It's 4:30 am and I can't sleep. I was think about yesterday. I had an interesting encounter, but forgot to include the story in my blog.
At Beijing Olympic Park, I started feeling lightheaded, so I needed to eat something. I saw a small stand with chips and noodles (they have oodles and noodles everywhere outside). I asked the lady for the lays chip from the top shelf. She instantly grabbed her husband because she had no idea what I was saying. I pointed to the chips, and her husband grabbed them. The hardest part was figuring out how much. He didn't know his numbers in English, and I didn't memorized the numbers in Chinese. He took the palm of his hand, took his finger and tried to write the number on his palm. I had no idea what he was writing. I pulled out the keypad on my phone so he could show me the number. He showed me an 8. I then requested a Coke. He automatically knew what I was talking about and went straight for the Coke. He showed me a 6 on the keypad. Before I got my money out, I wanted to confirm 8 yuan for the chips and 6 yuan for the Coke. On the keypad, he typed in 14. So I paid him. It was interesting how we can find ways to communicate with others with a language barrier. He didn't get frustrated with me , and I didn't get frustrated with him. I am truly loving this experience. But I do need to memorize the numbers. I forgot I had a Phrasebook and some Chinese cheat sheets in my backpack. I think I like the way we went about it better.
Did you see my panda face mask? I paid 10 yuan for it which is $1.67 US. Cheap right?
Adjusting to this sleep pattern is not working out for me. I have to be up in about an hour to shower and eat breakfast. At 7:30am we leave for our next tour of the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. We will hike the Great Wall, which our guide said will take us at least one hour and thirty minutes. It's going to be freezing outside, so I will bundle up. Hopefully, the walk will keep us warm. I will be sure to take a lot of pics and post them here. Until then, peace!