Project Chungguk: Day 4

I could talk about Day 1 of my epic China-Korea graduation trip, but it mostly involved getting to the airport, getting on the plane, and, well, riding on the plane. Day 2 consisted mostly of the same thing, except I also got off the plane in China and made my way to my hotel and slept a bit. I wrote down pertinent thoughts in my journal but I forgot to bring it with me to transcribe, so that can wait until later. (I will share though, because there are a lot of interesting thoughts about airlines, flying, and the like, and also some poignant moments about the Sichuan Earthquake. We are in our third official day of morning. I love you, China. Jia you.)

Day 3 was more interesting. I braved the Beijing roads again (with aid and with a proficient Chinese driver - these roads are murder; I would not volunteer to drive on them) to pick up Michelle at the airport. In the afternoon, we browsed a shopping mall but the fashions were so bling as to totally hurt our soul. I feel that, however, had Big Bang been girls, they would have all been very happy there. I say this with love because I adore BB, but guys, they are so bling. True facts.

We got invited out to dinner that night too by all of my mom's Beijing friends - past teachers, colleagues, friends, etc. - who had all seen me crawl around their floor and laps when I was barely two years old. They adore me and I appreciate it because they pay for things. :D I know how to be gracious. Michelle and I had a lovely dinner filled with delicious (and expensive but, hey, we weren't paying) Chinese food that was impossible to find in the U.S. We each finished a giant bottle of Chinese beer too, because we could and because peer pressure (or not so peer, seeing as these were all adults well into and past their prime) is a very, very effective method of persuasion. We have some tipsy pictures. More importantly, we came to some amazing tipsy conclusions. I bear to you: 1. Donghae is perfect. 2. Donghae is more perfect than Jesus. 3. Donghae is Jesus. (And God is damned glad for him as a son, let me tell you.)

But even better, you guys, and far more important and exciting is Day 4. That's today. LET ME TELL YOU THESE TALES. Oh lord, where do I even begin? Michelle and I began the day by discovering the internet cafe across the road from our hotel, where we promptly spent two hours trying to find SJM's schedule in Tianjin tomorrow. After all that, all we discovered was that the location and time of their autograph session was a temporary secret. What the fuck?! Make our fangirling lives so hard, so tragic. We preservered though, and found the address of and directions to Han Geng's mom's dumpling shop: Mei Hua Jiao Zi. (We were so hardcore. It's too bad I can't upload pictures to illustrate: we took a camera shot of the directions for future reference. We were amazing. I will at some point, later, post the address and directions to the place in English, for the sake of anyone else who wants to go! Fan info networks are awesome.)

Then Michelle and I wasted about two hours shopping. I won't go into this much but just know that we saw so many shops we started getting dizzy, and we each bought two articles of clothing and spent under 10USD each. And these were nice articles of clothing. (Pictures later! Pictures of so much!) Our total purchase per girl was about 60yuan.

Then we took the bus to the area where the dumpling shop was. We got a little confused but we asked for directions and found it. WE FOUND THE DUMPLING SHOP HAN GENG BOUGHT FOR HIS MOM. WE TOOK PICTURES. WE HAVE PROOF FOREVERMORE.

We went inside and the walls were plastered with pictures of HG, no joke. I actually hadn't expected that at all. It was both hilarious and also slightly unnerving. Two women met us and seated us and took our orders, but neither was his mom. We ordered two plates of dumplings and some spicy shrimp dish, plus a giant bottle of green tea. Let me list you the prices: 12yuan for one dumpling dish (lamb meat), 18yuan for one dumpling dish (seafood), 30yuan for spicy shrimp dish, 8yuan for the drink, totally 68yuan. So that's one meal for two girls at a little under 10USD.

Okay, I'm going to move on a little bit right now. It might sound like a tangent, but bear with me, I will get back to the dumpling shop. Now, before I came to China, I heard all sorts of horror stories from my mom and from various internet blogs, etc etc. People are going to steal your money and your purse, they are going to rip you off if you seem foreign, they are going to be rude and unhelpful and if you're not careful you will end up broke or dead. All lovely stories, and as far as I've seen, not at all true.

Granted, people are a little ruder here. They'll bump into you and they won't say sorry, because there are just many damned people. You'd be saying sorry all the time. But no one has made even the slightest effort to steal anything or rip us off at all. The worst we've gotten are some funny looks from people as we walk down the street and jabber in English. We get some amused looks from people when we explain to them that we're visiting from America and that our Chinese is a little rusty/poor and could they please help us find insert-whatever-here (internet cafe, this one street, Mei Hua Jiao Zi, the bus that will take us to the zoo, etc.) - but other than that, nothing. And even if people are amused by us, they still help us. We have gone all over Beijing on the bus routes (1yuan per ride! Anywhere! And with the bus cards we now have 40cents for each ride; public transportation is effing amazing) and with aid, have gotten everywhere we wanted to go.

The food has been incredibly cheap. The shopping, also cheap! Really love shirts/shorts/dresses for less than 10USD that you'd be paying upwards of 30, 40, 50USD for in the States. Prices are amazing in China, even if the exchange rates have gone down. As long as you don't try to shop in the trendy Westernized department stores (where everything is the same price or more expensive than in the West), you will be able to buy so much for so little. It's incredible (and also makes me glad I'm not with my parents, who would question everything I bought).

Food, as I mentioned before, cheap. We had dinner tonight with two large plates of rice noodles, a plate of fried eggplant, a plate of fried shredded potato, and a bowl of tangyuan (idk how to explain this: tapioca balls with sugar and sesame in the middle, so good). Total? 37yuan. A little over 5USD.

So you wanna know something? We stopped at a convenience store afterwards and found the same giant bottle of green tea we had for lunch (that cost us 8yuan) - for 5yuan. (We also say Wang Lee Hom on the Wahaha water bottles, which made me laugh, but that's irrelevant.) The lady who treated us to dinner tonight also told us that typical plates of dumplings should be 10yuan. And that spending 68yuan at a dumpling shop for what we had for lunch? Kind of ridiculous. She laughed at us.

I cried inside, guys. Cried.

Han mama, I love you and I admire the hell out of you for raising Han Geng, but WHY ARE YOU THE ONLY PLACE IN CHINA THAT'S RIPPED US OFF SO FAR? Michelle and I have been so bitter, you have no idea. But don't worry, it's a laughing sort of bitterness, because part of me is still incredibly \o/ about finding the dumpling shop and, moreover, eating there. Who needs self-respect? I threw out dignity when I became a Kpop fangirl and I'm comfortable with that. Also, another part of me also admires Han Geng's mom (and the ladies, possibly relatives, possibly just close family friends) for using HG's fame to do business. 'Cause, damn, smart business sense; I would totally pimp out my son like that too if he were famous and hot and had bought me a dumpling shop. Fuck yes.

But I really did spend most of the afternoon going ;_____;. Why did we spend so much there? How could they charge us so much there? HAN MAMA, YOU DON'T EVEN NEED THE MONEY. YOUR SON IS RICH AND ALSO PERFECT. Second to Jesus.

(Then that led to a rabbit trail of God totally wishing he had made Jesus a famous boy bander 'cause that would've been hot. Exactly what Jerusalem needed. AND THEN WE REALIZED: 12 apostles + Jesus? OMG SUPER JUNIOR. It was meant to be, guys, meant to be. And God must approve because I've yet to be struck down by lightning.)

So, really, that sums up most of my adventures for the day. Tomorrow Michelle and I are somehow going to end up in Tianjin (an adventure with the train awaits us, I think...oh dear), and somehow find SJM and their fucking autograph session, and we will totally shout at Henry in English. I will wear my Canada shirt in his honor. It will be amazing, trust me. I will fulfill my life's goal (newly formed) of staring at SJM and possibly complaining to HG about his mom's dumpling shop's prices. I am so lying about that, of course, but yeah. I have no idea how tomorrow will turn out.

Another week and a half awaits me in China! Expect more shopping and more fangirling! Tonight I bought a magazine for 1.1USD with a free SJ poster, SJ in Ivy Club, random ShiBum pics, and also MatsuJun, Aiba Hiroki, Shirota Yuu, Yamapi, Toma, Kame, Jin, and various other random stars. It's kind of amazing. But don't worry, we're going to the Great Wall on Friday, and Saturday we're doing Forbidden Palace, Tiananmen Square, QianMen (idk), and TianTan (Heavenly Palace? I forget the English names). Touristy spots are go. At some point we'll squeeze in the zoo too, since we live pretty much across the street from it.

Beijing welcomes me. And baby I am living it up~ :D

Now to figure out how to get to Tianjin. I'll stay in touch, lovelies.