So I lied about pictures, I figure I'll just post them on facebook when I get back in the States. I got a new 2GB memory card from the silk market today for super cheap :] But uhm, there are like, no speed limits in China, the cab fair never gets above $6, and they don't follow any laws as far as lanes. They cut eachother off as if it's a polite thing, and then they make a 3 lane a 5 lane. It's HILARIOUS. Yet sometimes scary! We went to the silk market today and I bought about 300-400 dollars worth of stuff for about $100 :)) It's like the Mexican Mart on crack there though...super psycho! :) But fun. They're super funny cause you can barter with them to lower the price, and walk away if they don't give it to you, and they'll run after you offering it to you for like 50-100 Yeun. Which equals out to 7-15 dollars. Yay! Uhm, afterwards we went to the track meet and saw the finals for a few events...pretty cool. I'm kinda sad to be leaving soon, but also okay with it because I miss everyone back home. Tomorrow I'm going on one more tour and an acrobatic show and hopefully on Tuesday we'll be able to go back to the Silk Market. Once again I'm super tired because it's 1am here. Goodnight! :)
Go B.I.G.
--KAM
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Saturday, August 16, 2008
I'm becoming quite fluent.....ish...
So, pictures will come tomorrow! I’ll try to put them up Sunday morning or afternoon, making it Saturday night or Sunday morning for back in the USA. My camera died on our tour today so I’m charging the battery tonight. I haven’t charged it at all since I’ve been here. But anyways…so apparently in China we’re famous. Haha The other day I was walking down the street with my USA official jacket that my sister gave me and Ron [my sisters husband…huge black guy…former NFL player…current AFL player ((get the picture))] was in front of me and Jamie (my sister’s best friend) was right next to me, and she’s a professional photographer and had her camera out, and EVERYONE, I mean EVERYONE kept stopping us for photos. Haha But today it got a little….crazy. We went on our tours of the forbidden city and some other places that I’m too tired to recall the name of, but half the time they’d pause Ron just cause he’s so big, they wanted a picture with him, the other half the time they’d stop Shani, and then the rest of us. One guy just h opped in our family photo! It was hilarious though. We were trying to take a picture for our Christmas card, and this middle aged Chinese man hands this woman his camera and hops in with us! Haha But today I’m exhausted, we had our tour from 9 am – 7 pm, and spent at least 6 hours of it walking.
We got to see how silk duvets were handmade, coolest thing ever, I’m considering getting one for my bed back home in Iowa. And we saw the Pearl Market, Pearls are SUPER inexpensive here. But it’s because the area that they’re from is super close by. I got two pearl necklaces, and a pearl bracelet for 400 Yeun, which is about $55 USD. [And yes they're real] ((They also taught us how to determine from real and fake pearls) Tomorrow we’re going to the market, and I’m super excited, although I need another suitcase for everything already. My family brought extra ones, but everyone’s going back to Iowa and Minnesota except me :/ But that’s it for me! It’s bed time. For sure. Night!
Go B.I.G.--KAM
We got to see how silk duvets were handmade, coolest thing ever, I’m considering getting one for my bed back home in Iowa. And we saw the Pearl Market, Pearls are SUPER inexpensive here. But it’s because the area that they’re from is super close by. I got two pearl necklaces, and a pearl bracelet for 400 Yeun, which is about $55 USD. [And yes they're real] ((They also taught us how to determine from real and fake pearls) Tomorrow we’re going to the market, and I’m super excited, although I need another suitcase for everything already. My family brought extra ones, but everyone’s going back to Iowa and Minnesota except me :/ But that’s it for me! It’s bed time. For sure. Night!
Go B.I.G.--KAM
Friday, August 15, 2008
Beijing, China :]
So, I’ve decided to conform to the rest of my family and start a blog on my china experience. So far it’s been…interesting to say the least. Last night we had a REALLY good dinner for SEVEN people, for 36 USD (United States Dollars) We had, a whole fish, two trays of beef, three trays of chicken and a vegie tray, which in the US would’ve easily been over 80 bucks.
My sister competed today, I know she didn’t do as well as she had hoped for, and it was disappointing to her, but it’s still pretty amazing that she’s the 28th best triple jumper in the world. She’s such an amazing athlete it was really cool to see her compete in the Olympics. It’s such an amazing experience for her, and I know she’ll take a lot from it. I look up to her a lot more than she probably thinks I do. I say this not only because she is my sister, but also because it’s true, Shani is one of the strongest people I know, who learns from experiences and always takes a lesson from something, even if it’s not an easy one. She’s definitely an amazing role model. Another thing is her relationship with her husband, Ron, it’s soooo apparent how much he loves her. After the competition Ron was so sad. He was so sad for Shani and wanted nothing more than just to be with her. (AWWW—cute love story, right?) OKAY ENOUGH…
So some facts about China, spitting and chewing gum is offensive. Pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way, we learned that one REAL quick. And little kids walk around with the butt cut out of their pants…We still haven’t quite figured that out one yet. I’m actually picking up some useful chinese phrases! We didn’t get to eat breakfast this morning. So when we got to the gymnastics, Jamie and I ate bread. No joke. Haha I had bread and ice cream for dinner. Apparently “hot dogs” are cold dogs about the size of my pinkey with a bun around it and ketchup on top, wrapped in saran wrap…cold. But then there’s the Bank Of America Hospitality area, which is SUPER nice, it’s an area cut off for Olympic Athlete family member, with american food, my favorite is the vegetarian pizza, it’s sooo good J And you get free massages, free computer lease and internet access, and basically areas to relax. The Birds nest is AMAZING, to say the least. This morning we went to go see the gymnastics finals, Shawn Johnson reppin Iowa (woo-hoo!) got 2nd, making America taking 1st and 2nd. Nastia took first, she is such an amazing gymnast, it's crazy. It was pretty cool. Then we went to the track. Watched a few events, including the triple jump of which my sister was in. And lemme tell you, it took us 30 minutes to get a cab from the gymnastics arena, and an hour to catch one from the birds nest back home. It’s almost 2 AM here, and we just walked in…weird. Anyways, that’s it for now, we’ve got an 8 am tour tomorrow :/ I’m loving China but I also can’t wait to get back home to Alabama. I’m kinda starting to miss Kayla…haha My poor lonely roomate. :]
Go B.I.G.--KAM ;)
My sister competed today, I know she didn’t do as well as she had hoped for, and it was disappointing to her, but it’s still pretty amazing that she’s the 28th best triple jumper in the world. She’s such an amazing athlete it was really cool to see her compete in the Olympics. It’s such an amazing experience for her, and I know she’ll take a lot from it. I look up to her a lot more than she probably thinks I do. I say this not only because she is my sister, but also because it’s true, Shani is one of the strongest people I know, who learns from experiences and always takes a lesson from something, even if it’s not an easy one. She’s definitely an amazing role model. Another thing is her relationship with her husband, Ron, it’s soooo apparent how much he loves her. After the competition Ron was so sad. He was so sad for Shani and wanted nothing more than just to be with her. (AWWW—cute love story, right?) OKAY ENOUGH…
So some facts about China, spitting and chewing gum is offensive. Pedestrians do NOT have the right-of-way, we learned that one REAL quick. And little kids walk around with the butt cut out of their pants…We still haven’t quite figured that out one yet. I’m actually picking up some useful chinese phrases! We didn’t get to eat breakfast this morning. So when we got to the gymnastics, Jamie and I ate bread. No joke. Haha I had bread and ice cream for dinner. Apparently “hot dogs” are cold dogs about the size of my pinkey with a bun around it and ketchup on top, wrapped in saran wrap…cold. But then there’s the Bank Of America Hospitality area, which is SUPER nice, it’s an area cut off for Olympic Athlete family member, with american food, my favorite is the vegetarian pizza, it’s sooo good J And you get free massages, free computer lease and internet access, and basically areas to relax. The Birds nest is AMAZING, to say the least. This morning we went to go see the gymnastics finals, Shawn Johnson reppin Iowa (woo-hoo!) got 2nd, making America taking 1st and 2nd. Nastia took first, she is such an amazing gymnast, it's crazy. It was pretty cool. Then we went to the track. Watched a few events, including the triple jump of which my sister was in. And lemme tell you, it took us 30 minutes to get a cab from the gymnastics arena, and an hour to catch one from the birds nest back home. It’s almost 2 AM here, and we just walked in…weird. Anyways, that’s it for now, we’ve got an 8 am tour tomorrow :/ I’m loving China but I also can’t wait to get back home to Alabama. I’m kinda starting to miss Kayla…haha My poor lonely roomate. :]
Go B.I.G.--KAM ;)
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