Day 3 the arm snatchers!

This morning my mom woke me up because we had to be ready in an hour to go shopping. Surprise surprise... what else do you do here!

I was of course hungry and ran to the kitchen to get a bagel cutting my finger with the large serrated knife (through the nail) and it turns out the bagel was pre-cut. DAMMIT!

We joined some of my moms friend for the pearl market where I picked out my pearls and some Tiffany& Co jewels. Then we went downstairs and I was looking at some belts, checking prices for a friend when the lady gave me an really high price so I said no thank you and walked away and the lady grabbed my arm and I released myself but she followed me and grabbed my arm again and I guess I was not convincing when I asked her to let me go so she had a really tight grip on my arm too tight for comfort and I honestly was afraid I would use too much force to get her off of me. (I wanted to punch her in the face but figured that wouldn't be the best move) I will admit that feeling of being grabbed was not pleasant in the least bit and shook me up some because no one wants to be violated while shopping. No incentive to buy.

Only a few floors down and more shopping calmed me right up. Here I feel so greedy it's like I buy buy buy and want everything...but it's a good price and you can never have too many purses scarves or jewelry right?

Came home to play majong and chill out now we are going to swim, I love this building!

It has been cold these past few day which is nice. Oh yesterday I had warm coke with ginger in it, actually really good.

Maybe Ill take a picture for later.

2 night pics

My mom and I later went out for a burger. The restaurant (Our waiters name was Rainbow Jerry, but he told us to call him RJ...at first I thought he was saying lambo...but when he said RJ it made a bit more sense...I love the "American" names they come up with here.) was located in a cool shopping center called the village and here were some of the cool things I saw:

2 down.

This morning started out with a work out, followed by a feast. My dad and I joined Mr. Xu (pronounced Shoe who is our driver) and his family for a lunch. We had some greens with almonds, broccoli with garlic, tree fungus wasabi, kung pao chicken, chicken dumplings, pork and fennel dumplings, pork and mushroom dumplings, and shrimp, pork,chicken and veggie dumplings and braised pork (which was really a ton of fat, and dissolved in your mouth). Here you don't get rice until you order unlike @ home. All was great and I ate too much and unfortunately I had forgotten to bring my camera with me, quite a shame because I had we then dropped my father off at the airport and it's really a cool looking building, a photo opp missed!

My mom and I joined her friends for some Majong fun...before we knew it 3 hours had passed. I won 6 games!



This is a Majong Win:

Day 1 Adventure with Dad

(bear with the weird formatting)
Happy Valentines Day!

My parents have left me for a ball at the Australian Embassy tonight and supposedly Jackie Chan is going to be there as well. My dad let me use his nice new camera to take pictures hahaha. I passed on that invite.

My mom got my dad some lovely horses made out of jade and my dad said "I thought we were over Valentine's gifts" so my mom went to get her nails done discretely(NOT) leaving her discount jewelery store card on the counter for my dad to take with us.

We first went to lunch at this place:



As you can see it is not cold here as I was hoping for, that vest and scarf was almost too much!








So we had some spinach with a peanut sauce that to me had a horseradishy taste to it:



















Then some Kung Pao chicken with peanuts which had a great flavor but was quite spicy, my coke did not help cut the heat. There were boxes of tissues on the table to use for our runny noses.



















Then for our "main dish" we had poached catfish in hot oil (I believe) which was another kind of hot. Different hot as in numbing hot, as in my dad made me chew on this little pod and my whole mouth went numb, it was such a weird sensation. That little thing on he side of the pot:








































We then proceeded to the jewelry store to get my mom some earrings. My dad bought me a rose from the street vendors and we stopped in the bakery to get some dessert and movies.

Not surprising that I am starving so am just waiting on my pizza and already ate my left over gnocchi and some cheetos...I have MILK, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEE'S, and DOUBT to keep me company.

OH this is a view out of the window.














to be continued...

I made it!

Here starts my travels.

I have arrived in San Francisco 30 minutes early, and it appears in the new international area there is no freaking fast food place to grab a snack…..not that I need anything but it would be nice, if I did want something.

I have already been a Japanese tourist and took pictures of the terminal and plane…it’s just that this mural in front of me is really cool….

My gate is downstairs and there is also a plane going to Osaka, Japan and for the life of me I cannot tell Chinese and Japanese people apart. All the loud annoying Americans seem to be going to Beijing as well so that’s just great!

I’d really like to have some sunglasses on right now, I know I am in doors but then I could look at people and they wouldn’t really know. Plus it’s bright but I figured if I needed a pair while in China I could just buy more.

FYI it’s much more convenient to travel with someone…solo trips are annoying for the fact I have to pack up all my junk each time I want to explore the terminal…

I get on the plane and a I was in the middle row second seat in and a woman came to sit next to me, so I went and asked the flight attendant if the flight was full and he said it was...I prayed that no one came to sit next to me and was granted an empty seat next to me which I moved into.

Flying long hours is like being a baby, you get all your food brought to you, eat and then you sleep... repeatedly! I watched 3 movies and read some. I requested low fat meals and they bring them to you before the other passengers so that was nice and it wasn't that bad...for airplane food.

I get in the line to have my passport checked and the woman calls a man over to look at my passport, and he then calls another person over and I have NO IDEA what is going on and why all of these people need to look at my passport, it's not like the nice ones that you scan. It's an old one I got renewed in Bahrain so everything has to be entered manually. Well it turns out I did not put the II after my name on the arrival form and it was on my passport so they were questioning it. They took it to this backroom and made a photo copy... I guess the idea of a girl named after her mother is unusual here.

My mom loved my haircut and my dad didn't recognize me...haha I will have pictures to come.