day 2 & 3: emart, jetlag, train

day 2 was pretty relaxed.

we didn't plan too much for this day because we knew that my parents and brother would need some time to adjust to the new time.

it was a great time to enjoy family and play some cards.

we went to see Emart to pick up a few groceries.

{H playing air hockey.  he and the little girl both cheered no matter who scored a point.}

a 10 minute taxi ride to Emart.

grandpa, grandma and uncle matty got to try bubble tea

and other fun drinks that you can only find here.

{hot pot for lunch}

went shopping at an outdoor market

called Xu Guang Li (not sure if the spelling is right, pronounced Shoe Gwang Lee)

lovely.

day 3 we woke up and headed for street breakfast.

H bought a street ham n' egg sandwich and shared with his uncle.

i think uncle matty tried and decided to stick with toast at home.

{one of chad's favorite spots to get street breakfast}

after some packing we got two taxis and headed to the train station.

we took a fast train for 55 kuai (roughly $9) a ticket and headed to beijing.

it only took 30 minutes to go from tianjin to beijing.  so fast.  no?  about 180 mph.

chad impressed himself with the ability to ask for 6 tickets

and get us to the right spot.

you don't realize how much language you really do know until you hang out with

people who don't have any language at all and

everything depends on your language ability.

{trying to figure out which line to go in to buy tickets}

{the bullet train}

at the beijing train station the taxi drivers told us they would take us to our hotel for 150 kuai {that is roughly 125 kuai more than it should be}  so we kindly said, no way and figured out how to use the subway.  someone tried to teach me how to say "i may be a foreigner, but I am not stupid."  i should have remembered that phrase, it would have been helpful with the taxi drivers in beijing.  beijing taxi's are very frustrating.

the subway is as crowded as you think they are, but they are very easy to use.

once off the subway we had to walk about 10 minutes to our hotel.

we headed in the direction that chad believed it would be in.

my mom tried to ask someone if we were going the right way, but english doesn't work. :)

i think my family was getting a taste of what we go through everyday {taxi's, walking, and never being quite sure how things will turn out.}

we made it to the hotel.  sweaty from pulling luggage through the train station, subway and the streets of beijing.

then we headed to hard rock cafe for dinner.

while in hard rock it started to rain.  and when it rains, taxis are even more fun {or difficult, depends on your perspective. everything is about perspective.}
it took over an hour for us to get a taxi that night.
H was bummed because we couldn't go swimming when we got back to the hotel because it was almost 9:30 pm.  he took it like a champ though.

one thing we are good at now days is, flexability.  when things don't go as planned, oh well, we keep walking along and singing our song.  {from H's favorite book "Pete the Cat"}