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Photo 2
Brian and I at the West gate of the University We just got to our "hotel"/dorm at Jake's university. It was a long, but good day of traveling; all of our flights were on time or early - and we really liked Korean Air it was very new and comfy and everyone had their own little video screen to watch movies, TV programs, listen to CDs, or play video games. It made the time pass faster - and they kept feeding us - we had our first "Korean" meal on the plane - it was very good. Jake was there to meet us, but not before we were asked a few times if we needed a ride, hotel, etc....then we were getting a taxi, and the the driver was trying to rip us off ($60 versus $15) actually two were working together one said we had too much
Photo 3
A lake on campus luggage and it was too far,etc... so Jake was arguing with them in Chinese - it was pretty funny - so he said forget it, and we grabbed another taxi for the right price. And it was a really long drive too so I would not have thought $60 was too much.
DAY 2:
It is the Chinese Labor day - and it is one of the only other national holidays besides Chinese New Year they get off of work - I guess the normal work week is Mon- Sat and as Jake says they make up jobs for people - like there
Photo 4
Cervantes and blooming flowers are a lot of street cleaners that pick up paper off the sidewalks, etc...so people just throw their crap everywhere - and we went to a grocery store and I had to buy a hairdryer (which Jake couldn't remember the name in Chinese for so that was really funny) and the girl had to bring the ($6) hairdryer to the front (another made up job according to Jake). The grocery store was cool - funny to look around you and see all these brightly colored packages and really have no idea what is in them. We are definitely "different" - we are constantly stared at by everyone - Jake says they think it is weird I am wearing "slippers" (they are really nice Keen mule-like comfy sandals - I spent a lot of $$ on and they think they are slippers) then add in my white skin, blonder hair, big boobs and a bright orange shirt and wow - I felt like a monkey in a zoo. Since Sunday is there only day off, and with the holiday there were a ton of people at the University yesterday from outside of Beijing so we all were pointed at and parents
would grab their kids and point at us and then a group of 6-8 kids came running up to us and wanted their picture taken with us - and the parents and grandparents all snapped away - and adjusted us all for the photo - it was so odd - then younger people would come up and ask where we were from, and some would say Hello then giggle like crazy when we said hello back, and one group said Hello - Welcome to Beijing - it was quite an experience. We ate a restaurant last night and we had three awesome dishes, tea and fried rice (which Jake said he was splurging since I was paying he doesn't normally get Jasmine tea (more $$) or fried rice - but I laughed because the entire bill was less than $10 for all of us - bottled water is only 16 cents.
Photo 6
Tai-chi The food is good - so far 😊 Jake has a night planned at Kro's Nest on Tuesday - pizza and free beer - he thinks by then we will want some Western food.
Poor Jake has to do everything for us - someone says something and both Brian and I turn and look at him and wait for him to "handle" it. Definitely a hard language to pick up. Thank God for Jake once again. It has been interesting so far - off to the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Will try to write more later.
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