My Itty Bitty Footsteps through life: Food, Massage, Tea, Music, Friendly Shopkeepers, Bargaining.

That basically sums up last weekend. It was a very good weekend, I must say.
Productive because my friends and I went out on our own to learn and experience.
Relaxing because I did not open my Chinese books at all since my last day of exams was on Friday.
Fulfilling because I had so much good food!

Annika and I celebrated the end of our first exams with our tutor, Chen Lin.. with a trip to the Zhongguancun mall and a Taiwan 火锅 hotpot dinner. Hotpot in China really is different from Steamboat in Malaysia. For one, we don't have all the same ingredients. Some of the ingredients that Chinese people put in their hotpot are really weird. And the most distinct difference to me, is that in China, everything that you take out of the hotpot, you dip into a bowl of sauce to cool down. Back in Malaysia, we scoop out the food from the Steamboat into an empty bowl and then add some of the soup into our bowls. But here in China, no one drinks the soup, and there are no empty bowls.. only a bowl of sauce.. either 芝麻酱 sesame paste or some kind of oil.

Those round ball things. I still don't know what they're made of. They reminded me of a mix of taufu pok and bread. Did not like it very much.

My tutor.. who has helped me so much in my Chinese.

After a night of dancing to good music on Friday.. Stephanie, Annika and I decided to go get back massages. I was never very keen on getting massages before I came to Beijing.. Massages always seemed to me like something that I would never do.. just because whenever I see ads of massages, the person getting massaged is always half-naked.. or naked. Wouldn't it be really embarassing to have someone masssage you when you're half-naked? Maybe it's just me. I'm really self-conscious. After my first massage here in Beijing and I didn't have to do it naked.. I thought I never would have to do a massage naked Ever! Little did I know... My 'naked-massage' cherry has now been popped. My back-massage on Saturday was with me half-naked. At first, they wanted us to wear disposable pants and disposable underwear.. but we very politely declined... and kept our own pants and underwear on. At least it was a good massage, and we were massaged by girls... with sweet-smelling oil! and a hot towel wipe down of our back at the end. It felt good. (I'm re-reading what I wrote.. and words like 'naked' and 'half-naked' and 'underwear' just seems really inappropriate.. keeping in mind who reads my blog.. Annie's host parents, my own parents, the people I work with... but what other words can I use?!)

On Sunday, after a very grouchy start to the morning... my friends and I decided to get off our lazy asses and head over to Liu Li Chang for some bargain shopping of knicks and knacks. Definitely one of my favourite places here in Beijing so far. Old narrow shops selling Chinese paintings, Chinese seal stamps, antiques, hand-made products, tea... Aaah.. we had an amazing time, practicing our Chinese language during bargaining and with curious questions... and practicing our comprehension abilities　听力 with the very proud usage of various 生词 new vocab words that we learned in class with the shopkeepers. Words like 自然（natural), 野生（wild), 肺（lungs) ... =D

We sat in this tea shop with this lady for the longest time, learning about tea while drinking tea. We learned about the types of tea that's considered as 女人茶 women's tea... that is supposed to be good for a women's body - fermented tea. I never knew that. Drinking tea here in China really is a form of art. The act of pouring a tea when drinking with a guest and the different types of teapots that are used for different kinds of tea.. Then there's the different kinds of cups that are used.... This owner of the teashop, teaches tea knowlege in a university in Beijing. We learned that tea is better than drinking medicine, because it does not hurt your liver and kidneys. Because Stephanie and I were coughing while drinking our tea, she told us that we should drink more women's tea 女人茶.. especially Stephanie who according to her looked very weak. haha.

Stephanie, Andrea and I decided that the Lychee (lichi) tea with roses (yeah, real dried roses) added into it defined what we would call 'a pretty taste'. I don't know how else to describe the taste of it.. other than using the word 'pretty'. I have never heard of Lychee tea before.. and I loved the taste of it... so of course, I bought some to bring back to Malaysia for the parents to taste. My dad will probably hate it.. and mum will probably say it tastes too sweet.. but hey.. I'll drink it! According to the tea lady, adding a 1-2 roses to your lychee tea in the beginning of the week will make you feel like you're living a beautiful life. 1-2 roses is also supposed to help you find love... now who wouldn't like that? 方一两个玫瑰，喝的时候，你就会喊决好象你过的生活真得很幸福。你们年轻女生，喝玫瑰茶的时候，就会觉得好像今天可以碰到一个帅男生。Anyone else want real authentic Chinese tea?? I don't mind taking orders. Really!

There were so many shops like this one right here.. with interesting cutesy handmade items on display. Shops like this, i just cannot resist going in.. And I start fingering all the really cute Chinese figurines and always feel so damn tempted to own one.

We also went into a Chinese musical instrument shop. Andrea here plays wind instruments... and hence was very tempted to try out the Chinese flutes and this very lovely sounding pipe-like instrument. Of course, she ended up buying one. Must say that I was really tempted to get one too... I don't know why. But I didn't. (Mum and Dad, don't hyperventilate! =D)

That night, I had a delicious home-cooked Japanese dinner with my new Japanese friends. My dorm building does not have a kitchen, hence the 'we-never-cook' situation. Naomi and Kaori's dorm has a 'kitchen'... it's basically a small tiny room with ONE hot plate, a sink, and counters. That's the kitchen. The ONE hot plate, can't heat up big frying pans as we found out that night.. and only worked with small pots. So we fried Okonomiyaki in a small pot. My first time even hearing of Okonomiyaki. It's basically a Japanese pancake. Ingredients: Okonomiyaki flour, taro, eggs, water, squid/pork and some Japanese sauces... Delicious. I am so used to English being the common language between me and other people from other countries when I'm in the US.. but here in Beijing, the common language is Chinese. Not everyone can speak English. When you meet someone of a different country, you start with a ni hao 你好！and not a "How are you?". Even if you meet an African, or a European.. you start with a 你好 and continue on with Chinese.