Day 26 started out as a pretty relaxed day. Nick and Dom decided to go out and get a haircut on Sunny Block and so I decided not to go out until they reached the subway station. So about 3 o clock, I headed out. Trying to catch a taxi to the subway station, I realized that my translator app wasn't working....so I messaged the others asking for the Chinese word for subway. Nick called me, and I told him I was on my way, and decided to just wave the subway card at the driver until I was understood. Not the most efficient thing, but I got there....
At the station, I decided to try a blueberry juice drink that wasn't half bad in order to get me through the hour ride there. I chatted with Nick most of the way, enjoying the scenery as well.
When we got there, we walked toward the memorial site for where the Japanese had bombed the Chinese during World War 2, getting lost a couple times, but finding out that they had closed just a few minutes before. We took a mental note of where it was, and headed toward the DC Comics store that Dom had seen a while ago with the Chinese girl who had taken him out on the town.
We walked in the store, and saw lots of hats, scarfs, and figurines. There were plenty of Batman and Superman goods, but not as many of other superheroes. I thought about getting something for my friend who loves Batman, but decided against the price tags that converted to $30 US or more.
We made our way around the mall, going into the H and M for a while, with the guys oohing and aahing over a lot of the clothes there, as well as the Vans store, a couple other chain stores, and a lot of eccentric stores as well. After that, we made our way back to Jiefangbei to eat at the Tex Mex place that we had seen yesterday.
Getting there, we all ordered our drinks (a non-alcoholic Pina Colada for me), and decided on the Irish Nachos as an appetizer. They were fries with all the nacho toppings, and they were greasy, American style waffle fries, making them absolutely delicious. I also got some BBQ pulled pork tacos to enjoy. Overall, the drink wasn't that great, but the food was really good, so I know that it's a reliable place when I'm craving some tacos or nachos.
We wandered around some more, even going to a Dairy Queen (my first time at a Dairy Queen), and with the help of taking pictures of the menu, ordered an Oreo Blizzard. We found an Asian cowboy (which is great because there is an Asian cowboy on UC's campus too) and he was a really great singer!
Starting to head toward the subway station, there was also a huge temple that was blocked off from people going in. We toyed with the idea of jumping the fence, but I thought that it wasn't worth the risk, despite the boys' teasing.
The temple
We wandered out shops, window shopping (which the guys like to do more than Jessica or I, actually), including the Adidas store, a jeans store, a home goods sort of store that had announcements piped in in French.
We ended up walking to the international movie theatre to see what was playing, and found out that there was Rogue One and Passengers on with the help of the movie photo book. Will had told us that all American movies were still in English, but subbed with Chinese, so we could still understand it. Before that though, we had wandered around the mall, with Dom drawn like a magnet to the Italian café (which he said had cheese...so we may end up going back), and we found this strange Americana store. Outside was this strange diorama of old Americans that threw me off. But going inside was also very strange. There were lots of pop culture and Disney references from America, model cars, and even New York and Las Vegas keychains (which I'm convinced that they bought mass quantities of and brought them to China.)
Strange American mural (very antiquated clothing....)
Heading home, we got back on the subway. To our chagrin, they evacuated the subway twice on the ride back. Each time a new one came up, it was more crowded, and we realized that they were trying to combine the subways together late at night so they could make less stops. So we went from having a comfy seat on the first one to no seat until one stop before the end....But anyway, we made it back, and too tired to walk, we took a taxi home (which are only $1.50 in US conversion, by the way).
Day 27, I decided to save for myself. I wasn't feeling up to going all the way across town and back with Greg, and the others, so I decided to stay around the neighborhood. In the morning, I worked on philosophy homework, restarted on learning French after a semester of not learning it, since I had finished learning Python on Thursday, and just fooled around. Around 3:30, I made myself go out for some fresh air.
I had left my bike on Campus D last Wednesday, so my first order of business was getting that. I walked across campus, trying to grab it. Since I was already there, I decided to stay on campus for a bit longer and finish my drawing of the pond. I got really lucky, and saw some of the swans eating while I was there as well.
There was a group of Chinese girls who came down the path that I was sitting on. They were giddy at the sight of me, and I greeted them with a smile. Going back to my drawing, one of the girls started to say something to me, but started to hesitate. I told her it was fine, and for her to take her time, but she said never mind and ran off. A bit discouraged, I continued coloring. But a little bit later I heard the girls come back, and start to say something in English. I figured that they were going to come down again and ask me what they wanted to the first time. Two of them did come down, but decided not to say anything even after I smiled at them, and walked away again. I sat there for about another 20 minutes and then decided to go get something to eat.
Actual pond
Finished drawing of the pond
I decided to explore around a little bit, and I went out a different pathway from normal. I went out to see what types of stores and restaurants were around. I was going to go into one of the restaurants, but realized that they were all very overpriced, and the one I was getting ready to walk into had pots in the middle of the table, similar to hotpot, and I definitely couldn't go by myself. So I decided to head to Sunny Block.
I biked around, surprised at how dead it really was, and how many people had gone home for the break. I decided to go to the dinner place that was right by the grocery store. It was a self serve sort of thing, where there is a line of food, and you point at what you want. I got a chicken dish, sliced carrots, rice with vegetables, and a type of oily chicken vegetable stew. I took some of the rice and stew back home with me, and ate the two tiny mandarin oranges I had brought with me from home.
One of the tiniest oranges in the world
Afterwards, I bought a slice of chocolate cake from the nearby bakery (which turned out to be chocolate cherry cake to my delight) and started to head home. I decided to cut through campus when a guy biked up to me, and said hello to me. I responded similarly, and he started speaking Chinese to me. I apologized because I didn't understand Chinese, and he tried to speak a little bit of English, but didn't do well. One of the few things that he did say well was that I was beautiful. I thanked him, but it definitely threw me off. He biked back to the apartment with me....so I was a bit weirded out, but before I used my key fob to go in, I made sure that he also lived there. We biked in together, but at the first intersection we parted ways and I breathed a sigh of relief.
After a couple hours, Jessica got home from her adventure with the boys, I found out that she had had to take pictures with guys who also told her she was beautiful and regaled some of her other tales from the night. We realized that here, if a girl is with a guy, people automatically assume that they are dating....
I worked a bit on the blog and watched some anime, before going to sleep.
-Zoe
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