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.