China day 2- Woke up to pouring rain. Perfect day for the museum. Started the day at starbucks (hearing grande, non fat, half sweet caramel macciato with a chinese accent is something no one should miss out on) then caught a cab to the Renmin square area. The museum was very cool with 3 or 4 rooms on 4 floors. There was a bronze room, currency room, calgraphy room etc.
After getting my fill of museum-y stuff I decided to walk around the area. The museum is right across the courtyard from city hall. Its a pretty big "park" with lots of little grassy areas which you are not allowed to touch. I got a realy cute picture of a kid, abou 18 month old, feeding 15 or so pidgeons. He was killing himself laughing. Very cute.
I found a bbq stand and got a stick of something that I assume is pork and sat down to eat. I was just about to pull out my notebook when two kids a few years younger than me spotted me and wanted to practice their english. The girl was Hui Qing and the guy was named Yao Qiang. They were on an exchange program from another city and very eager to chat. Hui (also called rita, thank god) was teaching me chinese, both laughing hysterically at my attempts then quickly saying my pronunciation is perfect. Um, yeah, I dont think so. After about 20 minutes they invited me to a tea ceremony near by, so I took them up on it. In this tiny hallway in the back of a mall was a tea shop. The girl doing the ceremony only spoke chinese, so Rita did all the translating. We tried 6 teas, each came with a story and a litle lesson on what it is good for (lowering blood pressure, slimming etc). I learned the proper way to taste tea and increased my chinese vocabulary while all three of them laughed hysterically (followed of course by the assurance that my pronunciation is perfect). We had four little dishes of food, 2 seed things, one fruit thing and one either nut or cracker. I have no idea what any of them were, but they were somehow made with tea and were all very tasty (for those keeping track I have now had 5 things I have no clue what they were. Not bad for two days). Rita and Yao also taught me the 4 principals of picking good tea. First is color, then smell, then size then taste. I at one point knew the chinese names for all those things, but prompty forgot. I bought some fruit tea and was given this crazy clay thing you soak in cold water then pour hot water on its head and it pees. Very strange gift, but whatever.
After all this (which took probibly two hours) I headed back to the apartment, and waited for my aunt to return so we could go to the fabric market.
It kinda looked like a really classy flea market, with 3 floors of all these very tidy stalls filled with fabric and a few pieces of clothing. Each one seemed to specialize in a different type of cloth. All suit material, cotton, silk, wool, cashmere etc. They were very non-aggressive, which suprized me because the compitition is pretty fierce. Jennifer took me to the place where she gets her pants made and I got measured up for a cashemere coat ($80 aprox) and a grey suit ($40). There was one person who spoke english in each stall, some better than others, so you can explain what you want, point to a model or another persons stuff or show a picture. In another stall I got fitted for a pencil skirt (little under $20) and a silk trench coat in the last place we went ($40). Expensive day, but not bad considering what I'm getting.
For dinner we went for Japanese right down the street from where I am staying. We each had a massive bowl of noodle soup stuff, fried squid and fish ball things as well as a huge icey desert thing and the bill was about $20. Yeah, no wonder no one here cooks.