11.12.09
I woke up about 4 hours after I went to sleep so I could make my trip to Beijing. I gathered my stuff and went to the garden lounge for breakfast. There was some drama about my bag because the frame was a little bit large. So I changed bags to be safe (I would have been fine, but whatever).
We got on the bus and headed to the airport. All of us were looking really rough – especially those who went out the night before. Caroline hadn’t even gone to bed yet.
At the airport, we got checked in and boarded. Once we were all situated in our seats, they made an announcement that we were going to be delayed for an hour – great. So Kelsey and I talked and such until we were finally able to take off. The flight took about 3 hours and was really bumpy. I have never seen so many people go to the bathroom on a flight before and completely ignore the seatbelt sign. The flight attendants were all buckled in and people were just walking around. And they were gathering in front of the doors and the cockpit. In the States, a person would be side tackled and probably injured in some way. The whole Chinese way of flying was a little bit ridiculous. Also, Kelsey had a kid behind her. She got kicked in the back, her hair pulled and elbowed. It doesn’t help that she is blonde so people stare at her normally.
We landed in Beijing and were greeted with 3 inches of snow! Boo cold weather! It was  -1 degrees Celsius or roughly 28 degrees Fahrenheit. Going from Hong Kong where it was hot and humid, it was total shock to our systems. This is the first time we have really encountered cold, cold, weather. It sucks
We met our guide and they are so cute. They showed us to our nice warm bus and we began our trek in Beijing. I missed the 1st half of the bus ride because I took a 30 minute power nap. I was exhausted. We drove past the Bird’s Nest. It is HUGE! It is way bigger than I thought it was going to be. We also saw the Water Cube, which is a lot smaller than I thought it was going to be.
We eventually arrived at the summer palace – our destination. I had jeans, tennis shoes, t-shirt, long sleeve t-shirt, a hoodie, and a scarf and I was still freezing. The palace was really cool though. Kelsey and I wondered around a bit. I found some Oreos, which was great because I was starving and it was Oreos. We wondered some more and ate some more. There were these awesome Panda hats. Of course I wanted one. I asked our guides what the normal price is and they said 10-20 yuan ($1.50-$3.50). I eventually bargained this woman down from 40 to 20 so I bought one and I had no small bills, so I gave her a 100. I got my change and I was happy with my new panda hat, which I affectionately named Ping (which means “safe” in Cantonese, but I didn’t know that when I named him. I was channeling more Mulan when she is pretending to be a man). We wondered a little bit more and saw a lake with a pretty pagoda type buildings. It was even prettier with all the snow. We were looking for the marble boat because that is where we were meeting the bus. We ran into Leslie, MacGarrett, and Ana, which is good because we were totally lost. We just walked together and looked around.
We eventually found the marble boat, which is exactly what it sounds like. A bunch more people had bought panda hats so we took a big group picture. Next thing I know a big group of Chinese jump in the picture with us. It was pretty awesome.
We walked back to the bus and passed a woman riding a bike with a rusty steel drum/trashcan on the back. She was roasting sweet potatoes on top of the trashcan. It was probably one of the best sweet potatoes I have ever had. She put about 5 potatoes in a bag and we divided them out. Then we feasted on their newly found food. Because of this I have realized that sweet potatoes roasted on a rusty trashcan on the back of the bike would be one of the best ways to get warm on a cold day. I really want to bring rusty trashcan sweet potatoes back to the US.
We got back on the bus and went to the hotel to check in. On the way there, we all started looking at our money and it turns out all of us got back Russian Rubbles instead of Chinese Yuan. I ended up with a fake 50 (~$8). Damn the panda hat lady. Its actually pretty funny when you think about it. Chalk it all up to experience. And if I ever go to Russia at least I have 50 rubbles.
We got to our hotel, which is on the Peking University campus. Peking University students are our hosts. Olivia and I are roommates. We went to the room and dumped our stuff. Our room was freezing. We tried to figure out the heater, but it was not very powerful. We turned it all the way up in hopes that it would warm up while we were gone.
We went back to the lobby and went to dinner with our hosts. We went to a restaurant on campus.  On the way to the restaurant, Kelsey thought it would be a great idea to hit me square in the face with a snowball. Yep, she is so nice haha. The Chinese table is very interesting in that they serve you about 20 different dishes and they are all on a lazy susan in the middle of the table and you just spin until whatever you want is in front of you. I am really not sure what we ate, but most of it was good. There was one vegetable that looked like tree. I stayed away from that, but Kelsey said it was good.
After dinner, we went to another building on campus and met some more Peking University students. I sat with an adorable girl named Alice, who spoke amazing English. We chatted about life. She is a law student and a senior. I felt that some of the questions we asked were somewhat inappropriate and she had no idea what we were talking about – especially the one child policy. But she has a boyfriend and is super sweet.
Alice walked us back to the hotel because we had no idea where it was. Once we got to the hotel, we said goodbye and I went and showered. Our room was still freezing. I bundled up and jumped in the bed. It was still chilly so I called the front desk. After some explaining, a girl came up to the room to try and help me. She didn’t really speak any English so after some hand gestures and her climbing up on a chair to try and fix the heater, I eventually told her to forget the heater and just bring us more blankets. The beds didn’t have any sheets. Just a fitted sheet and then a feather comforter. I ended up with two comforters and I was nice and cozy. I turned on the TV to find Taylor Swift. As I sat there watching the “You Belong with Me” video, I realized that those uniforms in the football scene looked really familiar. Then I put it at JPII. At a close up shot I was able to see the JPII logo on the uniforms. I would realize that in China.