Taking a Break

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Today was another beautiful day... and one that I chose to relax and forgo tourist activities. Initially my plan had been to visit the Temple of Heaven, but once I set out on the lengthy walk I became absorbed with simply strolling down various streets and completely lost track of where I was and missed my turn. After discovering that I had walked way past my destination, I just decided to keep wandering and turned my day into an outdoor gym. I have become quite obsessed with physical activity, and now I cannot let a day pass without walking for a minimum of two hours. (Mom and Dad - stop laughing). Most street crossings are either above or below ground, so at every crossing I would run up and down the stairs and then continue on my way. Beijingers are very relaxed, so I received many strange looks as I raced up and down. Silly Foreigner.

I happened upon a mall, which basically consisted of many, many stalls set up offering everything a person could desire, or have absolutely no need for. I desperately needed body wash/soap (the weather here forces me to wash once a day - appalling!) so I moseyed around attempting to figure out what was body wash. This search provided endless amusement to the Chinese shop girls as we had to resort to sign language, grunting and charades to communicate. I ended up with body was and lotion... but am a little wary about the lotion. Most lotions here contain whitening products, which I am not particularly keen on. We shall see if my legs turn Michael Jackson pale. Hmmm.

List of Observations & Oddities:

- Chinese women love their high heels... and we are talking extreme color/glitter/height all throughout the day. You will see them tottering around (on all day walking tours) or stepping out in their sweatsuits mincing in heels. (Made me think of you, Sandra!)
- I am so far from stylish, it is shocking. (Logan would thrive here). Living out of a backpack doesn't allow for trendy looks, and I was especially ruthless with my packing. (I have no clothes). Thus, I wander around looking mangy with nappy hair and grimy sweatshirt and shorts and flipflops. (No one wears flipflops).
- This a very affectionate city... everywhere you look you see girls holding hands or couples walking, arms linked together. It's lovely to be in this positive atmosphere. Love is in the air...
- Toilet paper cannot be found in public toilets.
- Smelly tofu is quite possibly the worst stench to pass by. (An unfortunate local delicacy).
- A great tragedy is that the Chinese are very into the "new old" and many amazing hutongs are being destroyed and rebuilt in this "new old" style. It's depressing to see as the finished product looks like a Vegas version of Asia. I'm glad to be here now, to be able to see the old while it still exists.
- Anime music videos are hilarious.
- Good chocolate and cheese are mission impossible to find.
- There is a man directly outside of my hostel that yells at people to come into and eat at a restaurant ALL DAY. He is legendary here at Leos.
- Most times to cross the street, you must go underground... still adjusting to that one.
- I wish postage didn't cost anything, because there are so many odd items that I would love to purchase and send back, just for seeing sake!

There are many more things... but I shall have to share them at a later time.

For dinner I accompanied zee Germans and we took a cab to this funky little noodle soup restaurant. Our soups were all excellent (bless the person who invented picture menus!) Later, we decided to walk home to the hostel and ended the evening playing endless rounds of Jenga! We were all quite competitive and had one round last nearly an hour! Quite skilled players the lot of us. And would you believe it, one of the Germans had a stash of German chocolate (good German chocolate) and shared it with me. Ahhhhh. I was in heaven!

Good news is that I am meeting Cecilia tomorrow for lunch hopefully. I called her mobile this afternoon and we tentatively booked the following day to finally meet each other. Quite looking forward to that.

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