La Fin

This afternoon I'm hopping back onto Air Canada for a whole long time and will be back in Canada 45 minutes later (the time change does weird things.)

This has been an amazing, educational, challenging, fantastic 6 weeks! 

Stay tuned, ill no doubt post a link to the photos once I get home and upload them.

Home stretch

When I wake up in the morning only 2.5 days left! I've started my packing and the first things I want to do when back (farmers market! Fresh fruit and veg! Clean air!!!)

Apologies to those who were liking the daily posts on here, I got derailed from a few aspects and just never caught up. I promise ill go through all my pictures with whoever wants to when I'm home!! 

Before I wrap this up, here's a few gems:

Seen on a menu: Fried enema

Apparently "Quebec Poutine" - I had to order it. No, it wasn't good at all and no, I didn't eat the whole thing

Ill have to write a final recap before I go. But just remember the mantra "T-I-C" whenever you see something or have an experience that is just so... China.

 "this is china", shake your head, and enjoy the ride! 

Almost home time!

I wrote a whole post this afternoon and I guess it didn't save offline because now it is gone. 

Instead of writing right now, I'm going to bed. But I'll leave you with one pic from my weekend for now...

Overlooking the forbidden city

Ok then...

Dessert: Magnetic Bread

I don't know why it's magnetic but it was tasty

Footwear on the subway

That's a guy wearing nylons with those shoes. I'm going to be fashion police for a second here and Just, no. 

The corner of sin? 

Lions and Tigers and Crowds oh my!

Today I made my way to the zoo. It was amazing to see all the mamals in their natural habitats:

Sorry I had to...

As i was saying. 

I made it too the zoo a bit later than I had expected, which was too bad because it was really crowded. Lots of families. Children. Crowds. Ugh. The animals were great but sadly it was midday and they were all napping. 

Panda!!! It was especially cute when he shifted around and almost looked like he (she?) was gonna get up and walk around. But alas it decided to continue dreaming while making cute chewing faces. Aw so cuddly

This one sleeps like Mila does... 

To note, real pandas aren't all white like pop culture and stuffed animals lead us to believe. These guys looked like they could use a bath! ;) 

There were more animal, monkeys, elephants, white Bengal tigers, etc. I didn't stay all that long though  cuz dodging families with sugared up children just ain't my thang. 

Lemur is trying to steal your soul...

A few more pictures

From my adventures in the past few days: 

One of the buildings in the lama temple 

Oh yah, I forgot to tell you.. I'm in California now, not BJ

I may come home with a lot of cute puppies I've puppy-napped

Apologies for being somewhat absent on the blog this week. I've been working hard during the day and crashing out early in the evening. I've got to step up my adventures though since I've less than 2 weeks left. Wow. Where did the time go?? 

Other than a few dinners this week, nothing to report until my adventures today.. 

This morning I headed to the lama temple (no alpacas.. Sorry) 

The entrance 

It was very peaceful, people burning incense, lots of Buddhist statues, etc. more pictures on the camera (I guess I'll be posting a lot of pictures for everyone once I'm home... If anyone is interested in seeing these things that I speak of?) 

Near the lama temple you have this wonderful old architecture and...

... Nice that they kept the historical feel but. Really.?

Even the signs were peaceful by the lama temple: "green grass shade check in one step". 

... 

Then I decided instead of hoofing it all day, I'd play !!TAXI CAB RUSSIAN ROULETTE!! (That's supposed to be read in a game show announcers voice btw) 

So here's how it works:

1. Flag down a taxi - make sure it is a legal, metered cab, not one that will quote you some insane price - this is sometimes the hardest part of the game

 2. Hop in the cab, tell them where you want to go.

- Conversation goes like this: 

Me: Solana Mall???

Cabbie: Blank stare

Me: SO-LA-NA

Cabbie: ...

Me: (pulls out guidebook map, finds a park in the neighborhood of where I want to go)." Chaoyang park." (Pointing in the map) 

Cabbie: Chaoyang parku???

Me: yes (nodding like mad)

Cabbie: AH! Chaoyang (starts driving)

3. At this point I know the city enough, I'm going in at least the correct direction, so I've at least won the game. 

Bonus points: see a sign for the destination, get the cabbies attention, point and gesture at the sign while repeating "SO-LA-NA", cabbie clues in, all is right in the world, I make it to my destination! 

Keep in mind that you don't always win taxi cab Russian roulette! There's some false starts and you don't necessarily always find yourself where you want to be, but there's always the option of getting out and flagging down another cab, to start the game again! 

I'm off to enjoy my "afternoon" tea... More fun to report later 

Great Wall Photos

The guide from my great wall hike sent me the photos she took of us hiking. I'm the one with the bright green backpack, and sitting on the steps of the watchtower in the first pic. You can see what an AMAZING day we had :)


Dinner tonight, Peking duck dinner tomorrow. Other than that working hard and nothing to report!