It's weird the time change though. I am writing to you from the future. It is 6:11PM on Friday. In Minnesota it is 4:11AM Friday. So I have 14 more hours experience with Friday than you do. HA!
So far the crappy parts of my trip include:
24 hours of traveling to arrive in Beijing, only to have our guide be late and it took 2 hours just to get out of the airport.
Going to the "Panda Zoo" where there were like three half-dead pandas doing nothing. Sort of reminded me of the Como Zoo only at least at the Como Zoo the polar bear goes around and around in that circle. I went into it thinking I would be holding baby pandas, and playing with those 12 new ones from that email. Not so.
Going to the Red Sandalwood Museum. BORING.
Eating at KFC for dinner tonight. Just as gross here as it is at home.
So far the highlights of my trip include:
Getting a twenty dollar-90 minute massage in my room.
Meeting a fun young couple from Salt Lake City named Kellie and Rich, and Rich speaks Chinese.
Standing in Tieneman Square.
Having my picture taken with Chairman Mao's picture.
Visiting the Forbidden City.
Getting lice from an old man on the street.
Not sure about that last one, but I have been taking some amazing pictures today. I spent the afternoon alone, my group went on an optional tour to the Gaobedian Village. I was just sick of being on the bus, so I ventured out into Beijing by myself. My plan was to go ice skating on Qianhai Lake. I couldn't find a taxi that knew what the H. I was talking about, so I just decided to go shopping instead. So I took a cab to Wangfujing Dajie, kind of like the Beijing Nicollet Mall...anyways I saw some cool people dressed as pandas, so I just took their picture and lost all my previous inhibitions of taking strangers' pictures on the streets. (I have always been so nervous to ask people if I can take their picture. Missed a couple awesome shots in Morocco because of that.) Anyways, the Pandas even interviewed me on camera. Not sure if that means I will be on TV? After that I just started taking tons of pictures of people. Cute little kids, old ladies, etc...And that brings me to the old man with the lice. I was walking along and I passed this awesome old gentleman, more like a stinky old street person, and I turned around after I was ahead of him by about 20 yards and pretended to take a picture of something else. He saw me and smiled so I walked up to get a close-up and took his picture. He had a 1 yuan in his hand, and I guess I took it to mean he was a beggar, so I pulled out my wallet and gave him a 20 yuan note, (only about $2.50 US) and he smiled so big and cute and so I hugged him, and now I am quite sure I have lice.
If so, I will be coming home looking like Sinead O'Connor.
p.s. when I got my massage, I was naked except for the towel the lady put over me. When she was rubbing my leg, she pushed my knee into my chest to stretch me out, and I'm pretty sure my stuff was hanging out, and I was so embarrassed. Then she started rotating my knee around and around and then I knew for sure she saw my pee pee.
I hope its OK to type that in China.
Love you mom.
If your name is on the following list, I have bought you a present.
Mom, Kim, Keri, Kelly, Kasey, Cory
Everybody else, sorry I haven't seen anything that jumped out at me yet. Plus I've only been here two days, jeez!
Alisha, I am going to try to visit an orphanage while I am here.
Can anybody help me figure out how much money it costs to talk on my cell phone here? I have used 26 minutes and I'm afraid it's going to be super expensive. I have Verizon, and nobody there knew before I got here, and I didn't think my phone would work, but it DOES. I couldn't believe it. Anyways, I went online and it doesn't say what my charges are going to be and I'm scared.
To be continued.
1 comment:
My comment on the lice story is: Kady was that flied lice?
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