(6/19) First, I must apologize to China, for I have betrayed my host country:
I know...it's embarrassing. If it makes it any better, I was firmly against going, but conceded in the end. Also, when compared with the rest of the food in China, Maidanglao (as it is called here) is more expensive, and honestly, their fries didn't have enough salt and greasiness. MORAL: don't go to American restaurants in China (duh).
(6/20) I don't know if my next dinner was a step up or down the ladder, but it sure was interesting. We noticed this after we sat down:
It was probably a poor choice to stay and eat, but we did, because we're reckless college students.
(6/21) Shopping for clothes in China is a little bit (ok a lot a bit) overwhelming, especially at the cheaper places. You walk in the a multi-story building and encounter this:
Over and over and over again. You can't really tell from the picture, but this aisle is probably a quarter of a mile long. This building only had three stories. The one next door has five or six. Too many clothes, couldn't function. As a result, nothing was purchased.
That night we went to see an acrobatics show with the CET gang. Me being extremely cynical, I believe that all the performers are rejects from the Chinese Olympic Gymnastics Team. Despite that, they were wonderful and extremely talented. It did help that we were sitting in the front row. Lots of attractive, strong Chinese men (there were woman too, but they weren't
nearly as interesting) do amazing feats with their bodies. It was quite an enjoyable show. And a tourist trap if I've ever seen one. I think the theatre contained the highest concentration of waiguo ren (Non-chinese) I had yet to see in Beijing. Here are a few samplings from the evening:
Yes, that is something like 15 girls on one bike. Because that's what bikes were made for.
(6/22) This afternoon, we went to
the largest bookstore I have ever seen. I was in heaven. And also in hell, because there were four floors of
Chinese books. Which would be awesome if my Chinese weren't at the level of an elementary schooler.
It's called Beijing Book Building. Yes, the
entire building is a bookstore. It was truly magical, even for an American like myself. A few of my finds (some of these were purchased):
There were also many classics (in Chinese) like Shakespeare, the Odyssey, and lot of Hemingway. One of my friends purchased a few Stephen King novels (in Chinese) as well. It was a task finding anything in the bookstore. I was lucky to stumble upon what I wanted, because searching for books takes what seems like years. They have different sections of the bookstore, but the books within these sections didn't seem to my organized in any logical fashion. And there was the issue of reading the actual titles. Most of the international books had titles in English on the front of the books, but not of the spines, and all of the authors names were in Chinese. Without my Chinese-English dictionary I would have been completely lost.
I believe we are going to a sushi restaurant this evening and then perhaps to a Karaoke bar...I promise to update later. The adventure continues.
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