty that were pretty good. They were cooked with sichuan peppers and if you eat one, it numbs your tongue! It was weird and kinda fun. I also loved these little fried buns that you dip in sweetened condensed milk. So yummy! I am still horrible at using chop sticks though.. haha.

Some of my new friends!

After lunch we went the Pearl Market. They sell all sorts of stuff like knock-off name brand purses and watches and stuff. But the pearls and the silk are real and you can get them for a cheap price... if you barter for it. Luckily, most of the shop keepers spoke English which was good because I certainly wasn't comfortable with my Chinese phrases yet. They are crazy through. They will LITERALLY pull you into their shop and try to get you to buy something. Lindsay and I discovered that the ladies on the purse/wallet floor were the most aggressive. I had two ladies, one one each arm holding me there, trying to convince me that I needed a Michael Kors wallet. Haha it was nuts, but mostly fun! I bought a silk robe and a pearl bracelet. I was pretty proud of by bartering skills too. The key is to act like you are not really interested and start walking away. Works every time. We were pretty tired out after the pearl market (stupid jet lag) so we just bought some dinner from a corner market and went to bed.

Lindsay trying to get a good deal on some pearls

Our silk robes!

Day 2: Sunday, August 24
We got up, got some breakfast them got on the subway to go to church. My first time on a Subway I might add. It took probably an hour to get to building where the Beijing branch is held. We just went to sacrament meeting, but it was pretty cool. It was in English, but the two speakers were Chinese and they would read a paragraph of their talks in English then repeat it in Chinese. Even though their English wasn't great, I really appreciated the effort. It was a small branch but with our big group there and a study abroad group from BYU-I there, it seemed pretty big! 

Me and Lindsay decided we just had to try McDonalds in China so we went there for lunch. It was pretty much the same, they just didn't put any tomato or lettuce on anything. And the menu was smaller. It was nice to have some french fries!

We had more training in the afternoon, then we split up and went to dinner with our mentors. We went to a hot pot restaurant. Hot pot is were they bring out a big boiling pot of water/broth and then some thin raw meat and you just put it in and cook it! We had lamb and chicken. After you cook it, you dip in some garlicy sauce and wrap it in a piece of spinach and eat it. It wasn't my favorite but it wasn't too bad! Then we got dessert at a little shop where we bought these super yummy ice cream bars and popsicles (we pretty much live off of these now - they taste so good when it is so hot!)

Hot Pot!

Awkward food-in-the-mouth pic for ya..

 Day 3: Monday, August 25
Great Wall day! We got up early and took a tour bus for a couple hours to get to the wall.  Then we took a ski lift up to the wall and started the lovely hike! The mountains are seriously beautiful up there. The wall is super cool and so dang huge!

You can see the wall along the top of the mountain

Tree Pose on the Great Wall

When we were done exploring we rode a Tobaggen all the way back down (it was like an alpine slide) and that was super fun! After the Great Wall we ate lunch at a restaurant nearby. Yay, more rice... haha it's pretty good though but I'm sure I will be sick of it after awhile.

Next up, Ming Tombs! On the bus ride their we had a little karaoke party which was pretty hilarious. And Clement, our super awesome tour guide guy, told us all about the history of the Ming Dynasty and the tombs we were about to see. 

It is also really funny because when we go to all these touristy places, Chinese people always ask to take a picture with us! Sometimes they just take pics of us while we are standing there, but some come up and ask for a photo. It makes me feel like a celebrity.. haha or just a white person. It really is hilarious because they get so excited when we agree to take a picture. Anyways, I'll have to post some pics later. After the tombs we had a long bus ride home and were so exhausted we just crashed in bed! 

Beijing adventures To Be Continued...