A Failed Attempt or Adventure?

I slept in again. Maybe my body is recuperating from all this pollution. Seriously, a detox process might be necessary when I get into cleaner air. I missed the group going to Tea Street because of my sleepiness but I caught up to them on the way to the station. A member of the group printed off Google directions, so we followed those. Not much time passed before we decided to throw out the directions completely. Beijing is a city that changes every year so any directions online will probably be useless. We attempted to get to the Tea Street on our own. We got a majority of the way there before the bus ticket lady kicked us off the bus and didn't tell us what to do.

It was a really cold day so along with great confusion, we were super chilly. This was one of the days where the siberian winds swept over Beijing and made the air much cleaner at the cost of the temperature. We never made it to our planned destination because we had to get back in time for our farewell lunch with Jeremiah. It's really nice that transportation in Beijing is outrageously cheap. Getting to the other side of the city cost us about $1.50. Also, it's great that we can speak Chinese because any other oblivious tourist wouldn't have been able to do what we did with figuring out our own route on the spot and asking for directions.

We got back fast because I pulled the others along with a brisk pace (I'm known for it now). The first thing I did was make hot tea to warm myself up. We headed over to the restaurant of a nice hotel and ate a big meal. I'm also known for how much food I can put down. Always the last one eating and asking to finish other's meals has become commonplace. IES took care of the bill and Jeremiah gave a speech. He said that he always looks forward to the St. Olaf Asian Conversation class every year. We are consistently the most prepared group of all that come to visit Beijing and have made a lasting impact on the program, and continuing a great tradition of the Asian Conners before us. The meal itself was good and I took over the sauteed mushroom dish. This far into the trip, numerous people insist on using their own chopsticks at meals. I'm pushing for a 'chopstick pledge' when we return to Olaf, to only use chopsticks at mealtime.

A brief class followed lunch. Most people went into town afterwards but I had to catch up on some of my own work. I skyped my parents again and complained to them about how little money I had left. I didn't run out of money, I just didn't want to exchange more at the bank this late into the trip. I decided that food was my only spending option at this point.