ho hai adventures

Last night a group of us from the program (20 in all) hopped into 5 cabs to grab dinner and hang out in Ho Hai. It is an up an coming hot spot in Beijing, a lake with a number of restaurants and bars- mostly catering to the noveau riche Chinese and expats- on the perimeter. Nonetheless, there are a ton of Chinese people milling about, fishing, riding bicycles, etc.





Somehow three of us got separated from the group and winded up at a restaurant by ourselves (I don’t think we ever found the super hot spot). We ordered baked bass on a sizzling plate, stirfry veggies with pork, and some dianxin (dim sum dishes). It was pretty tasty and albeit expensive. The three of us ended up going back to the dorms after dinner. We got into a taxi and I told the driver where we wanted to go. Unfortunately, she ended up dropping us off at the wrong university and we didn’t realize it until after we got out of the taxi.

I hate being taken for a ride and was pretty peeved. We saw a map and tried to figure out how far we were from our dorms. . too far to walk. .a nice elderly couple took pity on us and walked us across the street to get another taxi and told him where to take us. I was embarrassed that my Chinese was not good enough and I didn’t know the area well enough to explain to the driver where we wanted to go. We finally made I back to our dorms and I’m resolved to study my map and pay better attention to directions and improve my Chinese skills. The good thing about traveling with a group of people with mixed language skills is that I’ve had to force myself to speak to get around and take care of things. I think I will definitely be more fluent by the time I leave Beijing.