(the following actually happened last Wednesday, June 16, but I wasn't able to circumvent China's internet censors too easily, so I couldn't get on this site until now..... thanks, china.)
After touching down in Seoul at the crack of dawn, I had to waste 4 hours until my final flight to China. No problem. I ate my way through the airport... BiBimBap, Ramen, etc....yum. The most interesting thing by far was kimchi-filled, seaweed-filled, and chili paste-filled chocolates. I'll let you come to your own conclusions about those.
Then I finally get to the Beijing airport, expecting it to be awesome or something because of the '08 olympics, and there isn't jackshit to do here. Just a few stores, some restaurants, and that's it. So, I did what the locals do.... went to Starbucks. Typically this would go against my travel motto of "try new things," but I managed to get my hands on one of these, which is apparently insanely popular this summer (huge line to get one).
Not bad for a drink with actual sesame seeds in it. Oh, and this Starbucks had waitress service, which I feel is a bit unnecessary. You can sit across the terminal and some little asian girl will bring you your drink. Definitely the easiest way to confirm the stereotype that Americans are fat and lazy: order a 1000-calorie drink, but get someone else to make the 50-foot walk to and from the checkout line. Classic.
After three hours of people-watching, I noticed that not a single fat person had walked through the airport. Not even one. Good job, Asia, for keeping the world a little less .... fat. (I would've used the word "ugly" instead of "fat," but the teeth on some of these Chinese girls are just AWESOME.)
Five hours later, and CET finally is here to bring us back to the dorms. Luckily, it's well worth the wait -- this dorm far exceeds what I had in San Jacinto at UT, and probably what anyone else had in any other dorm. It also absolutely defies the living standard in China -- up to 8 students can live together in a space twice the size of your average bedroom.
Message of the day: be thankful for what you have. Oh, and in America, people don't randomly take a shit on the street. More on that to come....
Dude! This is awesome, reminds me of the time I was in Beijing. Especially the random crapping on the street. You will definitely see that a lot. The Beijing Intl Airport only has one nice terminal where all the Olympic athletes arrived in, all the other terminals are pretty ghetto. Same goes for the subway system in Beijing. As you get closer to the Olympic green station, the subway stations just get nicer and cleaner. Keep it coming Boos, I look forward to reading more about your adventure!
ReplyDeletelol pretty much the same experience i've had thus far. especially the... excreting in public
ReplyDeletehaha never seen a random crapping... do tell
ReplyDeleteokay so, you know how toddlers wear these trousers with a big slit in the crotch, so they can just squat and take a crap? yeah? right on the street. And then again, a mother was holding her child over a ledge and he was crapping in midair on the ground. nearly fell over when i saw that one
ReplyDeleteshit on the street hahah
ReplyDeleteholy crap
ReplyDeleteYa it's actually pretty common. Again there's reasons for it. Comes from the farming traditions of having children in the field, and it's just carried over to an urban setting. Obviously there are some adjustment issues going on.
ReplyDelete