Beijing Day 2 :)

Our first full day in Beijing started off a little late. Most of the people in my group went out clubbing all night....I decided to stay at the hostel and get some sleep. I was actually ordered to stay back and sleep because waiting in the lobby to go I couldn't even keep my eyes open! I am not a very good night owl, but they all had a lot of fun! We didn't have any set plans until later that night, so we spent the morning shopping at this Amazing Open Market! Beijing was my first experience with the subway, and I think by the time we left we all had it down perfectly! We spent a lot of time on it, so we had to find some way to entertain us- taking pictures is the perfect solution :) Here is one of Ryan, Tanner and I trying to act like we are cool and Joey being Joey!

The market we went to was wonderful and overwhelming! Too bad we could only spend an hour there, because you walk in and its just rows and rows of almost any Chinese Souvenir you could possibly imagine. Its all bartering, which I have learned to love, and become somewhat good at! We play it like a game, we all set off for what we want and you just try to get them down as low as possible! My problem is that in the process of bartering I become friends with the salespeople and then I take longer buying everything and can't get as much- but atleast I am having fun with it :)
That night we had to get back early because we were going to an ACROBATIC SHOW!! :D It was absolutely amazing!! We spent a little bit longer at the Open Market than we were supposed to, so we didn't have time for dinner... which was not really an option for some of us- we HAD to eat :) Down the street from our hostel was a little dumpling restraunt, so we ran over and got it to go. They were very nice and put our dumplings in a bag and then we poured soy sauce right there into the bag and ran :) Here is a picture of Joey and I eating our lovely dinner! It didn't look very appetizing but it sure tasted good!!

After enjoying our dumplings in a bag, we headed off to the acrobatic show!! We were able to book the show through our hostel, so when we got there we basically had front row seats! :) I will have to put on lots of pictures, because it will be difficult to describe everything!!
You can tell from the show that the performers have been training and practicing since they were all very young. The show started with a group of guys, they came out on stage and performed a few kung-fu routines mixing in acrobatic stunts! It was fun to watch their routines and pick out pieces that we knew from our kung-fu class. After a group of girls came out. They did some very intense stunts! My favorite was when they created a pyramid- but this was no ordinary pyramid! Girls were doing headstands balancing ontop of another girls head! Here is a picture that may help explain better ;)

then they did the same sort of pyramid, but this time they were balancing their heads on the girls feet! Not only were they balancing like this, but they were also twiling flowers on their feet at the same time!

One girl stunned us all. She was balancing on a platform using one hand, her arms had to have been so powerful. She would hold herself up so her body was straight out and then do different tricks. She would switch her arms out, put her legs straight up in the air or grab one of her feet! I think she was one of the most impressive acrobats! This is the best picture I have of her!! It really was such a fun night, the Chinese Acrobatics are AMAZING! :D

After going to the show we decided to head over and the Olympic Square!! We get on the subway and take all the connecting lines, when we got to the last transfer the subway had closed down and we had to leave! Everyone decided to just head back to the hostel, but Joey, Andrea and I were determined to make it to see the Birds Nest! We walked out of the Subway and we could see it all lit up and decided to walk down to it! The more we walked the further we realized it was, about half way there we ran into a park with Roller-blades to rent, so instead of walking the rest of the way we rented us some roller-blades :)

We are pretty sure you were only supposed to roller-blade in the park, but since we can't really speak the language we decided to just take our chances going further with them :) We had a lot of fun making our way to the stadium until we realized there was a freeway between us and the Birds Nest!! So sadly, we couldn't go very close, but we were still able to get some good pictures!! Its not very often you get to go roller-blading around Beijing :D