Ni hao from Beijing

I apologize for not having many pictures from today.  We did some travelling to get to Beijing.  I plan to try to answer some of the questions from my Seneca students today and will hopefully have some great pictures of the Great Wall for you tomorrow.

I did get up and run on a little track across from my hotel.

Many people were there walking (forward and backwards).  There were about 4 table tennis tables – and all were full!  There were many people on exercise equipment too. .

I got to Beijing around 2pm and saw the Bird’s Nest and Cube on my way to the hotel.  It was a little smoggy – the air had a slight fogginess to it.  I haven’t really found it hard to breathe here, though occasionally in Nanjing I could feel the air very heavy.

Here are some answers to my students’ questions:

My favorite experience so far was talking to the middle school students in Wuxi that we taught our lessons to.  They were so enthusiastic.

The biggest fashion that we have seen has been women wearing knee high boots with dark tights and long shorts over top.  It may take a while to get that one to Lafayette!

I did eat sushi (on Thanksgivng Day!)

The food is very different.  There are very few raw vegetables.   Everything is cooked.  No salads.  A lot of protein like fish, beef, and pork.  Rice and noodles are served at the end of a meal only to fill you up if you did not get enought to eat with the earlier foods. It is impolite to eat a lot of rice or noodles and not each much else.  Everything is served on a big round “lazy susan” in the middle of the table.  If you want something you just move the lazy susan round until the dish gets to you.

I cannot watch TV here – there are no English speaking channels at this hotel!

Finally Miranda, I thoroughly enjoyed “Twilight” and have been trying to find the next installment but could only find it in Chinese! I will have to wait until I get to the US to buy “New Moon.”

We are off the visit the Great Wall tomorrow. It is a 2 hr drive from here, so we are leaving at 7am.

Looking forward to sharing pictures with you tomorrow night.

Andrea

Posted from China:

posted Sunday November 2024