Being in China and not speaking the language is like playing charades. It was pretty funny when the maid came and we tried to tell her our room was so hot and she was trying to tell us to open the window. As it turns out that didn't help and we had to go through the same conversation three more times wiith different people. Another funny charade game we had was when we were trying to buy paper and a pencil with an eraser.
We ate Chinese noodles last night for dinner. We met someone who spoke English very well who helped us order an MSG free meal. It was great food and we had a fun conversation with keiko. At the LA airport i slipped some plastic forks into my bag for such an occastion, but I forgot them at the hotel. As the entire restaurant watched us eat with chop sticks, I decided this could be Bonnie and my new diet. The chop stick diet~~very little actually made it into our mouths and what did took a long time. Sounds like a perfect diet.
We seem to attract quite a bit of attention whereever we go. Yesterday Bonnie was the only other white person I saw outside of the hotel. Little children like to come up to us and wave, other people just stare. It is kind of hard to not act like a tourist when you have blonde hair and everyone else has black.
While walking around the market yesterday we decided we want to try some interesting food that they were making. We will be doing that in the next day or so. We also figued out the money comparison between here and the US. So far we haven't purchased anything but food.
Beijing is a fairly clean city. There are guards ....men in unforms for everything There is a guard as you enter the grocey store who does not let you take pictures of weird looking fruit and guards at the banks. Out here no one drives up to a bank. The entry way is gated and the guards only let certan cars through.
Very few people speak English and the ones who do are a little shy. We saw some teenage street dancers yesterday who we thrilled that we would sit and watch them dance...we even clapped for them. It was fun to see them try extra hard to show us their dance moves.
People out here can not get on facebook.. the government has it blocked. In our conversation at dinner we learned that the Chinese peopple can have two children if the first child is a girl. They can have more if they are willing to pay a fee.
So far we are having a great time.. typing on the kindle is a little tough..so please forgive the errors. I think i will take a nap before the sun comes up....wish me luck!
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