Friday, December 26, 2014

Stephanie in China! The Best Christmas Gift Yet! :D

Last week my parents sent the greatest Christmas gift of all to China...my little sister! Steph finished up her finals on December 12th (only one semester of college left!), spent a crazy weekend packing and then got on a 13 hour flight to come see me.

Naturally, I wanted her to see as much of China as possible in one week. Challenge #1: China does not have the same holiday, so I had to manage my work schedule. 

I met her on Tuesday in the Beijing International Airport--I waited about 2 hours for her to come through--I was a little worried I missed her and we had no way to communicate if she was lost--she can't speak Chinese, didn't have a working phone and I could not connect to the internet. 

The airport was all decorated for Christmas!


IKEA had an area to advertise--people are taking full advantage of the comfortable furniture



While I was waiting for Steph I saw SO many people meet up with their loved ones, which was extremely touching. This guy was adorable-he had a sign and some flowers. He's waiting for his wife and has not seen her for 6 months!


Right on...


While groups of people came out after customs I was stereotyping where their flight was from. One group had a bunch of tall, blonde, blue eyed people--definitely some Scandinavian country. I knew Steph would come out soon when I saw a group of Americans wearing Chicago hats and sweatshirts. 

Finally! She made it!





Stephs first Chinese meal...hot pot! 

This place was not foreign friendly--but with  my limited Chinese we managed to order


This hot pot is heated by coals beneath the pot--most places use electric hot plates

We got spicy broth and plain broth with spinach, cabbage, needle mushrooms, regular mushrooms, sweet potatoes, tofu and an egg. 



The spicy flavoring here is much different than in America--it includes various different peppers and has a strong black pepper flavoring. Steph loved it



The dipping sauce was peanut paste and sesame paste, oil with peppers and cilantro


She had some difficulties with the chopsticks...the restaurant owners were laughing at us but were happy to help her out


Eek! More posts to come! 




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