Our First "Real" Day

Saturday was a day of shopping for things we needed in the apartment and sleeping, so we're counting Sunday as our first "real" day since we did a lot of big things!

1. We went to our school and met the professor who hired us. He was giving a lecture in Chinese about the school to parents who were interested in enrolling their children. We we asked to come at 10am, but we weren't sure why because we sat through his entire Chinese lecture nodding and pretending we understood when in reality we had no idea. He was very nice and when he first met us he asked "Are you girls twins?!" We replied that no, no we're not even sisters. He asked us if we had our DNA checked. HA!

The Professor and the "Twins"

2. We went for a walk in the sculpture park that is right behind our school. It is a beautiful park full of art, river boats, and children with their grandparents (very common for grandparents to take care of young children here). One man came right up to us and said "America?" We eagerly responded "America!!" He asked to take a picture with us. That was the first of many requests like that we've gotten so far. More stories to come. The teacher that we were with was handing out flyers for the school and explaining (in Chinese) that our school is right next door and that we are the new teachers. We were basically a walking advertisement for them! 

3. After the tour of the park we went to the Tea Institute (we call it the tea palace because that is essentially what it is) that is between the park and the school. We were escorted to the farthest room which was through gorgeously designed Buddhist-style rooms. We were told to sit in the "VIP seats" at the table. We were with the professor, his wife and a shareholder of the school. We don't know his name so to us he is Shareholder...! In the center of the table there was a turning table where multiple dishes were places and we selected from it what we wanted. We had chopsticks and a spoon. We had to at least attempt using the chopsticks, which we both did an okay job...until we got to the noodles. That was tricky. The server kindly brought us forks, even though we were both determined to keep trying with the chopsticks. Charlotte was more successful than I was - I'm working on it! Dishes ranged from tofu, to sweet yam ice cream (served with the rest of the food) to pineapple and mushrooms. Everything was delicious! The strangest part to us was that they served us tea, water and orange juice. We sipped along as if it was normal to us. We ended the lunch with an exchange of gifts - the professor gave us vegetables that he grew in his garden (behind the school - used in meals during the day) and we gave him and his wife a few gifts from Boston. Before we left, we were asked to take pictures with the Shareholder and Professor. We were told that the Shareholder owns the tea palace and told us that we can come anytime for free. We felt like royalty.

With the Shareholder

4. After having such a satisfying meal, we felt like we could take on a trip just the two of us on the subway to Tiananmen Square. This was the first time on the subway and the first time we left our neighborhood. We are getting used to many people staring at us, but being on the subway was a whole new experience. One guy standing next to us took a picture with his phone very obviously. A few other people pointed at us, and most just looked at us. It's a strange feeling. Once we got to the stop for Tiananmen Square, we walked up the steps and it was SO hot outside. We walked and took a few pictures of Mao - then crossed the street (by going underground to cross the highway) to Tiananmen Square. Two older women and a photographer came up to us and gestured to take a picture with them. We said no because we assumed they wanted us to pay or somehow get money from us. But instead, they wanted to take a picture with us and pay the photographer to print it for them. After taking a few pictures, the woman held our hands and genuinely thanked us as if we had just done her a huge favor. We walked away laughing and one or two more people asked us for pictures, too. It was unlike anything we had ever experienced! We had assumed it would be a touristy place, yet we were the only tourists...but they wanted pictures of us! A pretty twisted concept. When we were leaving the square, we saw the two older women again and asked "Good picture?" with a thumbs up. She nodded eagerly and ran to us showing the picture. Charlotte got a quick snap of the picture from her camera before the photographer started asking us to get one! We kept refusing and walked quickly until he gave up on us. We made our way back to the subway and to our stop and then a 15 minute walk back to our apartment. It was an overwhelmingly wonderful day.

Mao at the entrance to the Forbidden City

The picture that these two women paid for!