sally the camel has two humps...

Hopefully by tomorrow (Sunday) I will have all my blog posting updated. I let myself get way behind and now it is a frantic game of catch up. Yesterday (Friday) I told you about our fairly uneventful Wednesday. Thursday was my much anticipated excursion to the zoo! When I was questioned about my desire to go to the zoo naturally I said for the pandas! The pandas did NOT disappoint, there were a number of pandas because a number of them were rescued from the earthquake down south.

The pandas were the highlight of the trip. Apparently the brand new aquarium was great, I did not want to pay $15 to get in, especially when I entered the zoo for $3. The rest of the zoo was...interesting. It was no Lincoln Park or Brookfield Zoo. Our favorite experience of the day was lunch. When I think of lunch at the zoo I think of a picnic, hot dog, popcorn, a sandwich, etc. Here the option is a drumstick, some sort of hot dog looking thing, or what I guessed was fried fish. Most of us went for the drumstick, which was actually really good, weird, but good.

After lunch I got my first request to take a photo with a Chinese girl. It was really awkward. I could tell she had asked her mom if she could take a picture with me. I didn't know if I was supposed to put my arm around her or just stand there, put up the peace sign or even smile! I felt like such an idiot standing there. It wouldn't be the first picture of the day.

Since Jason and I didn't want to go into the aquarium and we really had enough of the zoo we started the task of trying to get a cab back to the train. It was much more difficult than we initially assumed. Without Patrick or any sort of book to point at we were stuck with gestures. Five cabs later, our best train/subway charades attempt had succumbed to the language barrier. No one seemed to understand my truck horn, my underground gesture or the repeated use of the words "train, subway, or underground." We tried to ask a few people for help but we were still unsuccessful. It was hot, I was tired and frustrated. I had accepted the fact that my new place of residence was going to be the zoo. It was nice enough. I could get by. I decided to try one more thing and then give up. I saw a posse of four boys walking toward us; they were about our age, one of them were bound to know English. I worked up my courage, walked up and asked if they knew English. THANKFULLY one of the boys did and he was able to write down our request. We figured that him writing was better than me trying to speak. I probably said thank you about five thousand times and agreed to their request to take a photo.

As Dorothy said, "We aren't in Kansas anymore Toto." During my two weeks here I have realized the language differences here are far greater than those I experienced in Europe. I did anticipate this; many of us have genuinely tried to learn a few choice phrases, but each time we come out sounding like fools. I have essentially given up trying to speak the language. Paired with a smile, it is amazing how far "hello" and "thank you" has gotten me on this trip. As it did in Europe, it embarrasses me that I arrive in another country and expect some one to cater to my language needs. I realize it is impossible to learn every language, but there have been a number of times, whether I was lost in Prague or needed a taxi in China, that I was in desperate need of an English-speaking local. If either of these people needed my help at home I never would have been able to provide it unless they spoke English. Anyway, unless you have experienced it you might not understand the weird feeling, but it is a sad realization.

I was not feeling well so I took a very long 3 hour nap Thursday afternoon, according to the roommate I was in a coma. When I woke up everyone was ordering Mexican food...probably not the best choice of food in China. Meh. Since I had so wisely chosen to nap from 5-8 I was pretty wired. Val and I stayed up with the boys to play cards but that was pretty much it for the night!