Dinner with 兆凯 and Luke

Today I got Korean BBQ with Luke and Zhaokai, so delicious! It's always great seeing 故人 (old friends). We caught up with what's going on in our lives recently and enjoyed our meal and then had some nice fruit smoothies/hot chocolate. Zhaokai is just so fashionable now!

I got to close the doors to the Forbidden City.

I got the rest of my grades back and I did really well in speaking and Comprehensive (damn you listening...). Whoooo, I can definitely notice my speaking and listening (in real life) improving. And writing too. I can communicate like a normal person, instead of a 5 year old!

I also found a new apartment because the lease is up on this one on the 29th (in the middle of the week, strangely enough) and because a) the heating in this apartment is terrible b) there may or may not be cockroaches and mold in parts of this apt c) I found one with a non chinese bathroom!!! d) this is right by a major intersection in Haidian which means it's constantly loud and the only quiet time I have heard so far is from 4-5 am.

*for those that don't know: Chinese bathrooms are basically bathroom with the toilet and the showerhead next to each other without separation, and there tends to be really bad drainage for the shower. I'll take a picture and put it up.

This weekend was pretty amazing. :) Friday I went to this really good South Korean place with my friend Mei Lan and we got cake afterwards at this hidden place. :o I spent Friday night with my friend Christy making food for her class on Saturday morning and we made cupcakes and had a SNL night. Saturday I finally went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. I went with my classmate from Allegheny, Luke. We joked around and had fun. The Forbidden City was mainly cleared out which was awesome! Here are some pictures:

After that I ended up getting dinner at this really 好吃 place with Christy and we met up with our friend John and Lush. Lush was pretty crowded so we ended up going to Pyro and just getting a pitcher. Pyro had a throwback playlist of feel good songs, so we were singing and having a good time for most of the night. John then decided that he wanted to go to this club next door, Propaganda for ten minutes. Of course we ended up staying there for longer, but it was possibly the worst dj-ing I have ever heard.

Sunday I went to BICF and then we all grabbed lunch at La Bamba, which has the cheesiest quesadillas in Beijing. It's an okay place but it smells kind of bad. :/ I met up with some friends at Lush and then I went shopping for gifts for friends and family with Mohammed at YaShou market in Sanlitunr.

Overall successful weekend.

Mongolia!

Mongolia trip:

Saturday: We left by train in Beijing to go to the capital of Mongolia, Hohhot. It was a 11 hour train ride, but we had a blast. Chinese ramen + cards + a lot of free time = a grand ol’ time. Also leaving at 9 pm counted as a tour by train.

Sunday: We got there around 7-8 am. We were shepherded to the buses where we proceeded to sit for about 3 hours without knowing why. (Later on we learned 3 people missed the train, so around 90 people were waiting for 3 people.) Jack and I decided to go take pictures at a really cool square we found. Then we convinced Luke to come because we were just sitting there. We took some baller pictures that I will upload. Then the girl sitting next me on the bus game me this peanut butter/nutella mix on bread. I was honestly in heaven. We were then on the bus for another 2 hours where we made a pit stop at California beef noodles. However we didn’t eat here and then drove for another hour or 2 before we got to lunch which was pretty good. In the middle of the table there was just this creepy looking fish. I tried it later on, it was pretty good. Also this was beginning of a lot of the Montau…..which is like a doughy bread ball, but nowhere near as good. Then we were on the bus for another hour or 2 more to get to the desert. (Theme of the trip so far – live on bus).

The desert was awesome!! It was this pretty unknown Mongolian theme park for the desert and we rode camels, raced atvs, chilled with our sandy shoes, saw awesome sand sculptures and many more things. Late at night we then went to another restaurant which was basically the same meal as lunch minus the creepy fish. We thought we were going to stay in yurts that much, but not really. We ended up staying in this hotel in the middle of nowhere :o

Monday: MY BIRTHDAY!!!! On my birthday we went to the Ghengis Khan Mausoleum in the morning and then in the afternoon we explored a temple. Aaand then we got to the grasslands where I stayed in a somewhat traditional yurt for my birthday! Except for the fact it was pretty cold (read below 0 degrees celcius) and our yurt was a) made out of cloth and b) had broken windows. SO COLD. Me, Jack, and Luke all slept in our jackets and together. My night outfit: Sweatpants over my jeans. My Russian hat. Fleece over sweatshirt over underarmour over shirt. It was a pretty tame birthday.

Tuesday: Fight with the tour guide because he tried to screw us over. To summarize, we bought 1200 kuai tickets that were not all inclusive, but included transportation, hotels, food and most activities. There was a 1900 kuai ticket that was all inclusive, but it was a blatant rip off. We told the man that we wanted to buy our own tickets because they were a lot cheaper for students so they would only be 240 kuai for the desert thing instead of the 310 that he was charging for it (aka full price). He ended up buying our tickets even though we specifically told him not to. He forcibly dragged us through the line and away from the ticketbooth and then tried to screw us over with those tickets. Not happening. We ended up only giving him 265 kuai later. Instead of horseback riding in a caravan for 2 hours we went hiking and found a bunch of cool stuff and met a potato farmer. After this we took a bus to the “handicraft” factory which was basically them trying to sell us mass produced crap. Then we took the bus to Hohhot and chilled until our train. We found this cool lantern festival and I have a great story to come back and edit in.

Wednesday: Back in Beijing!