We're in China!!!

Hey everyone! We've arrived in Beijing safe and sound. We got here yesterday afternoon and walked around a little bit. We were pretty tired, and managed to order some food successfully at a Chinese restaurant. However we weren't as successful ordering drinks. The "apple juice" we thought we were getting turned out to be some eckto-plasmic green colored apple soda. Mmm, tasted like a jolly rancher. Also, cauliflower is really brocolli here.

Jess and Danielle couldn't sleep and went exploring at 3 am. Yes, the stores are open then! Phan and Kristin slept for 12 hours.

Today we went to the Forbidden City, Tianenman Square and Jingjong (?) Park. We saw the big picture of Mao (although I have to say it was smaller than I thought it would be), dressed up in Chinese costumes for a picture, and successfully dealt with several squatty potties. And as you can tell, we found the internet cafe, although that was a bit of a challenge. So far Danielle is the best bargainer amoung us so we are looking to her to help us get good deals on all the stuff.

We are here in Beijing for four more days, so we'll write more later. Hopefully at some point we can upload some pictures, although the computers in this cafe are locked in a cage-like contraption, so it won't happen today unfortunately.

Here are some observations about Beijing so far:
- They have a lot of really pretty, colorful flowers lining the streets. But then we realized they are actually fake.
- Men seem to carry purses here.
- Every store generally has around one salesperson per square meter.
- Pedestriains do NOT have the right of way. Luckily we all still have all of our limbs although Phan almost got taken out by a biker earlier today.
- We love dumplings and noodles!!!
- We have learned a little Mandarin, such as "no ice!" and "I don't want it!"
- People like to stare at our blond hair and even try to take pictures with us. We feel like celebrities!

Hope all is well back in the US! More updates soon! Zia jian!

First Post!

We created this blog so that we can post our adventures in China while we're there! Hopefully there will be internet access there so we can post updates and maybe even pictures. Me, Phan, Danielle and Jess leave on Tuesday! We are getting very excited!