Llama, Llama, Duck

Because of what now seems to be an overeager want to participate in jump rope (in hindsight, of course. Before, it just seemed like fun) I was required to get to school an hour before our field trip (to various temples) actually started. This meant I had to be at school by 8 in the morning. I was so excited because 7 (when I my alarm went off, although one of my friends called be before so I was already awake) is the latest I have gotten to wake up in a while, and I got 9 hours of sleep last night. It was beautiful.

Today was a busy day actually. After practicing jump rope for an hour (during which we got progressively worse, which is never good, because our competition is tomorrow. We can't win. To win, you have to do over 200 jumps in 2 minutes. Just imagine how fast you have to do that. And the Chinese kids go even faster. We don't stand a chance.) the rest of SYA turned up, and we all walked 15 minutes to the subway station, where we then headed to the National Museum. The subway is actually pretty fun (to small town me) and surprisingly clean.

Once we got to the museum, we were all given tickets, and directed towards the main exhibit: 5000 years of Chinese history. Someone had gotten the best pieces from museums around the country, and put them all together here in Beijing. It was the place to be, and clearly everyone agreed with that, because it was packed with Chinese people. Seriously, I probably only saw about half of the artifacts, because there were so many people. I did see some terracotta warriors, and a horse (and a lot of really cool pots and things. There was this one artifact that was amazing. It was a jade carving of a house, and was incredibly detailed, with people and chairs and things. I couldn't take pictures because my flash wasn't turning off, but my friends took pictures.)

After the exhibit, we were set loose on the nearby city to find some lunch. We were also warned that there are no good restaurants around. We were given 100 Yuan in groups of 5 to go buy our lunch, but I switched groups halfway through. Some of my group (ie Chris, Sterling and Warren) wanted to go to McDonald's, but Gavin, Rebekah and I put our feet down. I would rather have starved than gone to the McDonald's. Instead, we all went upstairs to the food court, where we probably had the worst food I have had so far. It was noodles, that were really hot (in soup) and some meat that was supposed to be beef, but it was more like processed bologna. It was so gross. (Chris only ate about 4 chopsticks worth of noodles because he was still sick. Poor guy. Although lunch wasn't very good.)

After lunch, we all trooped back to the subway to go to the Llama Temple, which is the biggest Buddhist temple outside of Tibet (I think.) It was pretty damn amazing. I burned incense outside of all the buildings (there were clouds of incense everywhere, and it actually gave me a little bit of a headache. But at least I got the experience. No wonder all the monks had bad acne) The buildings were amazing. Everything was ornate (and red), and fit for an emperor. I took lots of pictures. At the very end, there was a statue of Buddha that was 60 feet high, made out of one piece of wood. (Impressive much?) I also saw some of the monks having their daily prayer session, and it was all so different for me. I highly recommend going to the temple if you come to Beijing.

We finished at the Llama Temple at about 4, and then realized that the Confucian temple stopped selling tickets at 4:30, and we still had to get there. So Chris, Warren and I all asked a Chinese guy where the temple was, and booked it over there. (On the way, we all stopped at a small shop and bought these bracelets that I think are supposed to be prayer beads, but I just thought that they were really pretty. I bought 2, one for each wrist. I almost bought 3, but decided that would just be a waste of money.) The Confucian temple was pretty close, but I had to practically run because I was the shortest one, and Chris and Warren both have longer legs than me.

We bought our tickets, and headed in. (Actually, funny story. We were supposed to bring our student ids, because we could get in for cheaper. I didn't think I had mine, so I just kept paying the regular price. Now, 4 hours later, I just realized that I have been carrying my student ID around all day. Smart much? And everyone was saying I was smart because my parents have smart jobs. They have no idea.) Still, Chris convinced the lady that all three of us were students, so we got in for only 10 Yuan a piece (about $1.50 each. I seriously love Chinese prices for everything.)

The Confucian temple wasn't as impressive as the Llama Temple (probably because it isn't actually a religion) but there was a pretty cool part of it. There are over 100 marble stones, all engraved with characters amounting to 650,000+ characters. These huge tablets (about twice my size) are engraved with sayings and such, and are all lined up in rows. It's incredible. How did I get so lucky to see all of this? (And, even better, I found a regular public toilet at the Confucian temple. That just made my day.) -Don't worry, mom and dad, I will take you to these places. You'll like it. And probably know more about it than I do.

Once we all finished at the Confucian temple (at 4:50) we were done for the day, and let loose on the town. A group of us (me, Chris, Gavin, Rebekah, Jamie, Julia, Erik and Warren) all went to dinner at a place just behind our school. To get to it, we had to go down a couple of sketch alleyways, but this was actually a pretty nice (and expensive) restaurant. We ordered a lot of food (including pumpkin buns, Beijing duck, this pork thing, and more) which amounted to more than we could finish. We were also in the room with one other group, because there are rooms upstairs for large groups of people. Because Gavin and Chris felt bad that we were a bunch of Americans intruding, they bought the other group a bottle of the cheapest wine on the menu (about $24.) This caused the other group of buy us 2 dishes of food, and we all felt a little strange, like maybe buying them wine wasn't the best thing to do. Ah well.

The conversation over dinner (and, as a matter of fact, the whole day) was very funny. I left feeling extremely content with life, and would have died happy had I actually been hit by a bus on the way home, as I am convinced is going to happen one of these days. I didn't eat dinner at my house tonight (obviously) but because I had called my parents in advance, they didn't mind. I told them I would eat dinner at home tomorrow though (in Chinese, of course.) Now, my feet really hurt, and I have no memory left on my camera right now. I also have to wake up freakishly early, so we shall continue the story of my life later. Until then, my friends.