Chinese Alcohol

Yesterday Per and I ventured out into the city around noon. We went to eat at a Korean BBQ restaurant which was really yummy and pretty fun too! I think people helped us a lot because we were white and were doing something wrong. They kept changing out our grill, and I didn't really notice them doing that with anyone else. Lunch for two people with three beers was 135 RMB which is like 20 bucks. Super cheap.

Then we wandered to a Japanese department store, looked around, and bought some random food. I got some dried fish in a bag, total miss, and some chocolate cookie type things, not too bad. Then we bought some alcoholic beverages.

My SUPER cute mini can of Asahi beer next to the normal sized bottle:
And sparkling chardonnay in a can! 1st class:

Then we went to a really delicious dinner at a Japanese restaurant, kinda like BeniHanna (sp?). It was super yummy. All you can eat and drink for 20 bucks a person. We had to dine and run though because I had to pee really bad and all they had at the restaurant were holes in the ground...no thank you! Not really ready for that yet!

Today we went to Gou Bu Li, which is a dumpling restaurant thats supposed to be kinda famous. I liked it a lot. I'm a big fan of dumplings. I ordered pork, Per was too chicken to eat that so he ate vegetable dumplings instead. Both were good! We will wait to see how my stomach handles pork dumplings before I give a final verdict! So far so good though.

We also went to a giant grocery store. Smelled nasty, but had a lot of intersting things. I will have to go back on my own to explore and sample some weird stuff :)

Tomorrow Per will go to work and I will try to explore a little. The only hard part of exploring is crossing the streets. I'll just have to cross when some other Chinese people are going :)

Wu whey shua eung when. (That is the phonetic spelling for "I speak English" according to my Mandarain tapes)

I have arrived!

After a relatively painless 9 hour plane ride to Beijing, I finally arrived in China! After going through health check, obviously I passed! with no fever, I stood in line for passport check and was off to get my baggage! The Beijing airport is GIGANTIC. After we landed, we taxied for like 15 minutes all around the airport.

Then I walked out of customs, and there was Per! It was great to see him, but he CLEARLY needs me. :) His clothing choices were qustionable. Can you say, white tennis shoes with black socks and shorts. So Euro tourist of him. But I love him anyway!

Then we took a 2 hour taxi ride, which only cost like 50 bucks (which is how much it costs to take a Taxi to and from Denny's in Los Gatos).

Here is a picture of Per and I in the taxi:

Tianjin is interesting. That's my first impression. Some building are really new tall high rises, and some look like slummy little houses. With some nice park areas spread out inbetween. A few of the buildings have mini Eiffel Towers on top. At first I thought it was supposed to really be an Eiffel Tower until I realized more than one building has it, that must mean it's for lightning or something. We live on the 32 floors, which is pretty darn cool, and we have a neat view.

View from out living room:

And I thought Swedish roundabouts were crazy, the ones here have no traffice lights!! People just go when they want, and whatch out if your are a pedestrian, because they don't care you are crossing the street!

View from the bedroom, and my new friends!

Me taking a nap on the couch. I was SOOOO tired!:

Our toilet is smarter than the average human being...keeps your butt warm and toasty and sprays it clean too :) :

Now Per and I will venture out into city for lunch! Hopefully it will be more successful than breakfast. First we went to a restaurant where no one could speak English and there was no English menu so we had to leave. Then we went to Starbucks, where Per ended up ordering me some green slushy drink which I decided not to drink because it has ice in it and the water is a no no here!

Off to see more of the city :)

And I'm Off!

Today is my last day in Lund. :( Just turned in my apartment keys. I will be taking off for Beijing at 9PM tonight. After days of cleaning, packing, throwing stuff out, selling things, I'm ready! Only the final crappy part is left, a 9 hour flight, and I'll finally be in China! I can't wait to see Per and see where I'll be living for the next 4 months!

I'm going to try to be open minded, explore, and enjoy the experience. With minimal amounts of complaining :) Maybe I'll put in some effort into picking up Chinese.

Hopefully they don't quarantine me because of my slight cold...I'll be taking fever reducers to evade the fever machine! This morning I was normal temp. Lets hope it stays that way!

Hopefully I will keep the blog updated! I should because, I mean, I don't really have anything else to do!

If your bored, read up on Tianjin, my new home!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tianjin