More pics

 You can buy baby bunnies at the mall!

Walmart and KFC

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Culture Street

Dictator fan, anyone?

FOOD

Mai Dong Lao (McDonalds)

McDonalds is pretty pricey here. If you're craving western food, you're gonna have to pay extra for it! Along with McDonalds, you can pretty much find Pizza Hut, KFC, and Starbucks on every block. A big difference is that the Pizza Hut in China is waaaay classier than in the US. People dress up to go to Pizza Hut.

 One of my new favorite foods is the Taro pie they have. It's bright purple inside. It think it is actually a root or potato like thing. It is 非常好吃！(fei chang hao chi) (delicious!)

Each city in China has a dish it's famous for. In Tianjin it's Bao Zi.

40 bao zi for 4 people is too many...

Bakery items are safe, cheap, and delicious!

When I don't have time to go to "Food Street" PB&J is my breakfast of choice.

Tea in China is beautiful and yummy!

And...... when in China.......

Bing Qiang Dao

Huge Shopping Street filled with TONS of people all the time! I guess westerners are a rare sighting, because we get stared at all the time and a lot of people try to discretely take pics of us.

5/26/2012

3. Today's Festivities.

Museum - The first thing we did today was visit the Tianjin Museum. Its architecture was pretty neat, and it had a lot of ancient artifacts, like scrolls, jade statues, and vases, that were from different time periods. When referring to a time period, they usually say the dynasty from where ever something is from, which makes me wish i knew the dynasties better.

Lunch - I was parched by the time lunch came around, so I decided to grab a quick drink at the McDonalds. My friend and I ordered a medium coke, but received an American size small. The portion sizes are definitely different here. 

One thing you should know is that everything in China is really cheap. Our meals usually cost between $.50 and $3.00. $3 is on the expensive side though. No matter what you pay for a meal, you usually get a pretty decent size portion.

You can find all kinds of food at the food court ( a lot of it still alive). Our communication skills are not at the ideal level, so ordering a meal for 11 people was quite the struggle. We eventually ordered about 5 dishes between us by just pointing at random things on the menu. It turned out pretty well and all the food was really good.

The Italian Town - Lots of brides, with a lot of crazy outfits. The town is super cute! They had a brewery, wine place, and a lot of adorable street venders! The town is covered in lights, so we will definitely be going back to check it out at night.

<<<Shopping - Our final destination was a "culture street." It was covered with stereotypical Chinese shops with a bunch of crazy stuff to buy. There was also a temple you could visit and burn incense.  I didn't get anything, but it might be a place we head back to.


4. Fun Facts

When driving around in our tour bus, our teachers would always point out which buildings were for the military. They always had some story about how a student was either messing with the guards or taking too many pictures of the buildings (a lot of the military buildings look like parks, so it's understandable). This behavior lead to the military coming to our hotel and arresting the student responsible and sometimes keeping them in custody for 10 days! They were giving us all kinds of warnings. Especially because they can't do anything about it if the Chinese military or police take you.

Their "orange juice" tastes like Tang and has fake pulp in it.
Their "milk" doesn't taste like milk, but it's not bad. It's a little sweeter.
They have a lot of peach and pear juice. Both of these also have fake pulp in it. They are super sweet and smell like medicine.

Weather -  One thing I DO NOT understand in China is why people wear pants all the time. It is at least 90 degrees F out everyday.

Because of all the smog, it always looks cloudy/foggy and at night you can't see a single star in the sky. It also always looks a little foggy where ever you go. It's supposed to be a rare sighting if you can see some of the blue sky. Needless to say, the air has already been rough on my lungs. People smoke everywhere in the city. I woke up with a really sore throat today and a little trouble breathing. Hopefully my lungs will adjust.

First Day in China

Artwork at the airport

1. Air Port

Alright, so the flight I was supposed to get on at 8:44 PM to LA was delayed 3 hours. This means we would have missed our connecting flight from LA to PEK (Beijing). So we went to the counter and they gave us a new, direct flight to Beijing at noon the next day. They gave us a free stay at the Hilton, food vouchers, and upgraded our seats. All seemed well, until we arrived in Beijing and realized they had lost our luggage. It's supposed to be here sometime after Saturday (which doesn't really help cause it has everything I could possibly need to survive in China).

Now, I understand why they have the one child rule. The air port was packed when we arrived. Lots of people with lots of signs.


2. Lesson One: Walking Across the Street

In China, one doesn't simply walk across the street. Contrary to Madison, cars have priority over pedestrians. The trick is to walk assertively at a constant pace so you don't throw off the timing of the cars or bikers. If you hesitate... just don't hesitate, and try to walk with at least one other person.