Weekend in Beijing at my sister's house!

Saturday morning I left my beloved Yanqing to venture to Beijing for the first time since I arrived in China. Since I don't know my way around the transportation system here, my roommate graciously offered to go with me my first time and when we got to Beijing she would stay with her brother while I would stay with my sister. We first took a taxi to the bus station, which is 5 yuan. Actually it is 5 yuan wherever you go in Yanqing which is really nice. I think I already explained this in a previous post, but as a refresher course, one US dollar is equivalent to 6.6667 yuan. So not too shabby to go anywhere in Yanqing for less than a dollar. Of course, once you buy a bike, it's always free after that. :) Anyway, so once we got to the bus station I found out that you can take any bus at that station and it will go to Beijing. I guess each bus station goes to a different area, which makes it much easier for me to do myself. The bus I need to take to Beijing is 919 and any 919 will do. After about an hour and a half of riding the bus, we finally arrived in Beijing, only to find that all the cabs around us have people in them because it is rush hour. So after about 20 minutes of standing, walking to a new area to wait some more, we finally found a cab. I arrived at my sisters place about two and a half hours after leaving Yanqing--not the easiest and most convenient trip. But once I walked into her home, it was so amazing. I realized that she had a toilet, a shower, and a huge king size bed for me to sleep on, and last but not least, I could order pizza! It was like heaven. I felt like a kid in a candy store. It's crazy how much you miss the little things when you are living in a new country. I am just so thankful I have my sister and rob (the husband) to look after me and be there for me. They have really made this trip and transition that much easier on me, and because I know my sister is one of the few people that read my blog, I would just like to thank her directly. Sarah, you mean so much to me and I really don't know what I would do here without your love and support. I know you tear up really easily, and just thinking about it makes me tear up too. But they are happy tears because of you. 

Anyway, enough with the mussy stuff. So we ordered pizza and pasta and got massages together. It was really nice. Then we went to Rob and Sarah's friends house for a party that had really amazing Moroccan food. There was a lot of meatballs and sausage so I was really happy. Anytime there is meat I am really happy. 

Observation: The Chinese here do not like to make plans. I am struggling with this because at home it is all I do with my friends. Here, people just tell me to wait for them to call me, which is annoying because then I can't do anything all day because I have to wait for their call. I mean I guess I don't really have anything to do all day except teach and eat, but still, its frustrating because I can't do laundry (by hand may I add) or take a nap without being paranoid that I will have to leave at any moment. They also do not like waiting. I mean no one likes to wait, but they expect you to be ready whenever they call, which is hard and inconvenient. This is why I like to know when you would like to see me or give me a time when you would like to leave. But of course, this is not how they do things here. 

So the reason I bring up the making plans issue is because my roommate would not tell me a time that she wanted to leave Beijing. She kept telling me to "get a good rest" and that she would tell me in the morning, but that is annoying because I don't know if she means she will wake me up or that she will call me when she is ready to go, assuming I am ready to go as well. So really, this meant that I had to be up at 830AM on Sunday so I could be ready whenever she called. Not fun. At all.