Check me out on my scoooooter Crusin' to see my kindy kids!

     After living here for 6 months, I now have a SCOOTER!!! I had originally planned to get one when we first got here as the school I work at is about 20 minutes away in YangMei, but after seeing the crazy traffic and with all the rain, I decided against it.  I liked taking afternoon naps on the bus, and I was able to ride with one of my Taiwanese teachers 3 times a week on the way there.  For the past few months, waiting for the non-scheduled bus was realllly starting to piss my shit. Sometimes I'd stand out on the side of the street in YangMei waiting for over half an hour for a bus to roll up, often at night.  I felt like half of my time in Taiwan was spent waiting for buses and riding on them.
     I had looked at scooters before at a shop, and it looked like the cheapest used one was around 20,000 NT (just under $700 US). I didn't want to spend that much, on top of my fears of driving here.  Then there was a catalyst in making me actually take action.  I was offered my own kindergarten class!! The only issue is that it's at ANOTHER branch of our company in another town, Longtan, about 20 minutes away by car/scooter ( about 45 minutes by bus).  I wanted to take the kindy (the slang for kindergarten that all the cool kids use), but wasn't sure about busing it there in the mornings, back to Jhongli, then out to YangMei. Uhhh so much bus time and waiting! One of the foreign teachers here had a friend that was leaving Taiwan and looking to sell her scooter, and for cheap.  I met her and test drove it, although I really didn't know anything about anything, I've never even driven a scooter back in the states.  I decided to buy it for 10,000 NT ($340 US)! I accepted the kindy class, and my life schedule here in Taiwan has changed quite a bit!
      My kindy class is the youngest class offered, called showban, they are 3 years old!  There are 18 kids in my class and I see them every day from 9-11 30 am, I took this class over from a teacher (Dellie) who still works here but needed mornings off to volunteer to at an orphanage.  She's an excellent teacher and clearly a great person for giving her time to orphaned children, so they have been trained well over the past 6 months with her.  With the start of new semester that took place this week, a few new children joined, so I've been dealing with kids that just sit and cry for their momma's allll day long.  It's great.
    I'm still on my first week of being with the little guys, and it's gonna take some getting used to.  I had subbed some classes before, but they were all older levels, so the level of English with those kids was great and they were very independent.  My class needs to go the bathroom every 20 minutes, they don't know much English at all, and they need to be assisted with everything.  I mean yes, they're only 3, of course they need help with everything!  I just need to get used to their level.  They are so stinkin cute and full of love, that it's easy to be with them.
   
      The schedule of kindy is as follows:
 9-915  Exercise Time.    Do you remember having this in American kindergarten? I think we had something like it. At my branch the foreign teachers take turns making music mixes to dance to and teach the kids their dance.  The whole school is together in the morning for this time and it's unbelievably cute to see these tiny kids strutting around and signing to Lady Gaga, Britney, even some (mild/censored) rap songs.
915-930 Sharing Time.  How do you feel today?  I feel happy.  What's the weather like today?  Today it is rainy. That's that.
930-10 Snack Time.  Might as well be breakfast time.  My kids take ages to eat half of a bun or 7 flakes of cereal.
10-1045 English Time.  This is really the only time I spend actually "teaching" if you can call it that.  A few words and sentence patterns, ABC's, phonics, numbers, songs, tons and tons of games! Not even all on the same day of course.
1045-1130 Fun Time.  This can be whatever you want to do essentially.  Arts and crafts, obstacle courses, PARACHUTE!
1130- Lunch Time, and that's when I go bye-bye.
That's the morning of kindergarten, the afternoon is Chinese since it's bilingual.

So then Monday, Wednesday, Friday I scooter to Longtan in the mornings, then over to YangMei for my class at 130, then home to Jhongli at night.  Tuesday and Thursday I go to Longtan and then back to Jhongli since I don't need to be in YangMei until 440.

     I've had my scooter for like 2 weeks now, and I really love it.  Dellie gave me a lesson on how to drive it, half hour of practicing in back alleys doing turns and such, then out into the streets!  I was freaking out a bit, I felt so nervous, but once you're in it, it's really not that bad and doesn't seem as intense when you're driving through it as walking on the sidewalk seeing it all rush by.  I got a super protective helmet and am really cautious.  The thing is that there are soooo many scooters here, that people grow up knowing how to drive with and around them.  The cars seem to watch out for you.  Of course there are accidents, Dellie has actually been in like a dozen accidents, many because she admits she likes to drive too fast!  There are idiots that don't pay attention, so I try to be as aware of everything around me that I can. While in Helen's car I always saw scooters swerving in and out of cars, around buses, just being crazy.  I don't drive like that.
      Today I needed to get gas, and I learned that the Chinese to say "fill it up" is something like "jah-mahn" Like jammin, yah man Jamaican!  I felt pretty bad ass pulling up to the station and telling them which kind of gas I wanted, just numbers people, and to fill it up all in Chinese!  I probably sounded stupid, but they understood and I now have a full tank!

Here I am in my rain gear, a necessity as it's alllways raining at some point in the day.

Ready to go!

 Look out I'm coming!

 There she is!  That little bar thing is a makeshift tripod to screw your camera into so you can take video whilst driving! I shall document my trips to work some time, if it's ever not raining in the mornings.

   

Playboy Bunny, Tea, and Tights = Taiwan

         When I first arrived in Taiwan I put up a post about some things Taiwanese people are quite in to.  Over the past 6 months of living here, I've definitely noticed a large list of items and trends they are very excited about.  I'll let you in on a few of them now.

1. Tea

This is one obsession I am also obsessed with.  I love tea!  Tea shops fill the streets here, so many different vendors and stores.  Now, I'm not only talking about the traditional hot water and tea bag/tea leaf tea, Taiwan is famous for it's Pearl Milk Tea.  This delicious beverage consists of the obvious tea and milk, but the pearl's- they are the secret.  No, not real pearls.  The pearls in Pearl Milk Tea are little bubble shaped tapioca balls.  Sounds a bit.. yucky? Yes, it does.  But it tastes wonderful.  You know tapioca, like tapioca pudding, I guess I can't say I've eaten it much actually.  Anyways this tea, it's great.  I order it without extra sugar added, I don't want to get diabetes from drinking too much!  Milk Tea in general is excellent, and you can order it in a variety of flavors.  My recent favorite is Peppermint Milk Tea, both hot or cold is divine!

This tea shop is right around the corner from our apartment.  I frequent it often.  

2. 7-11/Family Mart
In Taiwan you can find a 7-11 or Family Mart on for realsies every block.  More abundant than Starbucks.  Often times you can come across a 7-11, and then you turn the corner, and whatdoyaknow, another 7-11.  Family Mart is the same thing, just another convenient store.  These convenient stores are special though.  you can do much more than purchase coke, chips, or beer there.  I pay my bills there, they have hot ovens to heat up meals that they sell, you can buy tickets to concerts or sporting events, send faxes or mail, print pictures.  There are around 4,790 7-11's on this little island. If I ever need anything, at any time, I've got my options of a 7 across the street, or a Family Mart right around the corner from my home!

3.  Tea Eggs

Here's a pot roaring away at the 7-11

See, more with the tea!  Tea eggs are hard boiled eggs, boiled in tea rather than water.  This turns the outside shell to a murky brown color, and inside the egg is infused with the elements and flavor of tea.  You can find them bubbling away in a pot at all hours inside one of the ever-open 7-11's, but also many "lunch box" restaurants carry them to pop inside the meals.  I find them quite delightful, and request them with my meals whenever I spot them.  I have to yet to try one from the convenient stores though, they appear a bit scary.


4. Tights and shorts
Fashion.  Tights are seen on many legs day after day, but generally they aren't paired with skirts or dresses, it's shorts the girls choose.  They also are big in to patterned tights, anything from polka dots, squares, laces, colors.  Lots of fun things! If I had to describe Taiwanese fashion, tights and shorts is what first comes to mind.  Of course, maybe it was Japanese fashion first, whatever, I don't know, but it's very popular here.

5.  Bean
I said before that jelly is everywhere.  As is the friend to jelly- bean.  Ha, I didn't even mean to do that!  Seriously though, you've got to watch out for it.  When we were in China, I ordered some ice cream thinking it was strawberry, no, it was red bean.  It actually wasn't bad though, I didn't really notice until I saw it on the receipt. You see the same thing in Taiwan, too.  Frozen bean paste bars, matcha bean lattes (this is a green bean, that fools you into thinking it's a green tea latte, until you take a sip), and they smear bean into a lot of desserts, often mixed with the jelly.  So red bean I think is maybe ok, I'm not certain of all of the different types of bean, but there's a lot of it out there, and most of it repulses me.  Usually if I find it in something, I try to nibble at it a bit, and can handle it in small doses.






Here's some pie I had (on accident) with some bean of the bottom, covered in a jelly layer, and something sponge-like on top.


6. KTV
This stand for Karaoke T.V, or so I'm told by Rachel.  The Taiwanese are HUGE into this.  There are huge KTV buildings all over, I walk by 3 almost every day.  Well, 2 for sure, 1 is quite shady and the Taiwanese teachers say to never go there.  I think it's a prosty-shop.  The only time I've done KTV was on the last night of training in Taipei with a group of like 40 people all shoved into one room.  Last Tuesday night, however, this changed.  Some of us had planned on going to a trivia night at a small restaurant (yes, conducted in English) but when we got there, found that it was on hiatus due to the Chinese New Year holiday.  Well, we were all together and decided to check out a KTV.  The deal is you pay for a private room with a big couch and table and tv and share it with your friends and pick your songs and sing away!  Around 30 US for the room, split by 6 people, so $5 a person.  Kind of takes away the appeal of karaoke back home, being able to listen to awful strangers sing loud songs, but this way is pretty fun too.  They cater beer to you as well, which naturally aids in the enjoyment :)

Rachel, Ben, Mike, Abe, and Greta ready to sing






Ben and Abe signing... some Jason Mraz, I believe!

7. The Playboy Bunny
Yes... it's super popular here. I don't know about the magazine, but the brand name. The label is on everything. Glasses, suitcases, shoes, bags, notebooks, and these are all items that my students tote around!  I have little kids walking around with backpacks sporting the playboy bunny.  I'll just go ahead and guess they don't really know what it represents. Otherwise they are being raised to become absolutely scandalous. They bedazzle it and use flashy colors. I can see it's appeal though,  just a cute little bunny.  How can they resist the cuteness!?

La La Lanterns

        Lantern festivals are very popular in Taiwan, particularly during Chinese New Year.  One of the most famous festivals is held in the tiny town of Pingxi.  (If you watched last season of The Bachelorette, during their stay in Taiwan, they go on a date to this town to light off their own lanterns on the railroad tracks.)  It's one of the biggest lantern festivals, and crowds of around 80,000 people invaded this little place to take part in it all.  I decided to make myself part of that number! 

     It was a hectic attempt to make it in time, as we had to work on Saturday afternoon, Anthony and I until 4:30, others were off earlier.  During lunch time we were discussing possible transportation routes with some of the Chinese staff at school.  They said we were nuts; not only would it be insanely crowded but getting their alone would be quite the challenge, not to mention our time constraint.   A Chinese teacher, Peja, said there was no way we would make it with traffic, that we should just go and spend the day on Sunday when we could send up our own lanterns.  But then we would miss the night time release of hundreds of lanterns as that was only going on this Saturday night, that was the main thing I wanted to see! 

        We decided that Abe, Greta, and Mike would take off earlier on a bus to Taipei where they would find where we take another bus to the little town of Pingxi.  Then they could tell Anthony and I exactly where to go since we would be running behind.  Later in the day, though, Peja told me that he had decided to make the trip to Pingxi as well!  He's from Taiwan and had never experienced the festival there, large crowds aren't his thing, but he thought that now he wanted to see it for himself.  This worked out really well as he would be driving his car with a friend, and there was room for Anthony and I to ride with!  We drove to Taipei and he knew where we could hop on a bus to Pingxi, another 45 minutes. 

       Getting off the bus it didn't seem so bad, there was an outrageous amount of buses running back and forth.  We didn't need to walk very far before hitting the masses of people, though.  It was immensely packed, like so you couldn't move sometimes.  Good thing for cellphones, we were able to find Greta, Abe and Mike quickly.  Apparently the President of Taiwan had been there and given a speech shortly before we arrived.  Abe thinks he bumped into him and the security gave him a nasty look!

   Pictures just can't show how awesome the lanterns being released were. It was really foggy which caused a lot of blur. 

      We also quickly lost Peja and his friend, they were off to find some other people they knew, too.  We made our way through the streets, it was full of typical food vendors and trinket shops, as well as many places selling big lanterns you could buy, write on with a blank ink paintbrush, and then light off into the night sky! We bought some lanterns and got to work decorating them!  You are supposed to write your wishes for the new year on the lantern and then send them up.  

People who could write real Chinese wishes! 

 Our not so Chinese messages.

      Abe, Victoria, Robin, and Mike with their lanterns! 

    We were now ready to send off our lanterns.  With the help of the old man who sold them to us, we had the proper materials to set fire underneath and away it went!  It was pretty neat. Naturally there was also an ass load of fireworks going off at every moment, some pretty large ones that rained down around us. 

             There's our lantern somewhere up in the sky!

     The festival only went until 9, an early night right?  This is the time they stopped have huge releases of lanterns, you could still send off your own, and all the vendors shut down.  This is also the time all of the thousands of people wanted to get back on the buses that brought them to Pingxi and go into the city.  This equals massive lines with lots of waiting.  We weren't even sure when the end was, and there was a lot of security with those glowing sticks directing people this way and that.  We saw a gap and tried to jump in, but then some Chinese lady started bitching about us cutting in line.  She called the security over and we pretended to be stupid foreigners, cause really we are and we didn't even know where to go.  She pointed us in the direction of the end.  About a mile later we had reached the end, seriously! It was out of control.  There were 2 lines actually, one for if you wanted to sit on the bus, and one for if your just wanted to be crammed into a bus soon like a herd of cattle.  We chose the cattle option. 

         Almost exactly 2 hours later, we were finally on a bus back into Taipei.  It was 11 20, the MRT closes at midnight, usually, and the last train home to Jhongli left at 11.  Poopsick. We made it back to the Zoo MRT line where they drop you off, it was midnight, and figured we'd just grab a taxi here and cab it back to Jhongli.  Only a few minutes had passed of us waving around trying to flag down a cab before a woman informed us that the only taxi's that came to this area were by phone call only. "Would we like her to call one for us," she asked?  Well that would be simply lovely! (See, people in Taiwan really are nice!)  "Where are you going?" she wondered. "Jhongli."  Her arm went up to her heart like she was having an attack, "Aiiyo! So far!" She exclaimed!  Yes, yes, but it's our only option.  Well it turns out ALLLLLLLL the cabs in the city of Taipei were busy, or none wanted to drive to Jhongli, because she didn't have any luck on the phone. 

        We were in luck though, that the MRT was still running from where we were, the Zoo is on the outskirts of town, and since getting a taxi was clearly an issue, they were letting people take the MRT.  We got on, had in mind where we needed to get off. Ok. 

         Not ok, a few stops down, Abe realizes we should get off at the current stop.  We make a dash to hop off the subway. The doors start closing.  Mike slides through.  Greta is left behind. AH! (She says everyone rushed over to her on the subway after seeing what happened and was like "ohhh you will find your friend, here, call them, oh no!" They were very caring.) We left Greta on the MRT, it's now 12 30 am, and we don't speak Chinese! Greta is reasonably quite upset, and we call her and make a plan, we'll just take another line to meet up with her at a different stop.  Wellll no other lines are running. We call her back and tell her to get off at the next stop, we find some workers and get a map with the Chinese of that MRT stop, find a taxi, and we're off to rescue Greta!  

       WE FOUND HER! Good, we're already in a taxi, she'll just hop in and he'll drive us to Jhongli.  No, he doesn't want to go there.  We offer him 2,000 for the trip (about 60 US, over double the normal price). No go.  We get out and see a sign proclaiming, TAXI STAND.  Hooray! And there's an SUV taxi already sitting there, (there are 5 of us, remember) Double hooray!  The driver wasn't paying attention, he was just chillin' in the taxi reading a book.  We walk over and he looks up after we're all surrounding the vehicle and I thought he was gonna lock the doors and drive away, his face was really scared!  Good thing he rolled down the window, and said Ok when we told him we wanted to go to Jhongli! 

         Back in Jhongli around  1:45 am, who knew it only takes 25 minutes without any traffic on the highway!

Chiner

          We made it to Beijing and back. We were there for 5 days, and it was... an experience.  Just Anthony, Greta, and I went on this excursion together.  The trip started off wonderfully, upgraded seats to Business Class, thanks to Anthony's peanut allergies!  It went slightly downhill from the flight, and over the course of the next few days was very up and down. People were not as nice as they are in Taiwan, and I know it's my fault for not speaking Chinese, but it seemed like no one spoke English, or at least didn't want to speak English to us, which made it difficult to find anything on our own.  All the taxi drivers pretended not to know where our hotel was or any address that we showed them and tried to make us pay triple for a ride.  Such is traveling sometimes.  Oh and it was much colder than I had anticipated! I'm not used to this -13 degree (C) weather right now, with strong winds, and walking around outside all day, brrr! Thank goodness we had booked tours to take us to see many of the sights during the day.  A 3 day tour, lasting from 8am-5 pm each day was $116 US, including lunch!  What a score.  The tours were fun and the guides gave us a lot of information.  Like that they call China "Chiner," not on purpose of course.  So much that it's hard to recall all of it while browsing through my photos. Good thing for the internet, eh?
     We arrived in Beijing Sunday night so we didn't do too much, just walked around a bit and heard toooonnss of fireworks.  It was Chinese New Year's Eve after all.
       The first day of the tour we were in a little van with the 3 of us and only 1 other person, plus the driver and our guide, a lady.  The other person was a Korean guy, who was raised in Canada, that was in China for the holiday on a break from teaching English in South Korea.  What a chain.

Entering the site. 

Day 1.1  Ming Tombs
  This holds 13 tombs of Emperor's from the Ming Dynasty.  We left early and were really the only tourists there.  Groups started to arrive when we were on our way out.

A tree growing out of the wall

The slope down to the tombs, this is actually the exit. 

Where the coffin of the Emperor should have been, I forget why
it isn't there.  That's money that people threw there for him. 

9 nails across and up/down, lucky number for the
Emperor!  8 is the lucky number for commoners. 

Throne for the Emperor with side seats for people who wanted
to speak with him. 

Looking down the hall, with the diamond shaped entrance. 

Part of the original wall preserved.  They didn't have cement back then, so they made it out of sticky rice and dirt!

Exit doors, 9 nails again

Leaving the Tombs area 

The Emperor's belt made of jade. Wouldn't that cause his pants to fall, not stay up? Jade is really heavy!

What the money used to look like. That's why dumplings are now shaped like this, to resemble money pieces

The Emperor's crown.  Look, Anthony's wearing it!

Day 1.2 Jade Factory
Of course being with a group tour, they make you stop at these overpriced factories that they get paid to bring you to.  They were all interesting to see how things are made, though.

This ship is made entirely carved from jade. Freaking incredible!  It took 5 years to finish, with a price tag of 600,000 ish Yuan. 

Many statues and jewelry to see. 

Day 1.3 The Great Wall

The reason our group was so small the first day is because we chose to visit a different part of the Great Wall.  The 2nd day we were with a larger group, that had all been together the 1st day as well and did the same things as us, just a different stop at the Great Wall. We went to Mutianyu, almost an hour outside of Beijing, but there were hardly any people there, so no crowded groups to maneuver around.  The others went to Badaling, the most popular sight, closest to the city, but full of people.  They said it was insanely busy there. On the way up to the wall, we stopped for lunch in a little town/cluster of buildings. The bad thing about going to this location of the Great Wall was the bus trip up into the winding mountains, I starting feeling very car sick, and at some points both feared that I would throw up on myself, or that the van was going to plunge off the side of the road. The driver was crazy.

Riding the cable cars up to the wall. Rather frightening. 

We made it up alive! 

The treacherous "hike" up/down the wall. Quite tiring. 

Gorgeous.  Probably even better in the summer when it's lush and green. 

That track you see under the cable cars? It's the toboggan course we took down form the wall.  Just like this sign here says, tobogganing is so simple! 

A man at the end of the toboggan track, of course he later charged you for pictures. 

Anthony really wanted to hold the sword. 

Day 1.4 Fresh Water Pearl Factory

   They split open this oyster shell, around 20 pearls inside, maybe 3 or 4 that can actually be used to make jewelry and sell.  

Reminds me of the pigs we dissected in Anatomy. 

Day 1.5 Chinese Acrobat Show
  This show was incredible.  Many different acts, one after the other, showcasing the talents of a lot of dancers and performers!

He added chair by chair, stopping to do a handstand at each level.

They are holding on to the pole with their mouths on a spigot thing sticking out. OUCH

She is balancing, on his head, with one foot!

10 girls, 1 bicycle

There were 6 guys on motorcycles driving around in this ball. I was afraid to watch!

  Day 1.5 Chinese Cooking Class
   Greta found this online.  A woman holds these classes in a section of her house that is so cute and looks just like the cooking things I've seen on TV. We learned how to make traditional Chinese dumplings! Including the dough and how to fold them, it was a lot of fun, and then we got to eat it all at the end.  About 10 people in the class.  Sadly I didn't take any picture during the process, because my hands were busy and full of dough and such.  Greta took some at the end here.

Boiling in the wok 

Folded, sealed and ready for the wok 

Colorful and delicious!

Greta about to enjoy some dumplings!

Day 2.1  Tiananmen Square and The Forbidden City
    The walk through this whole area was very long, and it was early early again, but this time tons of people were already there.  It was freezing out, which made the tour through a bit less enjoyable than it may have been, but that's what you get for going to Beijing in January!

The axis of the city. Everything was built in a straight line according to this axis. 

In the square, behind us is the entrance to the Forbidden City 

One of the palaces in the Forbidden City. They all had the same design, it's hard to tell now what was what. But I think this is where the Emperor slept.

Huge "wells" of water in heated pots like this everywhere, in case of a fire.  Of course they needed to be heated because if not the water would freeze and thus be of no use if a fire broke out. 

A bridge

Cool stone formation with a hut on top

Greta is in front of what would be the moat around the Forbidden City 

Day 2.2  The Silk Factory
    We saw the stages of a silk worm, how they find the cocoons, pull apart the thread(s) and weave it or make blankets.

Day 2.3  Temple of Heaven
    This is bigger than the Forbidden City, and was built to use for sacrifices to heaven.  Emperor's considered themselves son's of God, so they didn't want to upset Him by building their palace area bigger than this place. Built in 1420 like most of the palatial places we visited.

The entrance 

Walk-way into the park area

Hundreds of red and gold lanterns hanging, the colors of luck.

My goober face all bundled up and the Imperial Vault of Heaven, the centerpiece

Check out that guy giving Anthony the crazy eye face

The Echo wall

Anthony yelling to the wall, we didn't hear much. Maybe we did it wrong.

Day 2.4 The Summer Palace
    On/near Longevity Hill and Kunming Lake.  Clearly meant for the summer time, with a beautiful blooming garden, in the winter still a wonderful view of the lake and a pretty place to walk around.

Frozen water

Parts of the lake weren't frozen, and there were ducks swimming in it

The outdoor corridor

Built so the Emperor's mother could sit out to read and look at the lake even on rainy days. How sweet.

A big arch

Day 2.5 Tea House

  We went to a tea house to sample and learn about different kinds of tea. They were delicious and a lot of people in our group actually bought stuff.  It wasn't too badly priced. I get plenty of tea in Taiwan though, so I didn't get any.  A big selling point was the "peepee boy" that came free with any purchase. A naked little clay boy that you pour water over his head and only if the water is 85 degrees C or higher it will shoot out of his penis, if it isn't hot enough, no pee stream.

      After the tour ended, we wanted to go eat duck somewhere.  Beijing is famous for it's Peking Duck. We tried to ask the hotel, and the concierge didn't speak English, he thought we wanted to eat dog.  No, no, duck, quack! Someone else had to translate. He wrote down the name of a restaurant in Chinese on a card for us, went outside to get us a taxi and after 5 minutes said that no taxi's could come down the street. Uhhh, ok? So we went in search of one ourselves, well none wanted to stop for us, or if they did stop to drop people off they shook their head and said "no" when we tried to get in.  After finnallly getting in one, the driver had no idea where the restaurant was, or so I gathered. We remembered seeing a duck place near a subway stop we had been at before, so we took our chances and went there.  It turned out to be a cool place, aside from all the cigarettes and ash all over the floor, smoking is allowed in, oh everywhere in China.  But it was good, and cheap.  Until the end when Anthony's lips started getting full of hives and itchy. eieeeee! I gave him some Benadryl and we left to find a taxi to get back the hotel quickly if it got worse.  Luckily he said it was ok, and we found a taxi. Even after showing him the Chinese address, from a card from the hotel, he claimed he didn't know where he was going.  Just trying to drive us all over to get more money! We had to try and give him directions on how to get back to the hotel, he was angry and not very kind.


Day 3.1  The Lama Temple
   Five big courtyards and many side rooms, this temple holds Buddhist and Tibetan things. Since it was right after CNE that we went here, many people were praying and giving incense to insure their good luck for the year.

Enter Lama Temple 

You weren't allowed to take photos inside the temples I guess, I took one of this gigantic statue before being yelled at "no photo!"

So much incense and smoke everywhere

Day 3.2 Rickshaw Tour
  We got bicycled around the back Hutong alley's of Beijing in a rickshaw. Yea, not such a good idea to sit in an open carriage when it's windy and cold, but they couldn't bike too quickly, and they gave us a blanket. The Hutong is narrow streets that wrap and wind around where the commoners live. It would be quite easy to get lost back there I believe.  The tour wasn't too long, and we had a couple stops to see some specials points.

In the rickshaw ready for business

Faster, faster, faster!

So this door is the entrance to one house, with a big step. 2  reasons for this huge step, 1. so if the sewers back up, no floods in the house, 2. Because the step is so high it requires you to bend your knee to get over it, zombies clearly lack knees so no zombies may enter. Seriously.

We went inside an old home to see what it looks like, with permission of course, and they carry this. Snakes festering in white wine, used for medicinal purposes of course. 

Day 3.3  Traditional Chinese Doctor

   They took us to this clinic to learn about the way Chinese people heal the body.  They believe in a ying yang balance even within the body.  The two elements are the liver and kidney, all other organs are related to one of the two.  Like ears, hair, bones if something is wrong with them, it's because something is wrong with your kidney's, so if you repair your kidney's, you're good.  They also focus more on preventive measure rather than fixing an ailment so much, if something gets bad then they use Western medicine.  So the Chinese Doctor doesn't use any instruments to "diagnose" you.  He only looks at you, observes, asks a few questions like how old you are, looks at your tongue, and feels your pulse on both wrists.  Then they can make an analysis of what would be going on inside.  I was actually pretty impressed as he went to Greta and did the steps, when he was done he said "You have frequent migraines don't you?" If you know Greta you know that she ALWAYS gets migraines, and has special medicine for them.  The doctor says he could tell just from feeling her blood. A little freaky.  Me?  He just said, oh you're young and healthy. No imbalances! 

Day 3.4  Panda House at the Zoo

   We made a brief stop at the zoo, just to see the Panda Bears.  We saw 5 pandas total.  First just a big one alone inside, then 2 little cubs playing and wrestling together, they were so cute!  Then outside there was a really old and deprecate looking one, the tour guide rushed us past him and said "he no beautiful, not look here." I felt sad for that mr. panda.  Then another big one outside that was pacing back and forth.  Pandas are so dirty, it looks like they have poo smeared all over their backsides, which really may be the case.  Can you tell which one is the old one?

Day 3.5 The Bird's Nest and Water Cube

    This is the site of the Olympic Games in 2008!  Which I learned Beijing pushed really hard to get the Olympics on 8.8.08 because if you were paying attention before you know that 8 is the lucky number for common people.  We went with the tour during the day, and it was cool to see, but another guy on our tour said the time to go was at night to see it all lit up.  We took pictures during the day there, and then went back the next night to see the lights, so we visited here twice.  Since inside the cube is tons of water, and it's actually a water park now, called "Happy Magic Water Cube Water Park," it requires a lot of maintenance and upkeep, 10 Million a year!! Eeeesh. It's a big tourist hit though, so maybe worth it? Probably not.  

Bird's Nest during the day

Water cube in daylight

It cycles through a bunch of colors

An Olympic tower in the area

Bam turn out the lights!

Woooo!

Day 3.6  The Legend of Kung Fu Show 

    Our tour guide said this Kung Fu show was not to be missed, and it was rated as the top show to see in Beijing as it includes dancing, singing, a story line, cool shit to see.  We decided to go! It was an interesting sho.  It's about the story of a monk growing up in the lifestyle of Kung Fu and the trials he goes through, you see a bunch of guys break iron rods over their own heads.. pretty intense!  

After the Kung Fu show, the tour guide had recommended a restaurant down the street from the Theater to get some good duck at.  We walked there, and they told us "no seats" we tried to ask how long, and they just kept saying "no seat, no seat." Well we wouldn't be eating there, so we found a taxi back at the theater and tried the card from our hotel again, and he seemed to know where it was.  After driving for a little while he stopped on a busy street with many restaurants and said "around here." He didn't have a meter running, but all other taxi's say a base of 10 Yuan and only 2 Yuan per km, and we had taken other taxi's, they are very cheap for an in town short trip.  He tried to tell us 60 Yuan. Yea right! "No, no, no" I said, "I give you 20." "20 each!" He spat back. "No, 20." He kept yelling about 60. Well I put 20 on the front seat and we all got out with him still yelling.  I'm over being scammed by the taxi drivers! He starting honking and still yelling while we just walked down the street with people yelling. Whatev's man! Turns out alll the restaurants we checked in this area also had long waits, it was supper time I suppose, so we walked around until we came across a subway and decided to stay away from taxi's.  We went to a stop with a big mall, one of the largest in Asia apparently, walked around in there a bit before getting frustrated again with not being able to buy any food from the food area because you needed some special card that we lacked and had no idea how to get.  Anthony was able to get something from a Vietnamese place, but Greta and I were ignored :( 

Day 4  SHOPPING and Snack Street

  Greta and I got up early to go shopping at the Silk Market.  They do sell silk, but also loads of other crap as well.  It's a huge warehouse with 7 floors and each floor has a different "specialty."  Pretty much it's like an outside market, just inside where people are trying to sell you everything.  And everything is a knock-off, but claims to be the real thing, and super cheap.  They have Coach, Prada, Gucci, North Face all sorts of "name brand" things.  But you have to work to get it super cheap.  Here you must bargain, it was kinda fun, but exhausting as well.  Like some rings I got, they tried to say 600 Yuan for 2, that's like 100 US.  I offer 30 Yuan.  They laugh, "Oh beautiful girl you joke." Then you say ok and walk away.  Ok 300 they say, .... 35 I offer. No no too low, be serious. 35 again.  ok ok 100. 40. back and forth until you reach an agreement.  I ended up at 50. Under 10 US.  As we walked through the "stores" they constantly yell "pretty lady, beautiful girl, come in and look, just look!" Some people get angry if the buyer is offering too low, like at a watch stand next to me, some foreign guy was apparently being rude but offering way to low. The woman working starts yelling "fuck you" over and over, but in  really bad English with a Chinese accent so it's all stuttery. 

Hello ceiling! 

    One lady I bought something from spoke English pretty well and was asking what we were doing in China.  We told her we were teachers in Taiwan, her response, "Oh, yes, a nice city." ... Taiwan is a country now, dear! 

    We shopped for 4-5 hours then went back to meet up with Anthony who spent the morning at a museum.  We made reservations at a restaurant that is rated the number one place to eat Duck at in Beijing, we still wanted to get some of this good duck!  The place was really impressive, the menu's were on iPad's and the chair's felt like thrones!  

They brought out the duck and carved it in front of us!

We passed the "duck room" on the way out. 

      After eating we took a walk down "snack street" where they sell all types of food from noodles and dumplings to fried scorpions, seahorses, starfish, worms, beetles, and then there's some fruit.  So yucky to look at! When they would pull the scorpions out of the fryer on the sticks and set them out, you could see them still wiggling around! Ahhhh. Greta and I wanted to try something different, but we couldn't bring ourselves to eat bugs, that can't be good for you! We went with a starfish, are you even supposed to eat them? Well we did, not the whole thing, but we tried it. It tasted weird.  Pretty fishy. Crunchy. Anthony couldn't have any because he might be allergic to the sauce on it... right! :) 

Hello Snack Street, and all these people 

Next, hello ick things on a stick 

What is that, a flying lizard?!

Good things on a stick, fruit!

Yum Yum!

Some more traditional foods 

Big, hairy, spiders. Black scorpions. 

Long worms, beetles.

My dessert!

It's... weird

This was the end of our trip.  Our flight left early the next morning, and we were running late as checking out of the hotel turned into a fiasco because "I didn't drink the 6 dollar bottle of water!" They kept saying it was open, well no one touched it, and I'm not paying for it! Sooo happy to be back home in Taiwan! Our taxi driver from the airport to our apartment was so nice, making an effort to speak with us in English, not trying to over charge and give us the run-around. The general consensus is, you've got some cool shit, but Boo China!