FIRST BLOG POST IN CHINA

---

After weeks of searching, I have found a blog that is not blocked here in China!!! Let me get you all caught up.

I left for China on August 17th, just over 2 weeks ago. I had a lot of trouble with my flights, and wound up getting caught up in the O'Hare Airport for 5 hours more than my original flight schedule. Due to some confusion, Jordan and I missed our flight to Toronto - which was our connection to Beijing. We managed to get our flights changed after hours of running around and negotiating with various airlines. We caught our direct flight just in the nick of time and wound up flying with 6 or 7 other people in the CCEP. We landed in Beijing (after a 14 hour flight) on Tuesday the 18th. Sadly, our baggage did not wind up catching the same flight, and Jordan and I were stuck wearing the same clothes for 3 days in sweaty, sticky Shijiazhuang.

Our baggage arrived on my birthday, August 20th. My birthday wish came true, and I was able to change my clothes!!!! Kirk gave us a tricky "homework assignment" on the 20th. We had to catch a public bus and take it at least 3 stops from campus. Then, we had to find a restaurant, relay our order to the non-English-speaking staff, eat, and have our server write down exactly what we ordered. I went our with Phil and Tyler, and together we found a delicious looking "hot-pot" restaurant. We went in, were seated and served a sweet tea. From my Chinese lessons this summer, I was able to request a menu. I hoped that perhaps some of the orders were in pinyin, because then I could use my Chinese dictionary. The waitress showed me a piece of paper covered in Chinese characters. I was petrified. I began listing foods I knew, mu er (mushrooms), nu rou (beef), zhu rou (pork)...but after that, I was repeatedly met with "meiyou" (we don't have that). SHOOT!! After about 5 minutes of them trying to get our order, the manager came to the table, took me by the arm, and gently led me into the kitchen... I was instructed to point at everything we wanted served to us in our hot pot. The end result was copious ammounts of food and a delicious soup. We ate our food, appologized for our poor language skills, paid, and left. When I showed Kirk what we ordered, he informed me that we had dined on pig intestines and beef fat. You can never be entirely sure here.

---

Comments

[mama]

eeew!
I guess I would be happier to enjoy the meal and not know the contents.

[Bridget Cooney]

Sorry
Hey hun! I was wondering where you were blogging this whole time about your trip! Looks to me like you are having a wonderful time in China! ;-) So have you been in contact with very many people from the states? Also, when is a good time to skype? I miss going to the farmer's market with you and your mom already... :-( Hey, and now that I am legal, we are gong to have to go out when you get back asap! I will have to tell you how the bday party went once you let me know when you are available to talk via skype! hope to hear from you soon! <3 Bridget