Party Animal

Imagine for a moment thanksgiving dinner. There is more food than you thought physically possible for any number of people to consume and too many family members to keep track of. Now imagine its all Chinese food and your family only speaks Chinese.
This is China's Mid-Autumn Festival weekend which basically entails eating until noodles come out of your ears and playing very loud Chinese board games while guzzling down bottles of Chinese beer (not that last part for me). That is basically how I spent my weekend. Yesterday we went out to a GIANT lunch with my nai nai (father's mother) and today we spent the day with my mama's relatives. This whole weekend was one big party and thus I am exhausted. I will explain how the weekend went down.


So first, Friday after school my mama, jie jie and I went to the Olympic park. It is amazing. I have no other words to describe it. Amazing. The bird's nest was huge and the water cube didn't even look real. But my favorite part? The gigantic billboard of Michael Phelps on a wall. Again, amazing. Look forward to some very nice pictures.

Then Saturday morning I got up and my baba and mama took me to go running. We biked to this busy park and they let me run for an hour or so, but the going was very slow. In case you didn't know there are a LOT of people in China and thus there were a LOT of people in the park. So after a very frustrated hour I found them and just wanted to go home. So when instead of heading towards the exit they walked towards a very long set of stairs i was more than just a little bit unhappy. But grudingly i climbed up the 200 odd stairs to find myself facing the biggest statue of buddha I have ever seen. On top of the hill in the park is this temple to Buddha and from it you can see for miles and miles around Beijing. My baba pointed out the forbidden city and I could see the Olympic park way over on the other side. It was stunning and it completely melted all of my frustration.

That afternoon we went to my nainai's hutong (very close to my own) and I can honestly say she is one of the cutest old ladies I have ever met. She must be about 4'9" with a perpetual smile on her face. I couldn't understand a word she said but I liked her all the same. So off our little jia (family) went and we arrived at a restaurant where I can honestly say I had more food put on my plate than at any other time during my life. Delicious, but overwhelming.

Then as if my day could get any crazier my jiejie, Wang Qian, took me to this "shopping mall" called Xidan. It was no shopping mall. It was an intensely overcrowded indoor market from a bargin lover's wildest fantasy. I bought a pair of shoes for the equivalent of about 5 bucks. I bought a jacket for about 8. I bought nail polish for 50 cents. Anything you could possibly want you could find in this place. So after 1 hour in the hectic maze of building we went home. I have never been so tired in my life. I went to bed at 8 and slept straight until 8 the next morning.

At 8 it started all over again. I got up to run, this time on my own to a different park and spent 30 minutes there, half running half side stepping and trying not to run over anyone. I got home and we set off again this time for the other half of the family. After 1.5 hours of traveling we arrived (still within Beijing city limits) and were warmly welcomed by yet another extremely cute old lady along with several aunts, uncles, and cousins. Then another huge lunch and many attempts on their part to feed me meat (they didn't understand what vegetarian was). Then more family time with card games and board games I didn't understand. Then after several more hours, dinner and more food than should have been allowed. I kept saying bao le (Im full) but was ignored and they heaped more food onto my plate accompanied with a discussion about how I was too skinny (anyone who knows me knows this is simply NOT true).

Now I am at home. Wiped out. Exhausted. Still have tons of homework to do. But I'm happy.
Until next time,
Julia

Song of the Week
Nude by Radiohead