Tiananmen Square, Food Street, Hunt for Zig Zag

Starting Monday, Chelsie and I vowed that this weekend would be better than last weekend. We started off with going to Tiananmen Square Monday afternoon. We didn't really do our research prior to heading out, so we weren't exactly sure what we were supposed to do there haha. I did have this little bit of info though: Tiananmen Square is the largest square in the world, it's so big that it can be seen from space. Well we cruised on through, looked in some little souvenir shops, and got a couple things along the way....

The only decent picture I got....

Apparently when you rub these knobs, it will bring you money and luck. I rubbed them with both hands so I could get EXTRA money and luck. I'm a thinker :)

View from the back

We ventured out of the actual square and came across the lake that is behind the square. We heard a man calling "Yi kuai, yi kuai" which means one kuai.....and I decided to investigate just what exactly this man was selling for the meager price of one kuai. It turned out to be popsicles and I said yep, I want one. Chelsie and I both got one and enjoyed a couple rather drippy, messy, delicious banana-ish popsicles.

We wandered down the little road and found this awesome Venice-like river with houses directly on the river-front. It was awesome....I got so excited because it was so beautiful! Then we kept walking and looking for food and eventually got spit out onto a main road with businesses and little shops....

There were also some men fishing right outside the picture frame

So then we kept walking and somehow ran into food street! There were many many many options and I will post a more extensive photo album when I go on a more serious trip.....but oh man there was some interesting stuff. In the picture I'm posting here you can see (or maybe can't really see) starfish, sea urchins, squid, snake, sheep intestines, sea horses, scorpions (still live and wiggling!), and a few dessert things. Chelsie and I chose some fried ice cream and "cream filled balls"....which turned out to not have anything inside them, but they put some sugar on the top and they ended up tasting vaguely like a sopapilla. Yum. Haochi! 

Oh the many many options....

Actually pretty yummers!

 Then we kept on wandering and discovered a walking street! This is pretty much like 16th Street Mall, for you Colorado folks, and for everyone else it's a big outdoor mall where cars don't drive along the street, just a lot of pedestrian foot traffic! Off to the side, slightly hidden, was yet another food street! This was much more crowded and had a lot of other options. I was SHOCKED by how expensive the food was at both places! In Wuhan the most expensive item on food street was 10 kuai. Here, I paid 30 kuai for a thing of noodles! I think we got ripped off because we were foreigners, which sucks. We'll have to ask how much something is next time before we ask for it.

Other food street!

Above is my souvenir from Tiananmen Square! I finally got one of the cool name plate things and this one has bamboo and a swan and a dragon and all sorts of cool Chinese things. They mean things like luck, wealth, happiness, health, etc. The guy told me as he was doing it but I forgot....of course. 

On Tuesday Chelsie and I went to find Zig Zag, a spa that Jill and Anna had raved about. We had one heck of a time getting there, thanks to google maps. We took a bus to the middle of who knows where, tried to find the hutong that this place is located in, and finally gave up and called Herby. She looked up Zig Zag on the internet and gave us the owner's phone number who luckily speaks English. We called her and she gave a taxi driver directions to her shop. He took us to the wrong hutong, however, and we wandered through there and came upon a cute little tea shop that we will have to go back to. We called the owner again and she told us to go to the next hutong over and finally we found the shop. I'd say all our wandering and frustration was worth it. We got awesome pedicures and made appointments to go back for massages next week when Chelsie's mom is here! That night we went to Hai Di Lou: hot pot! Possibly my favorite thing to eat here in China! One of the girls from work, Vivian, went with us and helped us talk to our waiter. It was so delicious, I love hot pot. And Vivian :)

Vivian, Chelsie, and me!

I also did a pretty neat-o hair do and was rather quite proud of the way it turned out (keep in mind I took this at the end of the day, so it was kinda kaputz):

Happy Birthday Chelsie!

Sunday was Chelsie's birthday! Before we left for work I gave her the awesome home-made cards that I had cleverly crafted without her knowledge the day before. And then the festivities were over since we were going to work for a busy busy day (or so Chelsie thought....he he he). Well the morning was uneventful because we had several classes, but Bella told me that Echo (our boss) would bring a cake in after lunch and I was to keep Chelsie in the office while they got the music room ready for her party. So 40 minutes before our first afternoon class was supposed to start Herby and Bella came and told Chelsie to look in the music room to see if it was okay with all the plants gone (that's a whole other story)......so Chelsie suspiciously followed us to the music room and found this:

One of the girls in the office learned how to play Happy Birthday on the keyboard and, after a couple false starts, we had a lovely accompaniment for everyone singing to Chelsie. It was adorable. The birthday cake was actually cheesecake - blueberry cheesecake - and it was delicious. All the girls in the office were adorable and it was so sweet of our boss to have this party for Chelsie. Work is looking like a more positive and less stressful place already :) Some photo documentation:

The birthday girl with her birthday (cheese)cake

Herby Berby! Being cute as usual

The whole crew! From left to right: Candy, me, Eva, Lucy, Echo (boss), Stone, Herby, Birthday Girl, Bella, Vivian, Melinda, Yogi. I work with a bunch of awesome people :)

Chelsie: "We have to take a birthday picture" Me: "Oooooookay"

 After we ate some yummy cheesecake, we played a game they call Mona Lisa. (Except in Chinese it's Méng nà lì shā.....you'll see why this is important momentarily). In this game, one person starts by saying "Méng", then points to another person, who says "nà" and points to another person, who says, you guessed it, "lì", and then points at one more person who says "shā" while striking a pose similar to that of Mona Lisa in the painting. The person to her right and left also have to make the sides of the frame. If anyone messes up, they get beat up with blow-up hammers and balloons (in our version of the game hahaha). It was pretty funny and everyone had a grand ol' time.....I caught a mess-up on video:

That night after work Chelsie and I went to this Blues Bar that we had gone past on the bus several times and always said "Hey, we should go there". There was live music and comfy couches to lounge on and since it was Sunday night the place was pretty much empty. It was awesome. I got into a zone of happy music listening and let my thoughts wander......

The Blues Bar

The Birthday Girl with her birthday drink :)

Einstein's Asian, female impersonator joined us for the night

The Hunger Games Lives On

Chelsie just finished reading the Hunger Games series (I read them a couple months ago) and we both LOVED the books. What does this have to do with China, you ask? Well I'll tell you.

Tonight, Chelsie bought two turtles. She was thinking about naming them Chandler and Joey, after the Friends characters. I wasn't very enthusiastic about this idea, but seeing as how they were going to be her turtles, I really had no say. Then she was thinking about Michaelangelo or Donatello or Leonardo, as in from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (duh)....but she decided she needed to meet these said turtles before naming them. Well, we went to the supermarket (yes you can buy turtles and fish and even tiny frogs at your local supermarket here, right next to your cucumbers and tomatoes) and she picked out a pair of these little reptiles to bring home. This is the conversation we had as we walked out of the store:
C: "I don't really know anything about turtles other than that they live in a shell...."
T: "You really got ahead of yourself on this one didn't you"
C: "Yeah, but I'll go home and research all about turtles so I can be a good turtle owner."

On the way home Chelsie exclaimed "Peeta and Gale! That's their names. Yep. The Hunger Games lives on." Needless to say I approved 100% with these names since I loved the books and both Peeta and Gale. One of the turtles is a lot more rambunctious than the other one, always trying to climb up the side of the cage to try and get out. We decided he should be Gale since in the books Gale is always itching for a revolution. So. Without further delay, meet the newest members of our China adventure:

Turtle:  Guī  (龟)
Oh, and true to her word, Chelsie is sitting down in the living room as I blog, researching turtles. I think she'll be a great turtle mommy :)

The old man is snoring

Today I woke up and almost went back to sleep because my room looked unusually dark for this time of morning. So I went to the window and discovered that it was pouring buckets outside. Our walk to the bus from the apartment and from the bus stop to work was ridiculous. My shoes got soaked and thank goodness for buying an umbrella in Wuhan because I would have been in trouble. While we were waiting for the bus I saw the brightest flash of lightning and heard the loudest BOOM of thunder EVER. It actually scared me.

On another note, as I was perusing the internet the other day I found this picture and decided that I really like it and want to do something like this in my future home:

I also came to the conclusion that if I ever had to have a small dog, I would get a French Bulldog. I then became obsessed with this idea and made a collage of these little boogers....look at these cute little faces with the big bat ears:

I have also found a fun little website called StumbleUpon and it literally stumbles you across the internet based on what you say your interests are. I like to click through this website when I'm bored and since I clicked that I was interested in photography, I came across this picture and it's quite possibly the most awesome thing ever.....I'm thinking it could be a good engagement/save the date picture when that time comes:

And finally, because I have no other pictures to show you fine people, I'm going to leave you with this list of things to love about children:

I know this post isn't very China.....oh well.

Weekend

The weekend always brings fun fun times. Or really obnoxious trips to the train station. You see, Chelsie and I are planning a trip to Inner-Mongolia this coming weekend for her birthday and want to get our train tickets in advance. So on Friday we went to the train station, stood in line for 30 minutes at the ONE counter that took foreigners, and when we told her where we wanted to go she said "sorry, you have to go to the international hotel." We thought this was a little strange since Inner-Mongolia is actually inside China, but since we don't always know how things work here, we just went with it. So we asked where this international hotel was and proceeded to wander for about 45 minutes before finding it. Much to our dismay, when we got there the train ticket office was closed. So we decided we'd better go back Monday which is our weekend. So Monday morning rolls around and off we go to the international hotel. Well the lady at the counter said they don't sell tickets to INNER-Mongolia there, only to Mongolia....seeing as how that would be an international ticket and all. So she said the lady at the counter probably misunderstood us and she kindly wrote out what we wanted in Chinese. SO back to the train station.....where we waited in line for 45 minutes this time, only to be told that we had to come back tomorrow because they only sell those tickets 5 days in advance and this was 6 days in advance. Needless to say, we are more than a little irritated with the Beijing train station.
NOW! Less irritating stories:
Sunday night Chelsie and I went on a DVD-buying trip and got several awesome titles, ranging from Rio and Rango to the Harry Potter series and The Ugly Truth. We each got over 10 dvds because they're just so CHEAP! Then we walked back through the shopping center and watched the little kiddies playing in the fountain. It was pretty funny. One little girl was absolutely adorable and kept telling her dad to take a picture of her...

On the way back to the bus station we saw the balloon man. It's kind of like you're at a state fair at all times.....and I finally got a chance to wear my fake toms :)

Monday night we went to the Central Perk ("Friend's" cafe) buuuuuuttttttt it was closed. Chelsie was still excited to find it though! When she peeked in the window she got even more excited: "it really IS the Friend's cafe!!!!"

Since the Central Perk wasn't open we decided to find someplace to eat. We were feeling ambitious and decided to grab some Chinese food. We went to a restaurant style that is common here in China: family style. I got some "brown sugar and ginger water" which turned out to be delicious, even though it was suuuuuper hot. Also, look mom I'm eating my vegetables!!!!!

China just has a way with vegetables.....they're always amazing. Chelsie and I have come to the conclusion that it's because they always use fresh produce.
So today we went back to the Central Perk, but before we grabbed a delicious cup o' joe, we went to the train ticket office that we found right next to the bus stop. We had to call Bella - our assistant who is our liaison when we need to communicate more than "I want that" haha - and she proceeded to inform us that only seats were available for our journey. No sleeper cars. Apparently we should have reserved them earlier than today....somehow. And the seats were only available for a 7:50pm train, which would be impossible for us to catch since we get off work at 6 and the train station is about an hour's journey away and we need to be there an hour or two early. Guess this means Inner-Mongolia isn't happening for us this weekend. As we were walking away from the ticket office I said to Chelsie "let's not talk about this for an hour or two"....I was really angry. China just hates us sometimes. Well we headed to Central Perk and it was absolutely adorable. We both got a delicious iced beverage and relaxed while watching some episodes of Friends that made the place very homey. There were some people sitting on the famous orange couch so we asked them if we could quickly sit on the couch and take the picture. The guy taking our picture said "Okay, make a big laugh!" Which of course made us laugh so I guess he accomplished his goal.

Notice the Chinese Phoebe picking at a guitar in the background :)
Well this weekend may have been a bust, but hopefully next weekend will be better. Sunday is Chelsie's birthday so we're gonna have to do something fun!

Light-Activating Sounds

Here is the list of awesome things that Chelsie and I have done since I returned to Beijing, since my last post:
*Ate pizza
*Ate Mexican food at Peter's Tex-Mex Grill
*Attempted (and failed) to find craft things....apparently China doesn't like crafts
*Made superhero capes
*Bought some serious groceries at the foreign grocery store: Jenny Wang's
*Ordered food to our apartment - Chelsie told them our apartment IN CHINESE!
*Stayed in and watched movies
*Discovered that our sound-activated light not only turns on when you clear your throat or clap or bang on the wall, but it also will turn on if you: roar, make a turkey gobble, or very immaturely make a loud farting noise. Look for updates on this list regularly

Rice Krispies + Butter + Marshmallows + Chocolate/Peanut Butter = .....

REESE'S RICE KRISPIE TREATS!!!! That's right. On Wednesday after work, Chelsie and I made our first treat in a rice cooker that I had to scrub for a good 5 minutes prior to us using it. Step by step, here we gooooooo.....
Chelsie was the mixer, I was the ingredient adder

First we started with melting our marshmallows and butter

Then we added the chocolate/peanut butter mixture (I added a giant dollop extra when Chelsie said just a little bit hahahaha)

Then add the rice krispies (found in the foreign food section of the supermarket)

   

Scrrraaaaaaaapppppeeeeeeee the treats into the bowl

Chelsie: "I could just suck on this spoon alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day" hahahahaha

I figured my dad would be proud of me for this picture: I'm eating the treats with a knife....kinda like how he eats ice cream with a knife :)

Well, then we sat on the couch and watched a movie and scooped our treats out of the bowl. Yeah, we're still in celebration mode....working out can wait a few days :) 

Last night we went to watch "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" at the foreign book store. It turned out to be an "open air screening".....meaning we watched the movie on the roof of the book store and it was projected onto a big concrete wall. I got a legit bacon cheeseburger with fries and Chelsie got a turkey sandwich! Both of which were incredibly Western-tasting and delish. It was kind of awesome! 

Also, I learned how to say "Can I pet your dog?" in Chinese: wo neng mou mou ni de guo ma? Yessssssssssss. Now I'm all set. :)

One more thing: The hall light that lights up our front porch area so we can unlock the door is sound-activated. So usually we just clap or bang on the wall or something to turn it on. But now we've decided to try different sounds and see which ones work best. Last night Chelsie growled (it was more like a ROAR) and it definitely worked. We almost peed our pants laughing. 

Goodbye Wuhan, HELLO BEIJING!!!!

Yesterday I left Wuhan. That's all, it's not even worth saying any more. I will miss Candy and a few of the kiddos, but that's about it. Candy said she will be coming to Beijing to visit and that makes me very happy :)

 Now, on to today. Holy cow it was sooooooooooooooo great to FINALLY be with my roomie!!! I woke up and when I registered that I was, in fact, in my bed in Beijing....my heart actually fluttered. Seriously. We had such an amazing day. We both slept in a little, and when I woke up I got right to work moving my stuff into my room. I was tired of waiting to feel settled in China and it was going to happen today. The day went like this: moving in, lunch at our favorite dumpling restaurant, donuts, cold stone, shopping for household supplies and groceries and spending wwwwwaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy too much money, coming back to the apartment and finishing moving in and arranging my room, and finally dinner at the amazing Indian restaurant that Chelsie discovered in the foreigner hub of town that is only 4 bus stops away from us, and finally a mango for dessert to cap off the day. We decided the calories didn't count today because we were celebrating. Photographic evidence of my best day in China thus far:

Roomie!!

I'm so classy and attractive at ALL times

My bed and cute little nightstand! Don't make fun of the sheets, China has a limited selection....

Closet full of mystery.....

Closet full of clothes! I feel so organized and accomplished

Side of  my room with my favorite drawing in the world of me and my mom, my coconut lion, my calendar, my guitar, and one of the posters my kids made me for graduation :)

Little side nook

Chelsie's room. She drew that naked lady picture!

Dining room: love the happy yellow-ness!!

The itty bitty kitchen where many culinary wonders will be happening....hopefully

Living room with a cool painting and lamp that were left behind by the previous owners of this apartment....thanks!

View from the front door

Going up the stairs to our "hallway" (a curtain that separates Chelsie's room from the closets haha)

Indian food for dinner! My belly is sooooo full and happy.