Hot Pot Adventure

The ELIC teachers from last year took us on a tour of Qufu (university and city)! It was very helpful and fun! I learned where the department stores, giant super market, and "confusious stuff street" (i.e. street with lots of little trinket things) are.
Then we went to a "hot pot" restaurant...sooo yummy! you order the hot pot of chicken broth in the outer ring and really hot sauce in the middle and then you order different meets and veggies to put in and boil/cook in the hot pot in the middle of the table!

what is that you may ask? a TEAPOT! how cool is that??? every time he came to fill our tea cups he would shoot the water out of that super long tea pot! i think i had 10 cups of tea just because it was so cool to see him do it ever time!



mmmm, 8 Treasures (or something like that) Tea!!

Traffic Jams and Crazy Driving!

Jeff in our first Chinese Traffic Jam! (more pictures to come when I steal them from Jeff)
But somethings to know about Chinese Traffic Jams:
1. all men must get out of their cars, walk around, talk, and grumble
2. they last FOREVER
3. it is perfectly acceptable to stop your car anywhere on the road, one need not be in a lane!
4. scary sworms of bees flock to big scary trucks so beware (we thought at first they were mosquitos, then flies, then we realized they were bees!)


Now this picture does not truly do chinese driving justice...i did not zoom for this picture but what i was trying to capture was the unbelievable closeness of this honking truck! Also...we were driving in the breakdown lane probably going like 50mph...totally acceptable when driving on the chinese interstate. also acceptable:
1. weaving in and out without using your turning signal, all that is needed is constant beeping
2. driving in blocked off construction lanes
3. making your own lane between two vehicles driving in two lanes (even when those vehicles are huge trucks
4. driving in breakdown lane/construction area in order to cut off a huge line of backed up traffic waiting for a toll booth.

Also, a little info on the "Chinese Truck Stop"....
1. it looks like an American truck stop
2. instead of McDs or Burger King they have Dim Sum
3. Dim Sum sounds like fun but really it is HELL! haha
4. think buffet line but with no rhyme or reason to the line! people just push and cut and there are like 5 spoons that no one will share with you! it was completely scary and i am not aggressive enough for it! but in th end i sucked it up, grabbed a spoon and managed to get enough food...what food? i have no idea but it actually wasn't that bad, and my tummy didn't object later so that's all that matters!

In short: the drive from Beijing to Qufu was probably one of the scariest events of my life...but also pretty interesting! and we made it fine, so it's all good! what an introduction to China!!!

beijing adventure

After a 6hr delay in Chicago...Richard, Jeff, Carrie and I finally arrived in Beijing!!
Jeff and I were wisked away by Andy our guide from Qufu and our silent driver (I don't think he spoke English).
A bit surprised to be seperated from Richard, Carrie, and Greg so fast, we arrived at the hotel.
My first challenge: trying to turn on the lights in the hotel room!
Step 1: open door with card
Step 2: place card in little slot inside room in order to turn on electricity in the room (card must stay there...if removed all lights go out!)
Step 3: find light switches.....easier said than done!
little did i know, the switches can be found on the front of the bedside table! Oh, silly China!
Amanda v China score: Amanda 0, China 1

Next challenge: charging camera battery
*well...apparently there is no need of special plug in china as long as your things are two pronged...but of course we didn't know that!
*Jeff plugs in his electricity transformer thingy into the wall in order to charge my camera...and all the lights in his room go off!
*We explain to Andy our guide...he doesn't quite get it OR the hotel can't do anything about it that night...so Jeff spends the first night in China in a room with no lights and no electricity!
Amanda & Jeff v China score: A 0, China 2

Went to dinner with Andy and the driver...food AMAZING! and I even was able to eat it all with chopsticks! woo woo all those years of practice finally paid off!

1st full day in China:
8am we meet Andy in the lobby
We drive to the Great Wall!!
Beijing is gray-colored...all that pollution I guess
The wall is CRAZY big and there are SO many people...yet we feel like the only westerners there...a bit surprising!
Best moment on the wall: when the little Japanese girl bumped into Jeff, looked over, saw his really hairy arm and gasped! Her dad laughed and said hello to us in Chinese! soooo cute!
yes we just climbed up that...HOT and sweaty!


Then off to Tiennamen Square!

Our Guide, Andy, told us that the last time he was there was in 1989! His family had visited the square the day before the massacre! pretty crazy! he said they were lucky to already have their train tickets...He also told us that before 1989 you could go and touch the statues and get closer to the buildings, but now they are guarded by military with huge guns.


















Then we met Sai and her friend Ting for dinner!!
It was so much fun to see her after...4years, or is it 5??? I'll hopefully be visiting her again in Beijing and maybe she will be able to come down to Qufu!