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Published: March 23rd 2015
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Matcha smoothie
Similar to boba smoothie. This morning, I woke up and watched Chinese soap operas and packed my belongings. In China, they expect your room to be very clean upon checkout. I made my bed, mom (one of two)! My hotel tried to convince me to take the subway/bus/walk method of transportation because it was cheaper, but it scared me. And honestly, there's no way I'm spending at least 90 minutes to get to my destination when a cab is so cheap compared to America and takes an hour with no additional walking. Plus, it removes human error on my part, the non-Chinese speaker, and places it on the taxi driver. Don't worry, I opened my google maps to make sure we were headed in the right direction. 😉
I checked out of my hotel early to take a taxi to the Beijing West Railway Station where I boarded a train to Xi'an. I wanted time to people-watch and feel relaxed. I got to see the Olympic Park (meh) and pretty much every major company's headquarters, including Sony and the Beijing IKEA. It was an hour cab ride for 177.50¥, which is less than $30. I made it here, used my first Chinese ATM (I
Train station craziness
See the two-story Starbucks to the left in the background? think I have plenty of money, but wanted to make sure).
I just ate some pork and onion sandwich pastry thingy (I passed up KFC, McDonalds and Starbucks!), and I had a matcha smoothie with red beans at the bottom. Much like a green tea boba, but warm and with red beans instead. Ganbei!
I am literally on the train right now, and I figured out very quickly how to actually read my train ticket when a family with a baby told me I was in their seat. The ticket is hard to read, so I saw my first "1F" seat and put my luggage away. Well, there's also a train car number that I could barely read. Now I know better for my future train rides.
Tonight, I'm just focused on getting to my hotel, which looks amazing. Then I'll figure it out from there. I have two more train rides after this in my near future. One is for a day trip to Nanjing, China's former capital. Thursday I will be back in Beijing and closer to the city's core, so I will visit the Forbidden City and whatever else I can squeeze in.
I
This happened again.
Gopher-holing. Can't do it. ? just have to say...
Life is too short. It is more than owning stupid shit. At a time in my life when I had so many doubts - about myself, my choices, my future, school, why I don't have a ring on my finger or children to care for, blahblahblah (xing, xing, xing!) - this trip has become detrimental to my mindset going forward. I don't hate anyone or anything. I will be careful about how I think of myself and how I speak to others. I can do whatever I want to do. No one will tell me otherwise. If they do, I'll prove them wrong. Muhfuggas. ?
On the itinerary tomorrow is whatever the heck I feel like doing in addition to seeing the Terra cotta Warriors. I'm winging it, people.
Take care of yourselves, and do what makes you happy.
P.S. I bought Aubrey a "good luck" stuffed panda bear from the Great Wall yesterday. I'm not finding anything too exciting in Beijing as far as souvenirs go. Only really expensive jade. If only! ❤
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