Round Two!

And, we're back! Hopefully, we plan to stay another 10 months to a year. Our visa situation and other things are different this time, so we will see. Our first stop, Beijing, a huge bustling city with alleyways that swallow you up. We ended up staying in a hostel instead of with friends and it is inside a labryinth of hutongs (alleyways). Everyone seems to know where we are going somehow and many have offered their services as guide, even walking us down the streets to our destination,. One old man just beckoned to us without words and when I asked him where he was taking us, he just waved again as if to say, don't worry, I know where you are going, its this way. Sure enough, after 3 or 4 right turns, there was our hostel, just as he had promised! Last night we came out of the subway at what we thought was the right exit. It was marked B downstairs and C on the street. A couple of teenagers saw we were perplexed and stopped to help us, even calling the hostel for us. They were not locals and said they often got lost here so wanted to help someone else. Sure enough, we were only just around the corner. We have visited the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square, the Night Market with all its strange offerings to eat. I am not able to post pictures right now but don't worry, we will not let you miss the fried silk worms and snake on a stick or the scorpians, crickets, and seahorses skewered for your eating delight! We only have 1 more day here and want to go the Great Wall. We have been a little lazy today and yesterday, laying around to get over jetlag and then walking all evening to sleep the night through. So far, I have not had a bad time of it. We really enjoyed our time at home, it flew too quickly past. It feels as if we have never left China. Except for the food, we did miss the food. Last night we had braised cold rabbit and country style pork with peppers, basically fried bacon with hot green peppers and salty black beans, with the best broccoli and oyster sauce Frank had ever tasted. I never saw him ooh and aww over vegetables before. He couldn't get enough! Wednesday morning we head for Korea for a week before returning to our city. I will post pictures as soon as I can! Here we go again!
mandy