Beijing!

Warning:  This post is very lengthy with a ton of pictures.  Good luck making it to the end.

I have so much to say about China and I don’t know how to put any of it into words.  First off, I want to start off by saying that I seriously love China!  I may have just opened up a can of worms that is going to cost me a lot of money.  I am becoming addicted to traveling.  It is so great and there is so much out there in the world that is amazing!  Different cultures, all the history, the strange food, all of the people you meet, and so on is all worth it. 

Random things/stories about China:

You can’t flush the toilet paper here.  I know, it’s weird and disgusting and it is a real struggle every single time.  I always forget and I really hope I am not the American that flushes the toilet paper and has to have the plumber come fix it for me.  That would be awkward.

      I swear that no one believes in personal space here or lines.  I first noticed this when we were in Houston getting on the airplane to go to China.  They called for the different sections to board and it was a mad house with all of the Chinese people pushing their way up to the front so they could get on the plane.  Also, the first day I was here I was at a little grocery store.  Clearly, we were the next people in line.  Nope, the little old Chinese lady decided it was her turn so she just pushed her way around us so that she could check out first.  When you are standing in line for something you are practically standing on top of the person next to you.  I am not going to lie though; it has been kind of nice because you get the body heat of everyone around you.

      

      All of those rumors that you have heard about China smelling weird are true.  Most of the time they are smells that you would rather wish you didn’t have to encounter.  Who knows what it is but you kind of just get accustomed to it and hold your breath. 

      The chop stick diet is all the rage here.  Well, that is if you are me.  I still can’t eat with chop sticks and I have been here for almost two weeks.  I don’t necessarily stop eating because I am full but I stop eating because I get too frustrated trying to eat my food or because my hand starts cramping up.  I am determined to become a champ at chop sticks before I leave though.  Good thing I have five more months because I am going to need the time. 

      It is very entertaining to order food when you don’t speak Chinese.  We have reverted back to pointing and hand motions and I am proud to say that we are all getting pretty good at it.  We have found that it is helpful to go to places that have pictures of the food so that way you can just point to the pictures.  If there aren’t any pictures then just look around you and find someone who had a good looking plate of food in front of you.  That usually seems to work pretty well.  One time, we ordered our food and then the waiter turned to a page in the menu that had zero pictures on it and he started pointing to that page and wanted us to choose something.  So we randomly just pointed to something that had a fairly good price.  It turns out that we ordered beer.  Oops.  Luckily there was a cooler full of beer that the waiter pointed to and then we all shook our heads no and he got the point.  You never know exactly what you are ordering and you never know exactly what you are eating.  It makes for a very entertaining meal time.  I love it.

      I have never been so famous before in my life.  Everyone wants to take your picture and everyone wants to take a picture with you.  They always say, “You are a beautiful girl.”  It is pretty hilarious and super random but I guess it is cool to have pictures with white people.

      I ate squid on a stick at a night market.  And I didn’t hate it.  I think that it is only because it was covered in spicy seasoning but regardless, it was still squid.  I also ate a star fish and I feel very guilty for doing so.  It wasn't even good.  I will never do that again.

      A group of us decided that we wanted to go get a foot massage.  Earlier that day we were told that foot massages were great but that we shouldn’t go to one that has pink lights or Christmas lights outside of it because those mean bad news.  So someone in our group lead us to a place where she saw a sign for a foot massage.  It was down the sketchiest alley ever.  Someone poked their head in to ask for a price while the rest of us were outside.  We then looked up and saw a strand of Christmas lights up.  I freaked out a little bit but I guess by this time we were committed to go inside but there were only room for four of us.  The girls decided to stay there while the boys went to find another place.  I couldn’t believe that they were going to leave us there with the Christmas lights but they reassured me that if they hadn’t seen us in an hour then they would come and find us.  Don’t worry, nothing happened.  It was totally safe and the best foot massage ever. 

      One night four of us decided that we were going to go emerge ourselves in the Chinese culture and go to the movies.  We picked the Monkey King.  It was the strangest movie of my life but it was awesome!  Thankfully there happened to be English subtitles but even with the subtitles I was still very confused.  I am pretty sure that they only way to understand that movie is to be Chinese.  It was a great experience though and I do not regret paying 50 kuai to see a movie. 

      The way you ice skate in China is on chairs and it was one of the most fun things of my life.  We were supposed to be doing an Amazing Race Beijing Edition but when we saw this frozen pond with people chair skating on it, we couldn’t pass it up.  You sit in a chair with picks in your hands and scoot yourself across the ice.  It was awesome!  We made friends with some Chinese friends there who are still posting random pictures of us on Instagram.