I’m going to copy Brenda’s travel blog entries from our Spring Festival trip since she’s hilarious. So, yeah, the blogs after this aren’t my words :)
Well I had my alarm set for 8am.. like I was gonna get up. ha. I knew good and well I would lay there and not get up when I set the alarm. I definitely snoozed til 10:30. I don’t know why I do that.
Brenda on the 20 hour train to Beijing
Anyway, I got up and continued packing. I had some stuff set out and put in my big bag I was taking. I talked to Keli some off and on, and we talked about plans.. and about who was bringing the hair dryer and straightener (HD: Me / Straightener: K) Robert sent me a message telling me to be careful in the heavy snow. Yeah, it was snowing. I guess I got a shower and got dressed and ready. I went to a couple of stores on campus. Goal: Conditioner. Outcome: A bottle of water. Ha. The first store I went to was the small store ran by a little old couple. It smells funny in there, and every time I go in there the lady follows me around. It drives me crazy. I looked at a bottle of Pantene shampoo but decided not to get it since that wasn’t the goal. Then I felt bad because she was wandering around following me and I wasn’t going to buy anything.. this is where the water comes in. I went to another store. It’s bigger and the last time I went I heard them saying “ting bu dong” and laughing, which I’m pretty sure meant that they were talking about me. Their selection of conditioner was also nonexistent, so I just left.
Our friendly neighbor that we shared our compartment with
I went home and gathered everything up and knocked on J & P’s door… 3 times. P finally came to the door and got my key. She said she was making brownies for Keli and I (I thought that was sweet.), but they weren’t finished yet. I said it was okay, and I told her what I wanted her to do.. feed the cat, try and make sure to sweep up the litter that he would most definitely end up knocking out of the litter box, etc.
Dinner at Outback Steakhouse!!!!
I walked down to the front gate and grabbed a taxi. (Side note, my stomach was hurting..) There was no way I was going to ride the bus with all my stuff (Keli did. ha) I told her I wanted to go to McDonalds, and she tried dropping me off at KFC. I told her no, and I repeated McDonalds. Then she tried to take me to the little one that only serves ice cream. I said no again, and she FiNALLY drove me to the right one. It was a little ridiculous.
Subway in Beijing. Terrible!
Keli was already there, and she was sitting down. She hadn’t ordered food yet though, so I ordered some food for the both of us so someone could stay with all our stuff. We took turns going to the bathroom, and then we ate our chicken nuggets and drank our drinks.
We left for the train station. We got into a taxi one of her students was getting out of.. we thought that was pretty lucky. Keli was pretty panicky about not making it to the station on time. We decided that we were okay, and we were. We made it with about 20 minutes to spare.
…then the bad news came. I realized at the entrance that I was missing something. I had forgotten my passport. Ninjas on the roof. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kq2XmA4sID4) Keli thought I was joking since Micah had forgotten his passport when we went to Xi’an. I wasn’t kidding. She quickly realized that. I called P and asked if she would hurriedly bring it to me. I knew exactly where it was, but I didn’t put it on the list of stuff I should pack and completely forgot it. There wasn’t enough time for (J &) P (yeah, P apparently can’t do anything by herself..) to get there though. We were about to board, and they hadn’t even gotten a taxi yet.
Quick explanation: You cannot legally stay in hotels/hostels in China without a passport. The staff has to register your information with the police, and the police have the right to come at any time and check to see if all the guests staying at the hotel have their physical passports.
So we got on the train. We had a soft sleeper compartment which meant we had some privacy.. there are 4 beds in a soft sleeper. We made the plan to fax a copy to the hostel and then have J & P overnight it in the mail to me in Beijing. Oh my goodness. Mess. So Keli called the hostel, and they were only speaking in Chinese. Then we went through a tunnel and the call was dropped, so she called Sean (he’s another teacher at the car school where Keli teaches) to see if Shining (his Chinese girlfriend) would call and talk to them for us. He said it would be okay. Keli sent her a message. Dillon called me and said he was sorry he hasn’t been patient with me. (I’ve been sending him messages every now and then asking questions about buses and such…) Keli and I talked and stuff, and another man came in our compartment. He asked if we could understand Chinese (in Chinese, of course) and if we were Americans. Then he climbed on up in his bunk and was pretty quiet. Keli and I both went to the bathroom and then ate cheeseburgers we had gotten from McDonalds and drank some water mixed with Crystal Light. We pretended to be asleep one stop just in case someone else came in our compartment and tried sitting on our beds. ha. My stomach was still hurting.. I went to the bathroom. Let’s just say it wasn’t something you want to hear about. Upset stomachs on a train is NO fun and messy. Keli went to the bathroom after me. She said I should be ashamed.. and with that comment, I’m moving on. Shining called and had gotten the fax number and address of the hostel for us. It was like midnight when that happened, so I couldn’t call P with the information. Keli complained about being hungry, and then she started cross-stitching. I turned on my newly bought mp3 player and fell asleep.
Taken from http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/BrendainChina/
Nothing brings people together like the mention of dessert and card games.
Micah called me earlier and said he wanted to get together to bake brownies and play majiang or Phase 10 or something. He had me at “brownies.” I decided to stop being lazy and cleaned up my apartment a little bit and got ready. He and Brenda came over and we met Abbey and a student down the hill and went to Happy Guy’s for dinner. Nice and tasty as always. We decided that milk was a necessity if we were going to make brownies so we went on a hunt for decent milk. Only those who have lived in a place like a small city in central China can understand the potential difficulty in finding good milk. But we did. Score 1 for Team Lao Wai (foreigner)!
Billy and Debi are the only ones with a toaster oven so we made brownies in their apartment. They’re an older couple from the States and I loooooove them. They take good care of all of us youngins. It’s always nice hanging out in their apartment. They’ve been here for two years so their place is pretty homey feeling. So, Debi and I sat in the kitchen drinking sweet tea and playing with their dog, Snowball, Micah started on the brownies, and Billy stood right in the middle of the living room rockin’ and rollin’ to the Beach Boys on his guitar. The night was already off to a good start.
When Abbey and Brenda joined us we started our game of Phase 10. B&D had never played, but they sure were fast learners. Billy and I were having a war with our “skip” cards. Micah and I started bickering, like always. Brenda and I sat apart from each other for the first time ever, which is good because we tend to cheat and trade cards with each other under the table, haha. Is it cheating if you admit it? Nevermind. Don’t answer that. Sean came down and joined in. He’s finally wised up and stopped using his skip cards on me. He said he’s learned that he doesn’t want to be on my bad side during Phase 10, ha. That’s good since I was already battling with Micah AND Billy.
Micah made two batches of brownies. The first batch was yummmm. The second…well…he forgot to put the eggs in it. By the time he remembered it was too late. While we contemplated how brownies made with no eggs would turn out, the brownies started boiling in the oven. That’s never a good sign. Even though the consistency was a little off, the taste was still right on target. And really, that’s all that matters, right? Besides, being in China our standards for brownies are pretty low so we were happy with anything. :)
After having a bit of a rough time lately and being majorly homesick, it’s exactly what I needed. We spent the entire night trash talking, joking around, and cracking up. It was perfect. These are the times I’m going to miss.
I recently discovered on IMDB that Jackie Chan’s famiy roots originate in Ningbo, Zhejiang, China, where I lived in 2006-07.
Jackie Chan filmed the mountain scenes for Karate Kid on Wudang Mountain, about an hour away from where I live now in Shiyan, Hubei.
Jackie Chan visited Shiyan last October for the Wushu tournament.
I think it’s my destiny to meet him. I’m sure we’d be best friends, ha.
Brandon: I want to pray for a lot of money. And also for Elizabeth Taylor because she is my favorite actress and I hope that she will go to heaven.
Me: Sorry, but I think the ship has sailed on that one.
Just so we’re clear and there’s no confusion, Chinese washing machines are the most vicious, unpredictable, hazardous contraptions ever created.
It’s a slow day when the highlight is a trip to a Chinese supermarket.
After a super delicious dinner courtesy of Annie and Marissa, Abbey and I went to check out a supermarket that neither of us had been to yet. Rumor on the street is that they have bacon. Real, true, yummy bacon.
I can’t believe it took me seven months of living here to visit this store! They had all kinds of cool stuff. Now, when I say, “cool stuff” I mean cool by our standards here. It’s pretty much stuff that you could get at any dollar store back home, but here it’s practically gold. They had an unusually large supply of Nivea and Olay body wash and a crazy amount of bar soap. If it weren’t for my insanely sensitive skin I would have been over the moon, so I just grabbed a couple of bars of Johnson&Johnson baby soap, haha. I was pleased to find that they had my favorite brand of fabric softener which makes my entire apartment smell reeeeally good.
OK, kitchen stuff. The nice coffee mugs and glasses caught my eye and reminded me that I rarely get to drink out of an actual glass here. It’s usually 8oz. paper cups, a plastic bottle, or mug. I long for the days of tall glasses of ice cold sweet tea! Then, I saw it. Coffee presses! I’ve NEVER seen these in a store here. I bought mine at an outdoor market from a very unhappy Chinese woman who was seriously not interested in bargaining with me. It was still cheaper than the ones in the store, but I was still excited to see them. Plus, one of them had a awesome phrase on the box. Some other things that made my day were Dole grape juice, beautiful and CLEAN fruit and vegetables, the big jars of peanut butter, loads of decent looking chicken breasts, butter and cute little coffee/tea spoons.
But the absolute highlight of the trip? A measuring cup. Yes. I’ve searched high and low measuring cups and finally found one with only three months left on my contract. It’s sort of like the glass Pyrex kind, but it’s square. So, the cute matching washcloth and towel set? Soft and cuddly blanket? Those things would be crazy to buy with so little time left. But a measuring cup? It’s definitely sitting right next to me right now. And the best part? IT WAS MADE IN BRAZIL!! HA!
Oh, and they didn’t have bacon. :
Our super delicious dinner
Chinglish at its finest
Awesome.
These are my buddies, Mike and Vito. One day Vito decided that I should call him Bo Bo (Uncle) and then he emailed me once and called me Kiki. Ha, he cracks me up.
I thought it would take me longer than two posts to go all melodramatic, but it’s happening and it’s happening now. Tragedy has struck apartment 302.
After getting a wild hair to clean my bathroom, including scrubbing the floor, I changed into some comfy clothes and gathered up all of my manicure supplies. Made a stop by the bathroom to pick something up, aaaaand shatter. My all-time favorite nail polish, OPI Pompeii Purple…everywhere. I then proceeded to drop my iPod right in the middle of it. Awesome. At least my iPod is hot pink. It matched the polish perfectly. It even splattered on my cozy, furry, slipper socks. Being as though I only had about half a tablespoon of polish remover, the floor still has a pink tint to it. My plans for a nice manicure…done. In its place…dessert.
And I’m sure I’ll be reminded of the event every time I walk into my apartment and smell it.
I think I can hear, ever so faintly, Vince Gill’s voice…Go rest hiiiiiigh on that mountain…
OK. This is my third attempt at blogging. I started the previous two after I moved to China the first two times. This year, I decided not to because let’s face it…I would last about a month. Maybe my expectations were too high before. Maybe I thought I had to have all of these exciting posts about my crazy adventures living abroad. It was too stressful. But lately I’ve been reading other blogs and have found that general, everyday blogging can be just as entertaining. Not every post on every blog has to be life altering. I can handle that now.
I started to think about when would be a good time to start a new blog. For some reason I tend to only like to begin new things at beginnings…January 1, the first of a month, a big birthday, etc. I thought, hmm…I can start one on my 30th birthday. That’s big, right? It’s also over six months away. So, here it is. March 23. A Wednesday. I’m crossing my fingers that the third time’s the charm. And maybe if I post directly to Facebook I’ll feel more motivated to keep up with it this time!
Fingers crossed!