Scorpions, anyone?

September 5, 2008

Today was a pretty eventful day. Woke up at 6:30 with four fresh new mosquito bites. Joy! Quickly got ready to send my mom off to the airport. I'm on my own now, and where am I going to eat breakfast? Just kidding, well I am on my own, but a few of us have already decided where to go tomorrow morning...the cafeteria! We have to try it at least ONCE! After sending my mom off, it was time for the Chinese placement tests. They were fairly easy, similar to tests at Smith, however the summer had done away with my "Han zi" character memorization. Also, thanks dad for calling me three times during the test where I finally had to pick up right in the middle of it because "vibrate" was still extremely loud. Well, perhaps you were good luck, because I placed into Chinese 400, the most advanced class offered and I only needed Chinese 300 to get credit, yay.

After our lovely three hour examination, of which only required an hour after all that Smith training, we went to "Bamboo", a cheap Chinese restaurant nearby. Apparently, the service is terrible, but I thought our waitress was quite nice...they said it was because she was a newbie. I guess that's possible. It was indeed scrumptious as I helped the table order a second round of Zha Man Tou, or fried dough with condensed milk. (Like Thai donuts, Willy. hehe) Of course the guys ordered way too much to eat that we sent leftovers to the other table.

About an hour later, after learning how to ride the subway, our group arrived at Tian An Men (Gate of Heavenly Peace), the entrance to the Forbidden City. Some pictures, if I may...

Disclaimer: None of these photos were taken by me, but by Laura with the usage of my camera. We thought it was a good idea to switch cameras so every time I wanted a picture taken of myself she had my camera ready. Also, we realized we take a lot more photos on other people's cameras out of fear they will be unhappy with an empty memory card. So these are of the fantastic photography artistry of Laura Z.




Just a few pictures here... maybe I'll start a dropshots account or something of that sort.

We walked for a little while and came upon Wang Fu Lu... the street with the fried scorpions, fried starfish, kabobed lamb-penis, you get the picture... There are some GREAT pictures of this aromatic (of animal insides) street. As for me, I did not have the "pleasure" of trying fried scorpion, however I was tricked into eating Lamb penis... and after chewing and thinking it was calamari, my friends told me what I was eating... so I would have to say, not so bad tasting, but definitely bad thoughts... Ignorance really is bliss, or in this case, normality.


Starfish and scorpion.

"Hey, Cassie, try this, it's alright."
I previously suggested that they should try snake...so I thought that's what it was before I tasted it...Then I tasted it and said it tastes like calamari.
"Not too bad", said I.
"It's lamb penis"...
*gross face*

After wining and dining on the side of the road...we all had a little fun, really looking like foreigners.


We walked and subway-ed and walked and subway-ed to our final destination, the acrobatic show.
On the subway, I saw something I have never seen before in my life! OUTSIDE of the subway train's window (along the tunnel walls) commercials are playing, but of course at the speed you are going. If you don't understand what I mean...I've made a six second video. Let's hope it's viewable, because its such an ingenious idea!

[not sure when the video will be available]

The acrobatic performance was great, just like the ones I saw before. However, every single time I watch I have to hold my breath for all the balancing acts. It terrifies me that they are millimeters away from falling to bone breakage!

Well, its pretty late and we have a long day ahead of us...time to buy Chinese textbooks!

All the way from fried scorpion and lamb penis kabob land.
Until tomorrow,
Wan An (Night Peace)