Bye Bye, Beijing!

These past 4 days have been a whirlwind of activities – as much as I'm sure we missed a couple of things here and there, we hit everything major and I think got a pretty local taste of the city as well.

As of this morning, we had one major area we had to hit – Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. We walked over from the hotel and sadly didn't stumble upon anything delicious to eat for breakfast as we had every other day. We had to prioritize though, so on we trudged. The square was centered under a gigantic picture of Mao; it was a not so subtle reminder that China is always watching. It actually seemed that China was watching us in particular, as we were asked to be in an unreasonable number of pictures this morning. I got so used to it that at one point, when someone asked me to take a picture of them, it took me until the camera was dangling in front of me to realize that they didn't want their friends to know they met a real, live American.

[Lauren had me take a picture of her with one of our fans so we could show people that stuff like this does actually happen. Unsurprisingly, she chose to capture the moment she shared with a weird, middle-aged dude who didn't even smile in the picture as opposed to the fun English teachers who seemed barely proficient themselves, the old woman I've dubbed Mama China, or the many other less strange options.]

Obviously, the weirdest thing about Tiananmen was the fact that there was no indication or acknowledgement that a massacre ever occurred there. I didn't want to think about it too much because I felt like Mao's picture would know and I would end up getting arrested, but considering the square such a positive place and that they hold so many celebrations there is so weird.

We crossed the street to head into the Forbidden City – before entering we noticed two very important things. While trying to find tickets to enter the city, we found there was a kiosk that was selling tickets to enter the square, which was weird as we had just come from there without paying anything. Oops? We also noticed the same woman who was climbing the Great Wall yesterday in heels (who I took a picture of) sitting uncomfortably outside of the Forbidden City. We knew it was her because she was wearing the same outfit – Lauren promises me that this is a thing. I'm guessing that if she's in Beijing visiting she's likely seriously regretting her singular outfit choice.

[I took another picture of her in an incredibly obvious way. Imagine yourself scrolling down to the other imaginary picture of her, making a comparison to confirm for yourself what we already know, and laughing in disbelief.]

We entered the city and it was beautiful, but frankly a bit redundant. There were some pretty important people there it seemed, however, when Lauren asked the hired Chinese bodyguards who they were protecting they told her that they didn't know, but they think he's from Africa. Who knows? Perhaps we saw someone really important. We decided to spend most of our time in the city outside the beaten path though, after trying to get up close to see a temple and nearly being trampled by tourists. Not worth it.

[We didn't take all that many pictures in the city, but there are a couple of nice ones you could imagine yourself appreciating.]

We ended up finishing the city earlier than expected and had some time to kill before meeting up with Lauren's other friend from the basketball team who she met at Wash U. for lunch. We decided to head back to the Pearl Market and try to get some good deals, and grabbed a small breakfast because we really can't go very long without eating.

This will likely not come as a surprise, but today I reminded myself that I love to haggle. Since I can now count in Chinese and learned to ask "How much does this cost?" I felt prepared going in. I had a great time and made a few purchases that I'm pretty excited about. Lauren described me as ruthless, but she drove a pretty hard bargain herself, so I think this might just be a case of the pot calling the kettle black.

[I have a picture of the two of us in front of a big, allegedly famous black pot from the Forbidden City. I haven't decided if this would be funny or drag out an already tired cliché too long.]

With our purchases in tow, it was off to lunch. We met Tyler at the same subway station that we had met her other friend at the other night for duck. We went to a restaurant that was nearby and it was delicious. I didn't take any pictures of the food, but there was a lot of t and it was all delicious. We got salmon sashimi, some beef with peppers and onions, an omelet sort of thing, some beef with various sauces, sushi, eggs with pork and bbq sauce, and possibly something else. We were talking a lot about the differences between the United States and China – everything from safety, to real estate prices, to gun laws, to partying habits. This last one was surprisingly interesting as we learned that 1. Shotgunning is not a thing in China. (Well, apparently now it is – Tyler said he brought it back from Wash U. when the team went to visit.) and 2. That Stan, Lauren's other friend, had decided to study abroad and go to Europe purely as a result of the party he had attended while at Wash U. Strange, but true. Who knew that a single college party could be so eye-opening? I also liked when we were comparing foods and Tyler talked about how his favorite American food was Taco Bell. He was nice enough to pay for our meal, and make sure we headed out in time to catch our flight!

[The picture I would have put here would have been an adorable one of Lauren and Tyler. You would note the large height difference between the two and realize part of the reason why Tyler is such a good basketball player.]

I really enjoyed meeting all of Lauren's friends – aside from minor communication difficulties, we all got along great and it gave us the chance to experience the city in a much more personalized way – I felt a little like a local. It will like be very different than this coming week where we'll be tourists with a capital T, complete with our own tour guide and driver.

Once we checked out of the hotel and got to the airport, we were still a little nervous that the company with which we booked our tour didn't actually exist and that the whole thing was a scam, however, as I wrote the majority of this sitting on a plane, I am fairly certain that this is not the case. Although the plane was a little late, the ride was a little bumpy, and the food was a little rough, we made it!

We were met at the airport by our tour guide for part for Chengdu, Cici. She was not at all what I expected – she appears to be a 20-something and was dressed super casually. She seems very friendly, and even bought us a piece of cake – we love her already! She brought us out to our driver, Mr. Joe, who brought all of us to our new home for the next couple of days. Mr. Joe does not drive some sort of taxi or van as one would expect from a tour, but instead, what I have a feeling is his personal Honda Accord. As I one day dream of owning an Accord (a dream which I am not ashamed of), I was pretty excited and weirdly alright with the fact that the only thing verifying that these people were legit was a red piece of paper Cici was holding at the airport. Since our hotel reservation did in fact exist, I am once again secure in the feeling that our tour is actually happening and additionally that we are going to learn all about what Chengdu has to offer from a guide who will likely be more stylishly dressed than I am.

Although we've just arrived, we're about to go to sleep. We need to be at our best for when our adventure officially begins tomorrow in a way only the best Chinese adventure can: by seeing some pandas!