Goodbye Beach, Hello School

Waking up early Monday morning and doing homework before class was rough. I already miss the beach!

Qingdao Day #2

The day started off early as we wanted to take advantage of our last few hours in Qingdao. Did we really go to the Tsingtao brewery at 9am? Yes, yes we did. It was really cool to see the history of Tsingtao beer as well as seeing the current manufacturing and packaging system. There were cans and bottles of Tsingtao beer being filled, labeled, and packaged. I can't even imagine having a job that requires me to stand all day and stare at cans and bottles! My favorite part of the brewery would have to be seeing the marketing and PR of the company through the years. I gotta admit, it could use some work. The funniest part though would have to be the Drunk House. It was this interactive/optical illusion building and it definitely threw me off balance as I walked through. Definitely an attractive spot of brewery tour.

After our ridiculous 9am tour of the Tsingtao brewery, we took a mini tour of the city while sitting in a cab en route to the beach. The city is quite beautiful with its Western influenced buildings. Back in the day Qingdao was controlled by Germany so the city is filled with German influences. It was so pleasant to see pretty single family homes in China. The little things that I miss!

Day 2 on the beach was even more fabulous than day 1. We were on a true, legitimate beach (not the pier) and it was sunny and balmy out. I had an absolute blast sitting around, baby watching, and spending time journaling. I swear, I was made for the water. There are very few things that beat the sound of waves crashing, the smell of saltwater, the satisfaction of sinking my feet in sand, and the feeling of sun-kissed skin.

Appropriately, we ended our Qingdao trip with a seafood feast! Qingdao was fabulous and a great de-stressing weekend.

Tsingtao Brewery

too many wedding photo shoots on the beach

riding first class on our way back to Beijing! ...not worth it. seriously.



Basking in the....Cold?

Qingdao Day #1.

So I guess we were VERY wrong about the weather? How is it possible that it is warmer by approximately 20 degrees in Beijing than it is here in Qingdao. I'm slightly concerned. After hauling our tire selves to the train station at 5:00am on Saturday we FINALLY arrived to Qingdao by noon. Checked in to the hostel, dropped our bags off, and immediately went exploring.

We stumbled across a busy food street by accident and basically gorged on seafood the entire afternoon. After getting our fix of clams, shrimp, and grilled squid on sticks, we finally hit up the beach. Oh how cold it was!! After trying to bear the cold for awhile, we finally gave in and purchased the cheesiest fleece blanket to bundle ourselves up in. Best RMB 29 I've spent. Bundled up, we began to do what we do best: PEOPLE WATCH. Children are simply too adorable here.

The beach, while GORGEOUS, was not particularly the cleanest. Trash everywhere, people spit and do their personal business on the sand, and in general I don't even want to think about what I stepped in. As we packed our belongings up and headed off the sand, people were so fascinated by the fact that Rachael and I were Americans. A few conversations were struck and we made a couple of new "friends." We actually met the smartest girl ever. She was five years old and spoke Chinese, Spanish, and English. Talk about impressive.

What did we end our night with? More seafood and fresh brewed beer. Both exhausted, we headed back to the hostel and hung out in the cafe. Old souls...or I just am.

Driving through the country-side

Rachael and I gorging on seafood while visiting Food Street

Sunset at the beach

Dinner!

love this



Worst Trip Planners Ever

So Rachael and I had the BIGGEST fail of our lives yesterday (Friday). After her Chinese class, we threw everything into a bag and RAN to the train station...only to find out that there were no more tickets available for the day. Seriously? Who's going to Qingdao?? We ended up booking tickets for the next morning (Saturday morning) for a 7:10am train. Waking up at 4:30 was not pleasant whatsoever.

In order to redeem ourselves last night from our poor trip planning, we wound up embracing the "freebird status." I'm quite in love with this term that my Little cMm created while she's abroad in London. "Freebird status" is pretty self-explanatory: doing things for the heck of it because you only live once. So last night, Rachael, Andrea (my roommate), and I decided to adventure around the city. The first task on the list was to hit up a bookstore to find some beach reads. After walking out of the store empty-handed, we hopped onto the metro and headed out to find a Russian restaurant.

Russian restaurants in China? Interesting. The entire restaurant was mainly Chinese and was owned by a Chinese native. The funniest moment of the night would have to be our little sour cream debacle. Rachael had asked for some sour cream for our potato pancakes and guess what the waiter brought out. ...cream. We all burst out laughing because it was COMPLETELY off target but we survived without the sour cream. At the end of the meal the sour cream came back into the hilarity of the entire night. The waiter wound up charging us RMB 5 for the tablespoon of "sour cream." We honestly could not believe it.

All in all, I'm glad we missed the train on Friday night and had our little Russian dinner adventure.

***Poor Internet connection means no pictures available right now***

I'm currently in Qingdao right now typing up this post. It's been a great first day! However, it has now been affirmed that I am not a hostel-type of gal. My friend Sam is 100% correct whenever he calls me high-maintenanced.

Headed out for the Weekend!

TGIF! Registration was a success! I was able to get into all of the sections I wanted. Next semester will most likely be my toughest semester: Private Wealth Management, Export/Import Management, International Marketing, Investment Analysis, and Business Policy and Strategy. It's a bit terrifying!

Just one more class and then my friends and I will be booking it to the train station to catch a train to Qingdao. Can't wait for this trip. All I can say is, beach, sunshine, endless amounts of seafood, and a brewery. Sounds like the most relaxing trip ever.

I'm not sure of the wifi situation in the hostel but if I can't connect onto the internet, see you all on Monday!