Finally! An update!

Hellloooooo. So, I hit a bit of a snafoo with the blog... the Chinese government blocked English blog websites! There were plenty of websites that ended in .cn rather than .com, but you guys wouldn't be able to access it. So, Denton to the rescue! He is posting these for me :)

Right now it's 10 am on Wednesday and Jerry, Huay, and I are in an internet cafe. I'm gonna run through the highlights of the past 48 hours or so:

1) Dim sum in San Francisco and seeing my main squeeze.. fantastic! Dim sum is a different kind of Chinese food than what we are eating in Beijing, so it wasn't like we were spoiling the start of the trip.

2) Rookie mistake #1: Taking Benadryl 3 hours before getting on the plane. I didn't realize how freakin fast acting that stuff is, on top of the fact that I was ALREADY tired.... and the fact that Huay was also sleepy (no sleep in 24 hours, looking more Chinese than ever... hard to tell if he was sleeping or not)..... well, it ended up being that Jerry was the perkiest out of all of us. We were sitting in the terminal and I was just thinking omg please just let us on the mother effing plane so I can see us take off and then pass out.

3) You'd think international flights would be on time, but no, we left freakin 35 minutes late. I did love my window seat, though. Oh, and the stares BEGAN.......

4) Holla to Affy.. tried to memorize some Gucci purses for you (they had the real thing in the airport)

5) Huay was put into the glass box of security at the airport! I guess his foot brace thingy set the detector off, because as I was gathering my stuff I look back and see Huay really looking like a lost little kid, with a face that said, "Help, what did I do wrong?" Everything turned out ok.

6) Rookie mistake #2: So apparently, the Chinese don't drink anything. Ever. When they do drink anything, it's in tiny ass cups. So I got one little thing of water with our first meal, and nothing until 6 hours later when I could barely swallow bc my mouth was so parched.. had to press the little attendant button. Oh, and you'd think Air China would hire SOME attendants that could speak SOME english... I asked one of them where the bathroom was and she looked like I had just cornered her with a gun. Yeesh. Buying bottled water in the terminal before we leave for home.

7) Yay for Muslim meals! My meals were better than Jerry and Huay's. Had some chicken, and some nice big shrimp. For some reason, they coated everything with curry? Luckily, I like curry. Also, it was really bland. Apparently, Chinese don't believe in salt. Imagine that.

8) Those 12 hours seriously flew by. The three of us were pretty much passed out the entire time. I think I read about 100 pages til my next Benadryl kicked in. Played some chess and air hockey on my ipod with the two boys.. good times. Woke up for food and that was pretty much it. They made us close the windows so it was plane-wide naptime. Not too shabby.

9) Sooooo. We landed. Now, I did not realize how serious these people were about the temperature thing and swine flu. We were at the gate but no one got up. All of a sudden, 3 or 4 masked, goggle-wearing official looking people boarded the plane and started pointing infrared guns at people's heads... to take temperatures of course. I figured that would be the last time they would do it but no, there were at least 3 more infrared scanners. Really, China, really? As if the first two... no no, THREE, wouldn't catch the fevers? There was this one guy on the plane that the officials lingered over... and we got so scared he had a fever. I considered throwing my HP6 at him (thinking that might teach him to get on an effing plane with an effing fever), but alas, they let us off the plane. They also don't believe in air conditioning an airport.... maybe they really WANTED us to look like we had a fever...... conspiracy!!!!

10) After 6 hours of being in Beijing, I counted 6 stares. Now, these are the ones that I blatantly caught. Oh, there were plenty more to come, just wait for it. Whether walking, driving, or biking, they make sure to stare at me for as long as they can. Hey, at least I'm providing some entertainment? :)

11) Jerry's dad is a freakin baller. We were on the subway, but apparently we got off at the wrong stop. So Papa Dong tries to get them to let us back in, and they refuse, of course. So, instead of just finding another way in, Papa Dong is like oh hellsssss no. Hold my girlfriends. He gets on the phone and calls the head honcho in the government in charge of subways. And he pretty much hands the phone to the guy and says owned. They let us back on. I felt immensely safer after this incident. We had friends in high places!

12) I am really starting to realize so many of the reasons why Jerry is the way he is. It's making me understand him so much more. More to come on this topic.......

13) Some guy was walking around the airport in boxers. Really?

14) Some taxi driver guy stood a foot from my face and asked me something in Chinese, even though he saw I was with three other Chinese folk. Really?

15) Adventures in taxi cabs. The two times we took long cab rides (one from the airport to Uncle Dong's, the other from Uncle Dong's the Papa Dong's), it was Jerry and me in one, and then Huay and Papa Dong in the other. And somehow it's always an adventure. Coming from the airport, the taxi driver didn't understand Jerry's directions. We had no phone, and Papa Dong's taxi had already driven off so we couldn't follow. So I just stared at the bright lights and said, no use worrying, we'll get there eventually. Something about Beijing is so calming, I don't really feel scared, even at night. It doesn't feel dangerous. The driver let Jerry use his cell phone, so we made it home ok. :)

16) I love Jerry's family. They are so nice. We have gotten home cooked meals up until this point, and a free place to sleep.

A few other tidbits:
-Chinamen like to show off their midriffs. And then stare at me as if my existence is weird, and their shirt up isn't. oooook.
-Pole dancing in the middle of a street full of bars? Wow.
-Really really bad karaoke-type singing. And getting really into it (I really really want to go to a Karaoke bar)

Two fails at Starbucks in China
-Green tea cheesecake (ew)
-attempting to order green tea cheesecake in chinese (the 'barista' was NOT amused)

-If you're 1.5 years old Chinese boy, and you're runnin around, havin a good time, but then, you realize you've got to itch. You've got an itch in your booty. You reach back, but alas! Your arms are too short. No worries, Super Mommy is to the rescue with a nice, game-saving scratch. Mmmm, that's better. (yes. that happened.)

-found my favorite corner in Beijing (so far) - good to watch traffic, little kids, and get my favorite sweet yogurt drink (25 cents!!!)
-apparently it's not just my American/white/not Chinese appearance, but also my NOSE that is weird (Jerry overheard one staring couple say, "look at her nose!!!") Thanks, China, for the self-confidence boost.


Today (Wednesday) we are headed to the Olympic Village. I'll try to update later! Sorry if some of this doesn't make sense but my time is running out!!!! Love everyone and miss you guys! Jah shomah khalee (your place is empty in Farsi!)

LOVE FROM TEAM CHINA,
L J H