What's that smell?!?! Oh... it's China.

GREETINGS! I'M HERE AND I'M STILL ALIVE!

Okay, now for all of you that were worried, I am in Beijing, and still rockin' out! Let's just go through a rundown of items so far that we've done! We have walked SO MUCH over just the past few days... probably 3-4 miles a day. My feet hurt! haha

First off- the plane from LA to Tokyo was HUGE! It was a 3-4-3 seater... a Boeing 777. My legs were crammed into the seat, though.. as they usually are. There was a good movie selection- I watched 21, Fools Gold & Vantage point before trying to sleep for about an hour and a half. Oh, I forgot to mention I only had about 2 hours sleep the night before my flights... I was freaking out, as you can see from my previous blog. Anyway, the flight attendants were very friendly and nice, and one of them randomly asked if I would fill out a survey for the airline. Tokyo to Beijing was a shorter flight and I slept probably half of the flight.. I was just so exhausted.

I landed in Beijing around 8:00pm and after customs (the airport was REALLY clean, by the way, but only to find out that it was JUST built, specifically for the Olympics- haha) Megan was there to pick me up! Thank God, because I don't know what I would've done if she weren't there! We hopped on some trains, and shortly were walking down to our hotel. It was super humid! We dropped off my luggage and went back out for some food because I was hungry after not eating the not-so-appetizing food on the plane. Luckily, McDonald's is 24 hours, so I had a couple cheeseburgers. How authentic! After we went to bed... it's the softest piece of wood I've ever slept on! Seriously, the bed is SO HARD, it's as if you're just sleeping on a box spring itself. haha

8/1- We went to Tian'anMen Square for some photos and saw the Forbidden City from the outside, and Mao's mausoleum from the outside as well. We're going to go to those places later in the trip for a further look. We're getting stares because we're foreigners, it's pretty funny I think... We went to pick up our Olympic tickets and ran into an American who gave us his card and told us to give him a call if we wanted any more tickets- pretty sure he was a scalper. We went in search of a noodle restaurant, but the taxi guy took us in the wrong direction so we ended up at a mall food court eating another authentic Chinese cuisine- PIZZA HUT! It tasted just like at home. We decided to find a movie theatre and shopped at the local Wal-Mart. It was a different experience, though- you can buy live fish there, and they were actually jumping from one tank to another! It was crazy! And there were people buying live shrimp- you just scoop them out with a net, and put them in a plastic bag. Talk about fresh! I don't understand why you would want to pay more for live ones, when the already dead ones are more convenient in my opinion. We walked to the movie theatre, only to find that Kung Fu Panda was the only English speaking movie, so we decided to play in the arcade instead.

They have a game similar to guitar hero, only for drums- precussion master! It was a blast, and I think I played it more than a few times. After heading back to our hotel for a quick break, we went out to another movie theatre and saw Hancock. It had Chinese subtitles but was in English. It was assigned seating, and they had ushers take you to your seat. Very classy place.

8/2- We went to the Temple of Heaven, and MAN was it H-O-T HOT! It was amazing architecture but it all started to look the same after awhile. Reds, blues, greens and yellows are the dominant colors used. It was so hot that we just were kind of over this after awhile, despite the great view of the city (and actual lack of pollution in the air). We went to Sizzler for lung- another American adventure. After, we went to a record store where they had a variety of pop music records from America. My favorite was Jordin Sparks representing the 602 in China! Haha!

We wanted to go to karaoke but they were all private room places and we wanted to sing with a crowd of random people, so we just opted for the regular bars. We went to a place called Red Moon Bar, where they played mainly techno music, but added some Akon and Britney Spears in the mix, before they had a live band. The band was really good- playing Ashlee Simpson and Linkin Park as a few of their songs! I had a Mai Tai, without the alcohol.. it wasn't supposed to be like that, but oh well. haha

8/3- TODAY IN BEIJING- it's 7:45 about here in Beijing as I type this entire blog. That's 13 hours ahead of you Tennesseans, and 15 hours ahead for you Arizonans! We went to the Lama Temple today- there were several Buddhas there symbolizing differe nt things- health, prosperity, and knowledge among others. They had a Buddha that was 55 feet tall carved from one piece of sandalwood. It was a sight to see! Several people were burning inscense and praying to the gods. A short walk across the street and we were at Confuscious' Temple. We walked around a lot saying "Confuscious Say" and some random phrase, just like the stupid fortune cookies we have in America. After, we ate at the fabulous Hard Rock Cafe- westerners were everywhere, of course. It's just something you have to do when you're out of the country and they have a Hard Rock!

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I feel bad for not eating the authentic food yet, but I'm kind of scared to! I don't want to get sick, and I am just thinking that I will.. I haven't had any of the water, of course- bottles only. I feel like I've just got a bunch of play money because it's different colors. Everywhere is yuan and RMB, and American dollars are not spent here, so that's unfortunate. haha- I'm excited to be here, but I seriously CANNOT wait for it to be over and I can be in America where I know what's going on. I feel bad that there's a language barrier and I don't know Chinese to communicate with everyone. There have been some nice people who do speak English and want to practice, so they help you, I just feel bad that I can't ask other people things in Chinese. I'm going to have to learn some more before we go out to the shops and I have to barter. I really just want these Olympic games to start!!

Talk to you soon!! Bye!