Friday, October 25, 2013

不要

“不要。。。不要。。。不要。。。不要”

We said it over and over and over (It is said Bu yao (boo yow) for those that don't read Chinese haha) - it means "don't want".

So here is how it started, we were hungry. We had walked through 2 malls and looked for something to eat somewhere, with no luck. Places that we eat at have to have a picture menu (really rather common in China) and so we happened upon this restaurant on a side street as we were walking back towards KFC and Subway, our fallbacks. We went inside, they immediately realize we can't speak any Chinese so they just led us to a table and sat us down - next to two drunk guys who thought it was hilarious that the waitress couldn't understand us at all. We just politely smiled and ignored them, for the most part. We ordered. The food came. As we are eating I hear one of the guys asking the waitress for 3 of something (there are only 2 of them, and 3 of us), she leaves and comes back with 3 small cups. They fill them with whatever it is they are drinking, and then sit there for a while. As we are finishing up, one of the guys brings over all 3 full glasses to our table - I can smell the alcohol off of it from quite a way away. He sets them in front of us and stands there, he is wanting to toast or clink glasses - so we finally realize this and let him do that. Then he tells us to drink them, and we again go into our 不要 不要 不要, they laugh at us and keep pushing, we continue 不要 不要 不要. So they just leave us alone, we finish and pay and leave. We then realized that the first drink that any of us had ever had bought for us was this - some strong and unknown Chinese liquor, by two very drunk businessmen who only did it cause we are the 外国人 (waiguoren - waygworen) - the foreigners. It was really funny the whole time, and we were trying really hard not to laugh because that would have only gotten more attention.

Here is a picture of our drinks: (the little glass goblets)

Friday, October 4, 2013

Pictures!!!!

PICTURES, PICTURES, PICTURES!!!!
Mostly because I want to share them with you, also because I don't feel like writing much right now. :)
And they are not all in order....

Knife Shaved noodles - Taiyuan is known for them, and they are soo good. [Photo credit: Anna Haffner]

Anna and I made apple desserts! Pie and Crisp.

At the train station, getting ready to go to Beijing for Mid-Autumn festival break [PC: Anna]

Look! We made it to Beijing all by ourselves!! [PC:Anna]

Jumping at the bird's nest

Me at the Bird's Nest - It was so cool to get to see Olympic Park. And the sky was even blue that day!

Lunch/Dinner with Cyndie Junk - we are favorite team!

Tiananmen at night

4 ladies in the back of a cab [PC: Cyndie Junk]

The Water Cube in Olympic Park

A lake in an Amusement park here in Taiyuan - the start to our October Holiday Break

A door handle at the Twin Pagoda temple

I climbed that!! (There are 2 of them, but you can only go in 1)

Circle Door!

They wanted their picture with us

Then they took our picture for us
Seriously out of order... This was at coldstone creamery in Beijing with Joy and Katie on Mid-Autumn Break