Beijing Day 3

Well, we did not have our guide with us today.  It was a free day.  I thought that would come as a relief to be on our own schedule, but our guide and driver are awesome.  We have the same driver and guide all week and have really come to love them dearly.  I almost cried when we said goodbye.  So, we ventured out on our own.  We wanted to see the Temple of Heaven, so we managed to find the subway and make it to the right stop.

We found a Pizza Hut for lunch. It's not exactly the same food as an American Pizza Hut, but close enough that it was a much needed escape from Chinese food.  We went to the Pearl Market and Toy Market.  The girls loved it.  If you have never been to a market that you have to get feisty and dicker with the prices, put that on your bucket list.  It reminded me of the streets of Tiajuana Mexico.  Jeremy loved it and got us some great deals. When we left, the girls said "Those people are crazy!".  It was great!

Then to find dinner--on our own.  Let me remind you that everything is in Chinese.  We can't read street signs, menus, much less ask anyone.  So we decided to go to a place we were taken the night before.  This is where it begins to get crazy and I know that me telling this story is not as funny as it really was.  You would have had to be there.  Imagine a huge crowd of chinese people outside this restaurant.  We go inside and hold up 5 fingers.  She gives us a ticket--in chinese.  We have no idea what it says and it is a long note.  We find the number 54 at the top and assume that's our ticket number.  Even if it is, we have no idea what number they are calling.  We began to laugh hysterically. What have we done? I get out my trusty cheat sheet and look up the numbers 5 and 4. Woo shur shu. Great, everything they say sounds like woo shur shu.  We decided that when they called a number, we would just see if anyone acted like it was their number.  If not, it must be us. We waited and waited. Just when we were about to give up, we heard 'woo shur shu' over the speaker. We all screamed, that's us! The lady behind the desk started laughing at us. After being seated, we just pointed at want we wanted and everthing worked out. Great memories.  P.S. It's my dads birthday today. I'm sure he had a good laugh too.