October 20, 2009
So here I am sitting in the conference room area, which Shane, Bryce and I have now turned into our classroom. We are sitting at a long wooden table and surrounding us are Chinese paintings and sculptors (all of which I will learn the meanings of soon!). Shane and I are discussing the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Darwin, both of which are born on the same day, while he works on his Science and Bryce, on the distributive property of multiplication.
Since I haven't written in my blog (my first one, which was blocked...should have known, and my second one, which hopefully you are all reading!), I will start off by describing our long journey to the Linden Centre.
October 16th - October 19th, 2009
Day 1 of travel:
After a great Mexican meal with my parents in Green Bay and a short amount of sleep since I was worried that I wouldn't wake up in time for my flight, we were at the airport by 7:30am for an early check-in and breakfast at the most elegant Green Bay Airport Cafe. It was hard to say goodbye to my parents...it took about 5 goodbyes before and after security. Then I was on the plane to Chicago and at that moment in time, my nerves hadn't hit me yet, not with that puddle jump of an airplane ride at least. Once I got to Chicago I had some time before I met up with Jeanee and the boys so I found the nearest Starbucks and enjoyed my last fat-free latte. On the plane to Beijing (a whopping 13 hour flight...let me tell you all, that is a long flight, especially with a man sitting behind you who has his feet resting on your arm rest and wiggling his toes at your sides!) Jeanee and I were able to sit next to each other. With every phrase that Jeanee taught me in Chinese (I'm up to 4 so far), I taught her the equivalent in French. We both agreed after our flight that the United flight attendants need to step it up a noch with their work ethic and lack of smiles! ha! But with that as the only bump in the road, we were pretty happy with our flight.
Day 2:
Once we arrived in Beijing, we went through three check points for customs. One asked us to walk slowly through the check point to take our temperature by some sort of sensors. Luckily, I was fit as a fiddle so I wasn't asked to go to the quarantine like some other unfortunate travelers. I decided not to practice my Chinese with the people working customs...just not yet. Our driver for our hotel was waiting for us and holding a sign saying "Aurelius" in thick black letters. After stuffing our 6 bags of luggage into the van, we were off to our hotel called Stay One. Once we unpacked and figured out the multiple light fixtures to our rooms (there were about 12 options to turn on different sets of lights) we went out to explore the area and find somewhere to eat. In big neon lights, we saw The Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant calling our name so we got a table and ordered from the thick picture menu.
For those who have never eaten from a hot pot before (this is only my second time), everyone has their own burner which is heating water that already has some spices and tomatoes. Then from the picture menu, we ordered plates of food that can go into the hot pot to be cooked. For example: I would put a couple of thin slices of beef in my pot with some cabbage. Once the beef turns from red to brown, it's ready to eat. My food probably stayed in the hot pot a lot longer than it should have since my experience with chop sticks is still ranging the in the beginner level. The rice noodles kept slipping off my chopsticks either back into the hot pot or rebeled and jumped ship and fell on the floor, which I have learned is "No Man's Land." If anything falls on the floor, don't pick it up...and never ever put your purse on the floor. I'm learning little by little!
Day 3 - 4 of travel days are coming later this afternoon....
Food Entry: (I promised Ed Strege that I would keep track of all of the different foods that I eat in China. Here's the list so far...straying not too far from the ordinary. This is for you, Ed.)
- Lotus Root, which looks like a potato but with holes. Very crunchy and doesnt really taste like anything.
- Sweet potato
- Spam...yes, I ate Spam.
- Cabbage
- Pickled Scallions
- Beef
- Duck
- Spicy rice noodles
- Lots of wild mushrooms (one in particular is called Chicken Mushroom, since it tastes exactly like chicken.)
- Some sort of smelly pickled vegetable that looked like an octopus sliding slowly out of the plastic wrapper, which was served on the plane (ok ok...I may be adventureous, but not that extreme. I skipped this one!)
- Fried rice
- Sweet breads (ones that were in the shape of turtles and pigs)