Tea Ceremony

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We went to a tea ceremony.  One person narrated while one person at a table for each 15 of us demonstrated (There were 98 of us total).  The demonstrated were seriously talented.  Poured from like ten feet away and hardly missed a drop.  Deadly efficient.  At one point they put some nut into hot water and it sort of unfolded and exploded into this beautiful flower.  I’d never seen it before or knew anything like that existed.  There were more of them in the gift shop already unfolded so I took some pictures.  We got to try four kinds of tea.  I only liked the first two.

 

After dinner that night I went to Starbucks with some girls I knew from the ship – Bailey and crew.  I had a chocolate muffin and we talked.  We went to HaagenDaaz and saw some people I didn’t want to talk to and sat upstairs.  It was too classy and we left when they gave us a menu, and didn’t get anything at all.  Bailey and crew left then, so I walked to the 7/11 to pick up toothpaste (didn’t bring on the flight) and mouthwash (didn’t have anyway).  There were fireworks outside the door when I was checking out.

 

The hotel had CNN and BBC.  I only watched CNN at first because my roommate Justin (the tall Philippino guy) had it on, but later found out they had BBC too.  I was really excited to be able to catch up with the world, although to be honest nothing great every really came on when I was in the room.  But it was nice to know the world hadn’t exploded while I wasn’t watching.

 

I read the first 100 pages of The Alchemist that night, roughly.  Justin came back around midnight and we both went to sleep.  At some point I may have played some piano.

 

We went to Tiananmen Square the next day.  The posts had half dozen security cameras.  I took some pictures of me near Mao.  There were lots of merchants there.  We walked through the Forbidden City, which looked a lot like the Temple of Heaven.  There were dragons at one point that could put incense smoke out of their mouths.  The incense was apparently in huge piles in huge cauldrons up at the top.  That seemed like a pretty awesome idea.  The sign when we left said “Your visit is over.  If you would like to return, you will have to buy tickets again.”

 

There were no trees in most of the temple.  When the emperor wanted to kill someone, he’d say that he would spare them if they were hiding behind the trees.  It was also 9 meters deep.  If he wanted to kill someone else, he’d tell them he’d spare them if they could dig out.

 

We went to a Western Style buffet.  They had French fries.  I learned how to use my BlackBerry.  Just turn it off and then on and it’ll pick up signal.  Who knew?

 

We went to an orphanage and brought them three computers with monitors too.  We all did a little bit of work cleaning.  Some did the classrooms, I did the bedrooms (which were almost spotless), and some did the library, which was crazily cluttered.  After we were done we got to play with the kids.  One kid made us leave his room so he could change pants, but he spoke no English so he had to pantomime.  That was a little awkward but more funny.  A lot of kids had roller blades and I was jealous.  I would kill to play hockey right now.  We all played tug-of-war and my side one (because Benny yelled at boys to join my side).  There was this one little kid who still looked a little dirty who was a total baller.  Running around taking whatever he wanted and playing with whomever he wanted and high fiving and whatnot.  Awesome.  Balls to the wall.  Good for him.