Giant

Today passed by so quickly.. As it is weekend again, it was time for some more sightseeing and shopping.

I started my day of with some laundry (my bedding this time) and a shower (half freezing cold, the other part burning warm..). After my laundry was finally done Kaho and I went to the subwaystation of Tian'anmen Square to meet up with Beth. Kaho needed to do some serious souvenirshopping, so she decided to do that, while we would visit a museum. When she was done shopping she would contact us to meet up.
So Beth and I walk towards the middle of the square to have a good look of the mausoleum of Mao. We really wanted to get inside, but for some strange reason this thing closes at 12 o 'clock, and we were there at 11.50 or something.
So we just decided to walk on and go to the Beijing Exhibition Center Hall, where you can visit tiny Beijing. Beth felt totally at home there as a giant (as you can see in this picture). She loved the small things and I told her she should definitely come to the Netherlands to visit Madurodam. We walked around there for a while and also saw a 4D movie about the traffic in Beijing. It was not really interesting, but it was a lot of fun to see Beth being amazed by the 4D.. She is from Canada ;)

After we saw all of the museum, we went out to get some lunch. We bought some kind of eggpancake with some vegetables in it. It was 5 yuan, so we were told. So we paid and got that thing to eat, which they also put a sausage in. Apparently you need to pay separately for those, because a Chinese woman started yelling at us when we walked away.

Beth also convinced me in getting a Caramel Frapatino at the Chinese Starbucks. Something I need to tell is that Beth clams to have Starbucks as a religion. I think it is more her drug,, Whenever she sees a Starbucks her minds seems to go blank. She doesn't respond to you and starts walking faster towards the building. I am glad I already caught up on this behavior.
We went shopping in the Qianmen street. I bought a lot of souvenirs already, a really cool snake ring for myself (because I am born in the year of the snake), a new handbag (because I didn't bring mine, needed one, and it is just a great excuses to buy a bag in China) and even a fancy protective bag for my public transport card (I will totally feel like a local person using that thing). As cool as these things are, Beth bought the coolest of things. She actually got a clay made clone of herself! It was made while we waited for like 20 minutes and it looked amazing. I am thinking about getting one myself as well. I am just curious what I would look like.. but then again.. where do you put a thing like that in your house?

We also decided to go to the Natural Historic Museum of Beijing. Meet the dinosaurs.
It was cooler that I would have expected. They even had a Jurisac Park with a lot of big dinosaurs. They didn't move though. We walked around there while we talked about a lot of stuff. I love the fact that you meet new people so easily when you are abroad. But I love it even more that I am actually starting to build up friendships here :)

After the museum we met up with Kaho again at the McDonalds. Yes, we had dinner there. And you know what? It was delicious! To eat some "normal" food. Just fries with a McChicken, and Icetea (because McDonalds has that here). And of course a McFlurry as dessert. I was totally stuffed after that. Since we are going to have a long day tomorrow, we went home after this.

There I got on skype and talked to one of my close friends. Which was so much fun! I am starting to realize that I do miss my friends a lot. I talk to my parents and my boyfriend quite regular, but I didn't talk a lot with my friends yet. So it was so nice! Too bad that my internetconnection fell away during the conversation. But I am sure we will find a moment to make up for that ;)

Also: today is the birthday of the father of my boyfriend. So I wish him a shengri kuale! And I hope the party tonight is the best!

Love,
R