Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Lizzy and I had many things to celebrate today, our first day completely on our own and we did awesome!!!

First, we had a leisurely morning at our hotel.  I made us coffee and we spent some time updating our blog and making a game plan for the day.  Our main goal was to find the grocery store nearest to our hotel.  We had lunch on the way at a spot where we will become regulars.  The menu was in Chinese and we started to panic.  How on earth would we order?  There was only one other couple in the restaurant and the gal happened to be an English teacher at the High School.  Boy, were we lucky.  Her  English name was Elaine and we told her to order what was best at this particular restaurant.  We had sweet fish, rice, cucumber soup and a vegetable that translates to "good bitter."  It was no corned beef and cabbage but it was one of the best we've had yet!

As we strolled around, we noticed another cozy coffee shop and finally arrived at the grocery store.  At this point, we felt that maybe we should take our first cab back to the Hunter City Mall and do some shopping for who knows what next weekend will bring.  On the way out of the grocery store, there were several smaller stores and low and behold a yarn shop!  For 17CNY ($2.17) I was able to purchase yarn and knitting needles!

We had no trouble hailing a cab and had a new friend, Julia, write down the name of the mall in Chinese so we could simply show the cab driver.  At first we were nervous, the driver was not using the meter but when we arrived he only asked for 10CNY ($1.59) when it is typically a 12-17CNY ride.  Victory.  Lizzy and I did some shopping and had fun wandering around.

There is a Carrefour in the basement of the mall and we decided we would shop there and then take a cab back to the hotel.  Honestly, I have not had that much fun at a store in a long time.  It was fun to see what brands were the same and which were different.  There were live fish and exotic fruits and vegetables.  I could've stayed there all day!

No idea what this is!!!

After such an exhausting day (I know it sounds like all we did was go out for lunch and shop but it's very difficult to interact with the language barrier) we decided to grab some ramen that we could prepare in our rooms and some píjiŭ (beer) and have dinner on the patio.  We chose Tsingtao for it's green can.  It is St. Patrick's Day after all.

Travel tips:

• Always carry a business card for your hotel so you can simply show the cab driver where to go
• Have friends or teachers write down places you like in Chinese so you can find them on your own
• When shopping at the grocery store, make sure everything you buy has a barcode (even produce) otherwise you cannot buy it.  It is not like the U.S. where they weigh it at the check-out or do price checks.  Lizzy and I learned this the hard way.  A British man happened to be in front of us in line and was able to translate this awkward and confusing situation!  

-Natalie