Last week (Monday I think) I decided to go for a short stroll after dinner, because it's all the rage here in China and I hadn't exercised for ages. I was planning just a little stroll, maybe twenty minutes or so. An hour and a half later, I finally got home! Yeah... I got lost. I ended up walking along side on the ring roads, which one I have no clue. All I can say is thankfully there are footpaths alongside the road. It was looking a little touch-and-go for a while until I realised where exactly I was. Also a little scary - it's incredible how different two neighbouring areas can look. I was only one main road over from my street, and the area looked like Germany at the end of WW2! Buildings falling down or in varying states of disrepair, no street lights... There was even a family huddled around a little bonfire on the side of the road. Just weird. I probably wont be going walking that way any time soon, but at least I know it takes over an hour to walk around 'the block'.
I found a nice little sandwich bar at uni (well, Mega found it and dragged me along). 15元 and 25元 for 6 and 12 inch subs respectively (relatively "expensive" in Beijing, but half price compared to Subway back home). And dare I say it, it was almost better than Subway. The store next door also sells the most amazing home-made lemonade for 10元 a glass (I know, steep, but worth it). I managed to down 3 glasses over the course of the day, as well as a 12 inch sub and some chips that we shared. We met two Chinese girls who were sitting next to us, one of them asked me how to spell 'precious'. Turns out one girl's name was Soso... Yup, like "How are you?" - "I'm so-so". The other girl didn't have an English name, so we named her May because she was born in May (original, I know). So they helped us translate the Vogue magazines that we were reading, and we talked about fashion for a few hours. THEN after eating all day, we managed to ate dinner as well (then called Mum for Mother's Day - she thought I had forgotten... ehh, well I sorta had until I finished dinner). Awesome lazy Sunday.
We tried out a new restaurant (just one street over and a few blocks down from my place, for the kids playing at home). (I cant remember the name but I'm working on it). The kids who went: Jiwu, Gaoshan (both Japanese), Aishanxin (Turkish), Andri and Candra (Indonesian), Li Lumei (Korean) and myself. We had booked our own private room (and by "we", I mean Li Lumei, as the restaurant is very famous for its Korean-style Chinese food). The private rooms are much better - more privacy, air conditioning, your own designated fuwuyuan (waitresses)). And you get to cook your own food! Each place at the table has its own "hotpot" for lack of a better word. It's basically a pot of spicy watery soup sitting over a flame, and you cook whatever you want. We had a selection of dishes: beef slices, "ham" (it was really Spam), lamb slices, fish balls, beef balls, flat rice noodles, cabbage, herbs, Chinese cabbage (bok choy)... I think that was it. You just choose what you want, drop it in the boiling soup, wait for it to cook then eat! You even get a very stylish apron to wear. And all the beer you can drink (pity I don't drink beer).
We're going back on Friday for Candra's 21st birthday party. It was his birthday yesterday but Monday is a hard day to celebrate on, seeing as we have class Tuesday at 8.30am. I also heard on the grapevine that we're going dancing in Sanlitun, so expect photos!
Candra's mini-party in class that we held today:
And more photos from Hongluosi:
Everyone looking a little sleepy on the way home
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