Love in the cracks.

I think it's incredible how the past few days have been all about meeting new people, and getting to know people I've already met. Yesterday, some friends, new and old, decided to head on to Beihai Park (北海公园). It's this tourist spot near the Forbidden City. It was an adventure for the girls: me, Katzu, Margaux, Angelle, Kazue, Shani, Carina, and Pat. Except for Kazue, who's Japanese (日本人), everyone else is Chinese-Filipino. And what an adventure it was! We took the subway (地铁), made about three transfers (it's insane how many subway lines Beijing has!), made our way through a huge throng of tourists and locals in front of the Forbidden City (故宫) and Tienanmen Square (天安门), rode a superduper crowded bus (公共汽车), and walked under the sun in high noon. Took a whole lot of pictures though, as only girls would do. Our lunch consisted of corn on a cob, mineral water, and Chips Ahoy. We then rented out 2 paddle boats, and rested a bit, although it was still a little hot. Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we were through with Beihai. But since we were starving from all that walking around, and tired of the tourist-priced tasteless food there, we decided to go to Wangfujing (王府井) and get some real, genuine, cheap Beijing food. Yum! Window-shopped a bit, treated ourselves to some ice cream (冰淇淋) and frozen yogurt (酸奶), and finally got back to BLCU at around 9pm. I was so pooped out, I was sure I'd fall right on my face onto the bed and sleep til who-knows-when. It was a whole new experience, especially the bus ride! It was our first time to ride a bus here in Beijing, and it was craaaaazy! They totally squished everyone in, and even when it seemed like there wasn't any more room for even a mouse, they made everyone squeeze against each other. It was disgusting, although I hear that's pretty much the case too back in Manila. Think all the body odor and sweat from others pushing against our clean, freshly bathed selves. Ugh. And like one guy had his butt to my back, and since the bus was so packed, well, you can just imagine my horror. And the subway was bad too, at times. There were funnies though, like everytime we got on and we'd count if we were complete. And when we thought we had to get off and started to get off, only to realize we were wrong, and rush back into the train, laughing and squealing all the way. Bouncing around in the trains and buses. Shani and Car being constantly camera-ready with their reflex-like poses. A lot of great laughs apparently, what with an 8-strong group of girly girls. And oh, let's not forget all the Chris-Tiu-is-coming-to-Beijing and he's-too-good-to-be-true talks; sorry, it's a girl thing. Lol.

So many bloopers. We got lost and pretty confused a lot of times. And judging by the look on people's faces, I think they could tell that we were not locals. And our mangled attempts at speaking Chinese. Embarrassing, considering the fact that we look very Chinese, and ARE Chinese. =)

I really don't think though, that I could have chosen a better bunch of girls to spend the day with.