Autumn Festival Adventure

So starting Wednesday, all of China has about two weeks off because the Autumn Harvest Festival and National Day on October 1st (kind of like July 4th for us).  We of course do not have all this time off, because they know none of us have every celebrated this before.  We do have a trip to Chengdu planned for next week, but that's only three days off. 

However, Eliza's friends do have the time off from school in Beijing.  Tuesday they texted me, inviting me to hang out with them on the day that starts the Autumn festival.  Shirley and Jane are so nice and although they don't know much english, they speak Chinese very clearly compared to most people in Beijing, which makes it much easier for me to understand their Chinese. So Wednesday after class I went to Hohai with them, and ended up only speaking (mostly) Chinese for the rest of the day! It's great to be forced into it, because if someone who's Chinese knows english, they will usually try to use English to make it easier for you, so this forced me to speak as much chinese as I could. 

The first thing we did was rent a bike with three seats on it.  Which was crazy in the first place, since riding a bike in China period seems hazardous.  There are always so many people that it seems really easy to mistakenly crash into someone. We had a lot of trouble getting the bike to go.  We kept falling over every three seconds, drawing a crowd, and some picture takers.  It was really fun though.  We finally got the hang of it, and were able to ride around the lake, which is gorgeous, with lots of willow trees and a particularly clear and sunny day (which I hadn't seen in a while). 

We also went to a special snack place, where Shirley and I went in while Jane stayed with the bike.  I got to try a bunch of traditional Beijing food which is not commonly eaten today.  I tried cow's stomach, which was pretty good, a type of boiled liver, which I was not a fan of, and "Chinese cheese", which tasted like a custardy yogurt type of thing.  Finally we got a treat which is hockenberry's on a stick with a sugar glaze.  It is my new favorite thing in China.  It's like a little apple with pits on it, and it resembles a less sugary candy apple. SOoo good.

After this Jane invited me to go home for homemade dumplings.  We went to her apartment complex on the subway, then a bus (showing how big Beijing is).  She lives more on the outskirts of the city, I think near the fifth ring road.  The apartment complex was definitely in a farther part of town.  There were six or seven buildings in the same area, I have no idea how all those people park their cars in that tiny lot.  Each apartment building had 22 floors, she lived on the 14th, with only two elevators to get up there.  The apartment itself was very nicely made up. The hallways were sparse, with only the cement that structured the building showing, and you needed to clap your hands to get the lights to go on.  Her apartment was very bright and beautifully furnished.  They only had a squat toilet, but I'm used to using them now. :) Jane had a sister which is unusual for China, and she said that their home was very modest because they have to pay lots of taxes in order to have more than one child.

Jane's friend Amy came over for dinner, (she spoke so fast I could not understand her) but she seemed very nice.  We sat in the living room and had homemade dumplings, chicken wings, watermelon and homemade mooncakes.  I LOVE the homemade mooncakes, they were shaped like a pancake but did not have a filling and were very very good compared to the store bought ones people gave us.  Apparently even Chinese don't really like the store bought ones. Jane is an art student, and showed me some of her artwork, which is gorgeous (Ariel you would love her) and gave me a cd she had painted for a homework assignment, which is hanging in my room now.  I mentioned to Amy that I loved Sichuan food at one point, so she brought me over to her apartment before we left and insisted that I take two bags of delicious homecooked sichuan food with me when I left.  Jane and Amy came with me in the taxi and said goodbye to me at the station.  I hope to hang out with them again soon. :)