I got downtown and went into McDonald's - they have a picture menu, so I pointed at the egg mcmuffin combo...19.50RMB.....which laughably/sadly is one of the more expensive (non-fancy) meals I have eaten while here.
I ordered my coffee (first non-instant coffee for a couple of weeks - it was REALLY good), and food to go as I was going to sit outside and people watch. I opened the little sandwich bag and found I had a double cheeseburger and no hashbrowns? This was strange....but I thought what the heck, drank my coffee and ate my breakfast cheeseburger.
The breakfast cheeseburger did not satisfy my craving, so I went back in and ordered just an egg mcmuffin (11.50rmb)...again I got another fricken cheeseburger. I have no idea why, it was 10:30am and so maybe breakfast was over? Maybe they were just having a cheeseburger special?....but I have to say, this was one of the first times that I was really frustrated with this whole can't understand anything crap. Obviously, there was also little point in my trying to complain or explain my issue - but not a good start to the day (grrrr)!
After breakfast I wandered around downtown seeing the sites and snagging a couple more bargains. I ate lunch at the "New World Mall" food court - picture menu's here again, but all went smoothly and I had an excellent stir-fry type meal (in case you wonder why I always have a picture of the food plate, I take them in case I really like the food...that way I can show my picture to other restaurants).
In the afternoon, I finished off my last final exam (yeah!)...now I just have to figure out how to get them printed and photocopied????
Late Sunday afternoon Will, Lee and I went to another college as they had been challenged to a volleyball match by some Italian teachers.....with the losers to buy supper (yes, these teachers are teaching Italian to the kids at that school????). We called it North America versus Italy - and we won quite handily (NB: we were smart enough to chose volleyball, and not soccer). It was a nice way to spend a Sunday afternoon, supper was great, and we all agreed to try and get a rematch in before people started leaving.
Monday was a typical crappy Monday (nice to know these happen overseas, and not just at home). I taught all morning, and definitely didn't knock any of these lectures out of the park...and my afternoon goal was simply to get a train ticket to Beijing for this weekend.
These god dam train tickets are going to be the death of me!
As per a previous posting, I had quite a time trying to get my first set of train tickets to Beijing...so this time I was going to be so much smarter. One of the student's volunteered to come with me to the train ticket office to help me out, I had my money, my passport, she had researched the train schedule on the internet, and we knew exactly what train #'s, the dates, the times etc....in short, I was all set!
We went to the little ticket office and got turned down.....AGAIN!
I officially have to buy my tickets at the actual train station. Daisy (the student), had a class at 2:30 but she said she would come with me to the train station. I told her that she should go to class, but to just write out exactly what I needed and I would be fine. All I would have to do is present the note, and get my tickets. We even knew which buses I had to take to get out to the station (34 to it's last stop and then transfer to 38).I decided to try out the bus, save myself the 40rmb, and got to the station safe and sound.
.....and could not buy the bloody tickets - AGAIN!!!!!In this case, I can not buy tickets until Tuesday (because I did not want to leave until early Saturday morning which would save me the one night's hotel room in Beijing). Anyway, apparently "Saturday's" tickets do not go on sale until Wednesdays and so I went all this way for nothing. This completely melted my whatever will be, will be attitude, and in combination with my McDonald's issues on Sunday, made me want to start throwing chairs and smashing windows...and even start throwing Chinese people around too (the small ones anyway!).
I have to say, if I was not here "short term" and REALLY wanting to go to Beijing, I would simply give up. This train ticket thing is really painful.
You can not buy them on the internet, only at the train station...and at the end of the day, these tickets will have cost me:
- 47rmb plus most of my Monday afternoon
- 90rmb and either some of my Tuesday or Wednesday to go back out to the train station to actually get the tickets
- 100rmb x 2, for the actual train tickets
- 45rmb on Saturday morning to get to the station
- 45rmb to come back to the college on Monday night
- approx. 70rmb to get cabs to and from the hotel to the train station in Beijing
Mao's tomb, the Bird's nest and all the other sites I hope to see better be REALLY interesting!!!!
(P.S. Having completed my little hissy fit, it is kind of worth noting that 497rmb is actually only $71 Cdn....to take a modern high speed train 6 hours...plus 6 cab rides and 1 bus ride of approx. 20 km each....and I didn't really have any other plans for Monday or Wednesday afternoon).
Anyway...it is frustrating to not be able to communicate, and now I know why little babies cry (I know I wanted to at the stupid train station/McDonald's)
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