Well we awoke on Saturday morning to find out that at the last minute the Friday Detroit to Beijing fly filled to the brim and Mom and Dad Stiens didn't get a seat. They also were given dim prospects for the Saturday flight, which proved accurate. Now we are shooting for Sunday flight, with much better odds at least.
Julie and I did our best to make the best of it and enjoyed the hotel room. It was quite a room too. It had to be at least twice the size of our apartment. Had a full kitchen, with a washing machine. Two full baths. Two bedrooms and a good size living room, dining room area. It did lack wifi in the room and the TVs were circa 2002, but you can't have everything right?
Before we made it to the hotel it was time to check another item off Julie's 30 before 30 list. She is down to a few but we hadn't made it to the zoo and the air wasn't all that bad and it was relatively warm. Julie wanted me to say it was chilly instead of freezing cold. We liked the monkeys best. There were snub-nosed monkeys which were some of the most disturbing things I've seen ... lately. It really make you appreciate the human nose. Many of the animals were around due to the cold weather. The elephants looked a bit pathetic in their cages. Apparently they don't like the cold. Perhaps our expectations should have been tampered compared to the big fellas we saw in Thailand. We saved the pandas for last. Their were two. The first was concerning. It appeared to have skin issue and was balding. It also seemed to have this tick were it would rotate it's head an open it's mouth every few seconds. The second seemed to be in much better shape. It was quite active but as with most of the animals at the zoo it had a set track it seemed to walk. It also had a rocking chair and a rocking horse. Unfortunately, it never got on either.
Sticking to the theme of Julie's list we got dressed up and headed out to dinner. Not being able to speak Chinese causes some issues including when it comes to trying to make reservations, so we do with out. We showed up at the restaurant and got our place in line. We were number 134 and they were on 69. It's Beijing what can you expect. It didn't take as long as we thought it would and they had some nice snacks in the waiting area for us an our hundred or so friends. When we got our table the restaurant did live up to the billing. Definitely some of the best hot pot we had, had in China. It's taken us almost seven months but now Julie and I feel comfortable going to hot pot on our own.
Due to the lack of wifi in the room I headed out early Sunday morning to Starbucks. Once I arrived it looked closed but the guy in front of me went in, so I followed him in. The man I followed in proceeded to go behind the counter and into the back and I figured it be a bad idea to keep following him so I stopped. No one came out to the counter for about three or five minutes, but it was twenty till seven and I had nothing to do so wait it was. The man I had followed in proceeded to reappear and let me know the store didn't open till seven. Back out the door and off to McDonald's. They were open but the wifi was a little finicky so after a seat change I finally had found out that the Saturday flight had not worked out.
We spent the morning in the city and let the school know we would have to reschedule Monday's activities and hopefully pick-up the parents at the airport Monday afternoon. We'll keep you posted ...
Ryan
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