"We Are Infinite"

Woooo guess who's on an airplane from Beijing bound for Yichang? That's right, this kid. Good guess. Check me out, blogging only a week after my last post. Surprised? I am. Anyway, a quick update:


Diner date with Courtney! 1/5/2013

Saturday was the last day before we left for China, and holy balls was it a busy one. Woke up early (but still too late) for brunch with Courtney at the dinner. Ordered a mozzarella grilled cheese with bacon and tomato. So. Good.  It was nice to catch up with her since we'd barely seen each other over the break, and she even said that she might start a picture blog…oho I really hope so! After that I dragged Nicole away from her internship apps (sorry nicole!) to go shopping for my cousin's gift. My mom ended up hating the present, so I had to go out and buy something else anyway. Boo. That pretty much brings us to dinner, which was good ol' home cooking. Packed like a maniac and met up with Emma for some DD and uke playing. It was good to see her too since I'd only seen her once all break even though she lives right next to me. Went out again after that for some Sonic with Nolan, Brian, and Nicole. Nolan decided that he wanted to see what lay in the unknown, so he kept driving. Brian was convinced there'd be a Neverland at the end. I don't understand him sometimes. Unfortunately, we never found out since it was already past midnight and I was already late. So we turned back, but Nolan thought that we should take a short cut, which turned out to be a long cut (surprise), and Brian thought it'd be a great idea to tell scary urban legends. Ugh, it's making me shiver just thinking about it. Soon we arrived home, and after a round of hugs, I drove home to pack more. It's seriously weird thinking that I probably won't see most people again until summer.
 

Selfies in the airport/airplane 1/6/2013

Sunday was airplane day! Oh dear lord 14 hours in the air is not my ideal way to spend time, but luckily they had little TVs. I watched movies until my eyes burned, and then I watched some more.  The first one I saw was Pitch Perfect (aka Bitch Perfect), which was your typical feel-good-success-story chick flick. I really enjoy those for some reason, even though they're mad predictable.  Next was Perks of Being a Wallflower, which was both quirky and touching at the same time.  The title of this post actually came from the end when Charlie's standing in the back of the pickup truck going through the tunnel (or at least that's where I think I got it from). After that my eyes were already starting to burn, but I barreled onward with Recall. Kind of very predictable in a lame way, but the special effects were still pretty cool, especially "the drop" which is a 17 minute (12?) journey through the center of the earth from australia to europe. Kind of ridiculous at the same time though. Then I watched Brave, and loved it. Disney & Pixar never fail to amaze me with their animations. Next up was the Avengers which I've been told to watch a billion times, so I did, but wasn't particularly hooked by it.  Actually I never finished it since we had to land, and I wasn't really paying attention for any of it….okay maybe I need to re-watch it lol. After customs and luggage shenanigans, we were on our way to the hotel.  The sun was bright but fighting to stay visible through the thick grey atmosphere.  My mom marveled at how Beijing had a sun but no sky. It was actually kind of depressing to think about. We arrived at our hotel which honestly looked like a giant green box, I finally lost my personal battle with the airplane food (looks even worse the second time around), and we went out to grab some real food for dinner. Once we got back, we all crashed. The end.

Nightmarket! (They sold spider, starfish, and termite shishkabobs wtf) 1/7/2013

So Tuesday Kaykay decided to wake up at 3 am. Wonderful. I finally dragged my body out of bed at around 5 for a beef-la-mien breakfast. Yum. All the people in the shop stared at us while my sister blabbed on loudly in English.  Then we braved the winds as we walked throughout Gugong (the Forbidden City). It was gorgeous but so ridiculously cold. Regardless I managed to take a billion pictures. That night we went to the Red Theatre to watch a shaolinggongfu show which was freaking awesome. Besides for the really intense fighting moves, I was pretty much obsessed with the little boys that could do back flips across the stage using their heads. That night we ate baozhi at goubuni which is a famous baozhi place according to my mom. Boy do they do baozhi right.

Furry handwarmers? Check. Pumpkin juice? Check. 1/8/2013



CCTV tower!

Woke up early again (thanks kaykay) and this time went out and bought breakfast as we walked along to tian'anmen where we spammed pictures. Then we took the subway (first time taking it in china!) to the CCTV tower which is the 9th highest in the world. After touring around, sending my dad a postcard, and spamming more pictures, we ate lunch in their revolving restaurant which had an amazing view of Beijing. It's alarming to look out and see skyscrapers and apartment complexes in all directions as far as the eye can see. I also used their binoculars and watched some people take a stroll across a lake that was frozen solid. After stuffing ourselves silly (btw pear fanta is fantastic), we visited the aquarium. Kind of depressing to see so many fish stuck in such little tanks. There were also penguins and seals, which was both awesome and awful. We saw a crazy circus performance that night.  Tacky costumes, but mad talent. The super flexible girls made my stomach turn, and the five simultaneous motorcycles in the big metal ball cage had me really nervous lol. Ate dinner at a little place across the street that had some boss eggplant.

Those bottles are attached to sticks, and you can pay to feed the fish with them lol. 1/9/2013

Currrly hair! Kind of hard to see, but you get the idea. 1/11/2013

Fast forward another plane ride, and we're in Yichang! Kicked off our home-coming with a delicious meal prepared by my aunt who is an amazing cook. The next day I went with eryi to get my hair permed! Holy balls was it a long painful process. After about an hour and a half I had to pee….but nope, still needed to wait another three and a half hours. In the end I made it with no bladder damage (at least I hope not) and a new Asian haircut. The people at the place struggled with my tenacious hair since it had never been dyed nor permed before, but my fabulous hairdresser (a dude) managed to pull it off. Still getting used to the whole having-curly-hair thing.

Food, people, and more food! Bottom middle is my aunt :) 1/9/2013 - 1/12/2013

1/12/2013

Yesterday we went to go visit my grandma and grandpa's grave at this beautiful cemetery that's on the side of a mountain. It was all very confusing for Kaykay who kept asking how grandma got from down here to "up there". We burned them some incense, money, and grandma's favorite books, poured them some wine, told them our prayers, and trudged back down the mountain.  Ate lunch on the 8th floor of a giant mall where we saw the cutest baby getting carted around in a basket-pack. Today we visited my dad's side of the family. My grandparent's place was mad cold since they don't believe in using the heater in the middle of winter (even though they have one…go figure). So instead we all huddled around a couple of glowing logs in the dark, chatting with our very visible breath.  We ate at a fancy place downtown with my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousin who practically studies every second of her life. Seriously. She lives at her high school, and they have class every day. People in China study so incredibly hard; it's kind of unnerving but amazing at the same time.

At the square by the river! Everything lights up at night 1/13/2013

Tonight after (another delicious) dinner we went to go walk by the river park. At night everything lights up and people come from all around to play, dance, and sing. My sister really got a kick out of the dancing groups, and my mom enthusiastically joined in (oh the horror). Actually, I can't really be embarrassed since I learned a couple of steps too….On the way back we passed by a group of badasses who were practicing whipping techniques with leather and chains…lmao first time I've seen that here.  Haha so much for a quick update, my bad. I'll try to be more succinct in the (very) near future! Good Night :)