Initiate Plan B...

Today was another one of those beautiful days where I got to sleep in for as long as I wanted (although because I went to bed early last night, I also woke up at 10 to 8, which wasn't so nice.) But since I was rested, and no one else was awake, I just checked my emails, and did some house keeping kind of things. The rest of the family (my dad and my sister) woke up not to long after me, so I could start moving around the house (I like to stay in my room until everyone else wakes up.)

I told my dad that me, my sister, and my friends were going to the concert, and he was fine with it. (I did it in Chinese as well, thank you very much.) So we all did our own thing for most of the morning. My thing included writing my Yale/Harvard essay (which is a nicer version of a blog from a Thursday, in case you were wondering), and various other things that are not nearly important enough to write about. I didn't even get out of my PJ's until around 11 though, if that is any indication of my day. (Funny story. Because I slept with my hair wet last night, when I woke up this morning it was out of control. But I didn't brush it because I didn't have to see any one. I also forgot that my hair was out of control when my mom called me via Skype - which, for those of you that don't know, has a camera. I still didn't remember that my hair was a mess until my mom said "God, what happened to you?" and then started laughing. Thanks mom. I feel the love.)

Lunch today was really good. I have not the foggiest idea what it was, but it tasted like slightly fried noodles, some cabbage thing, and I think beef (牛肉). It's funny, I now think of beef as it's Chinese name rather than English. I had to think for a second what it was called. Oops. Anyways, that was really yummy, even if I had to eat it with chopsticks (but I am pretty good at using chopsticks now, on the bright side.) We also had this egg and green onion soup thing that my dad gave us as our drink, and a beef pita thing, that was so much better than it sounds. Overall, it was a very satisfying meal.

After lunch, not much happened, as I was getting ready to go out. I really need to go shopping, because I didn't bring very many shirts. (Actually, my sister said she knew a place that was inexpensive, so I am foreseeing a sister bonding trip sometime in the near future...) But I pulled some clothes on, and we were out the door. She actually didn't know what bus to take to get to school, so we relied on my knowledge, which thankfully didn't let me down. We met Chris, Sterling and Jamie at school, picked up Hannah on the way, and walked towards the bus stop. It wasn't until we got to the 3rd Ring Road (one of the main roads in Beijing, which is close to both our school and the bus stop) that Sterling got a frantic call from Gavin (another friend) who said that he got on the wrong bus, and was in a taxi trying to get to school. Halfway through the conversation, Sterling just passed the phone to me, and I passed it to Chris, who passed it to Hannah. Poor Gavin, he was having a hard time finding us (it took him about 15 minutes.) But all was well, because eventually we found him, and we all got on the bus together.

About halfway through our bus ride to the concert, we all realized that we didn't know where we were going. So we politely asked the door attendant on the bus (or I should say, my sister asked) to tell us when to get off. Throughout the ride, we kept asking my sister questions in Chinese, and Chris would tell her to listen to some Chinese song he had. It was a fun bus ride, although there was no singing.

The afternoon was actually rather anticlimactic. Once we got to where the concert was, we saw that the line was ridiculously long, and decided not to stand in line (as it turns out, people were waiting in line for over an hour, so we made the right choice.) Instead, we went to the park across the road for a while, and played on the jungle gym, taking pictures and recordings as we went. I called a friend who was also at the music festival to see if he was in line (and could therefore buy us tickets...) but he was already inside, so that was a bust.

After that things got a little interesting. Hannah decided that she didn't want to stay in the park for hours just messing around, and I agreed. My sister said that she knew a place to go shopping, so we decided to leave. Somehow, we convinced Chris to leave as well, and we all walked out of the park. Initially, Sterling, Jamie and Gavin followed us, but they got distracted by buying a kite (which they later got stuck in a tree. Naturally.) Anyway, we still didn't want to wait, so my sister, me, Hannah and Chris hopped in a cab (without telling the others - we figured they were already preoccupied) and took off for Ho Hai, which is supposed to be a really pretty area of Beijing (we originally were going somewhere else, but changed our minds in the cab. The driver didn't seem to care.) But when we got there, none of us were in the mood to go walking around and exploring. When Chris had the idea to go to a small American restaurant outside of our school, we all jumped on it. So we got another cab, and took off for the school.

Once back at school, it was a quick 10 minute walk to the American restaurant (with American prices, may I add.) We ordered 3 sandwiches (BLT, Guido, and meatball), an oreo flurry, and a chocolate and an oreo milkshake. The whole thing was 180 kuai ($27, which is still expensive for China) , but for some reason I am still unaware of, Chris paid for the whole thing. Looks like we are going to have to take him out to lunch sometime. My BLT was not the greatest in the world, and the meatball sandwich wasn't terrific, but our oreo flurry was rather scrumptous. And also pretty entertaining. Hannah and I were in tears and out of breathe, we were laughing so hard over a joke. (I spilled some of my flurry on my arm, and Hannah said that if that had been the last bite, she would have licked it off. For some reason, this sparked a huge laughing fit in both of us. I am pretty sure that my sister thought that we were insane.)

As soon as we finished eating, my sister and I went home. (We made a quick stop by the guy who sells dvds on the bridge, but he didn't have anything I wanted to buy, so we continued on our way home.) I told my sister that my friends loved her (which they do. She is seriously the coolest sister ever) and she seemed happy to hear that.

Life returned to normal once we were back home. My dad was cookin dinner (beef, rice, veggie dish, and Lotus stalk with meat in it. Yum) I had a conversation about home, and what we are going to do tomorrow with my dad (in Chinese) and felt rather pleased with myself afterwards. After dinner was spent doing homework and talking to friends. I also found concert tickets that I very much want to get, but I have to convince Mr. Bissell let 5 of us miss curfew for one night. I might leave that conversation for a little bit later. (Although if you are reading this, Mr. Bissell, I am totally up to convincing you whenever you are ready to be awed.)

Now, I am trying to stay awak so I can finish writing about my day. But it was a very good day. I used a lot of Chinese (even if I dd resort to Chinglish sometimes) and I feel like I have rounded a corner with speaking, especially with my host family. Also, today was good in the sense that I bonded with my sister for the first time since I have been here, and that is nice. I feel closer to her now. So it has been a big day. Even if we didn't stick with the plan at all (Plan B...) it was still successful. So now, I have to go to sleep, because I am exhausted. See you lovelies tomorrow. Bye!