God's original cockroach

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We set off to Beijing last Wednesday for a four day vacation from classes thanks to Abbey competing in a language competition there. I was really looking forward to going to Beijing for the first time ever and also to my first day of being a tourist in China. Seriously, three trips here and all I've ever done is go to class or travel with a Chinese tour guide with my study abroad program. This just isn't the same as Chinese tour guides feel you aren't getting your money's worth unless 1) you start activities at 6 a.m. 2) they talk about anything remotely related to the area you are about to visit for the entire one or two hour bus ride getting there and back and 3) you visit at least one pottery depot or silk depot catering to foreigners and at least one of the cities' development zones to listen to lectures about why you as a rich college student should invest in their city.

We stayed at the Leo Hostel way back in a Hutong called "Da Shi Lan Hutong". You can see a picture of the hutong on my gallery. My secondary reason for being excited to go to Beijing was a four day break from roaches. Alright! I think you know where this story is headed.

We walk into our room at the Leo Hostel and are about to put our things down when my classmate starts cracking up laughing. My other classmate and I are like "What?!" She says nothing and keeps laughing histerically. We say "What?!!" again. She says my other friend might want to come look but I had better not. Apparently, the largest cockroach they had ever seen just crawled under the bed. My classmate stomped on it and eventually killed it. It was so fat it couldn't move very fast. It was probablly the size of a small mouse. My friend named it the original cockroach from prehistoric times, the first one that God created back before there were humans. And our friend killed it so we joked she is going straight to hell.

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