More helpful NEED to KNOW tips

Here it is, I just successfully completed another day in Beijing but not without a few more helpful hints from my lovely daughter.

1. They spit here, be careful to dodge the spit. (not a word on how to determine when a spit is coming, though....she gets a C on this advice)
2. Watch where you are walking:
a. they have open sewer holes and
b. they do not pick up after their dogs or small children (that's right, small children do not wear diapers, just pants with a slit in the bottom)

I cautiously walked to Laurens office and met her for lunch. After we ate, she took me up to her office and showed me her desk and where her team of 8 Chinese people sit around her. Then we used the bathroom on her floor which was very nice. While peeing, I heard someone say, "Law Ray Lou" very loudly and once out of the stall, I realized I had given my daughter a chinese name without even knowing it. It was the receptionist who was on the phone when we were in the office, tracked us down so she could meet me. She must of said a solid 6 paragraphs in Chinese and Lauren turns to me and says, "she said, 'this is your mom, very nice to meet you' until then I haven't been suspect of Laurens chinese but I think she could have left out a little in that translation.

After I met Lauren at work and had lunch with her, she not only walked me to the subway station but she even swiped her subway card for me and pointed what direction my subway car was in. As I turned around and she was waving and saying "bye mom, be careful" an emotional memory came back into my mind............her first day of kindergarten and this time I was the kindergartner.

My destination was the Forbidden City, in some ways it should probably stay forbidden, it was such a long walk from one end to the other. I suspect that was the emperors intention by putting his palace at the end of this long journey, by the time his enemies reached him they would be too tired to to anything about it. The Forbidden City is one of the top tourist attractions here in Beijing so I felt fairly confident that I would encounter another English speaking tourist to pair up with and have conversation with as I walked through. As I suspected, it was LOADED with tourist. Families, older people, young people HOWEVER they were all Chinese tourist!!!! Apparently, it is like visiting Washington DC to Americans so the majority of the visitors were Chinese. Lauren did not seem surprised when I recapped my adventure with her (she is the one that gave me the DC analogy) but a little heads up about that would have kept me from getting my hopes up.

Just so you don't feel too sorry for me, I did happen to meet a couple from Philadelphia, while trying to be conned into buying Chinese art. Apparently, the western "look" makes you a great target and both the couple and I were suckered into looking at this art "by college students" but only they were foolish enough to make a purchase, I have Lauren on my team and I am smarter than that. (Later in the day I saw the same art pieces somewhere else, I guess they weren't so original after all).

I took the subway back to Laurens office building and from there she and I got back onto the subway and went to another shopping district. The lure of this little trip was two fold. It is one of the areas that have a whole section of vendors selling traditional Chinese foods, you know, seahorse, scorpions or beetles on a stick etc. And on a completely different note, the second lure was she knew there was a Catholic church on that same street and I was curious. It is suppose to be a "universal" church, you know. The church of course was locked, so we couldn't go in. We may try to make it this weekend. I am curious as hell to hear it done in Chinese.

We took the subway back to Laurens office area and by then these 49 year and 11 month old feet were really hurting so my gracious daughter asked if I would like to take a motorbike ride to the restaurant which was by her apartment but going to be another 20 minutes of walking. I agreed. For those who don't know, let me discribe this motor bike. It is a motorcycle that has a little hut on the back made of tin that two can fit in, quite the concept. It was cheaper than taking a taxi and it was actually kind of fun.

She took me to one of her favorite restaurants. It is a "noodle bar", not the ones in your swimming pools, it's China for petes sake!! It was really neat. From your table you could watch the chef's working the dough and then making the different shaped noodles and types of noodles. Really fun to watch. You pick the type (wheat, vegetable, regular, etc) of noodle, then the shape (flakes, long, bits etc) then you pick a sauce to go with it. Lauren had an egg, eggplant and tomatoe sauce which tasted like something my grandmother has made on occasion (we thought she was full blooded Italian, maybe she had a little Asian in her too) and I had a pork and something, don't remember the name but it was awesome. Lauren picked out several appetizers, meatballs that I am convinced has molasses on them, yummy, a peanut and cucumber salad, yummier, some potatoe bread,good and some dumplings stuffed with vegetables which were only OK. NO NO NO, we didn't eat it all. We brought most of the appetizers back for Sebastian but tasted them at the restaurant. I would go back there but I know there are too many places Lauren wants me to try so, FAT CHANCE. For those of you who are skeptics and think you can't teach an old dog new tricks, I ate my whole meal with chopsticks (I did spill and drop a lot but finished my meal), IN YOUR FACE!

I feel if I write much more, you will quit reading so I will sign off for now. Wish me luck!!!
Karen

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