Sitting on my windowsill, overlooking a frozen, snow covered lake, and watching birds land on naked trees with no leaves, is very contrastive to my Christmas holiday back in Bangkok. Being home with my family was amazing. And to add to that, being able to lie out in the garden under a scorching sun, eating Thai food, and just relaxing for the first time in months was also amazing! To bring in the new year, we lit lanterns on the beach, made wishes and watched our lanterns float up into the heavens. Returning to Beijing a few days later, my flight was delayed by 6 hours in Shanghai because of the intense snowfall in Beijing. 12 hours later and 50 degrees colder, I was walking over a snowy bridge, carrying my luggage with my baba. Returning home to the smiling faces of my mama and sister, i ate dumplings and then curled into my warm bed. I can tell that 2010 is going to be a wonderful year :)
--------First weekend back in Beijing:
Saturday morning after I woke up, I had a bowl of sesame dumplings in a rice alcohol soup (dislike very much), and went to the gym for a little work out session, to help my body get back into shape after eating so many dumplings and noodles!I came back home, had an Indian style rice dish for lunch, and then went to the bank to exchange my money. After that, I hopped on the subway and decided to be adventurous. I sat on the subway for a while, and then got off at a random stop.
I ended up at a station called 和平门 (he ping men), which to my luck, was a neighborhood full of Hutongs (the old Chinese residential homes). It was a beautiful day with blue skies, snow carving the pavements and a tranquil silence throughout the city. Exploring the Hutongs is my favorite thing to do here in Beijing. I get to practice my Chinese outside out of the classroom, take photos, taste exotic foods, take different modes of transportation etc etc etc.
So after 4 hours of walking around, making friends with meat sellers, playing tag with little girls and boys, asking old woman whether or not they were happy with their China today, tasting food that local chefs offered me, being brought into someone's home to look around and conversing in German with a shop keeper who played Austrian songs on a flute to me, I truly had the best Saturday I have ever had in Beijing.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
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