After eating, my roommate, my friend, and I went out to the ocean harbor again. The area was even more beautiful at night, and the weather was awesome, and because we were walking around more slowly, we took more time looking at the different structures left over from the Qingdao Olympics. Because the area is so close to the hotel we're staying out, I felt that taking walks around at night after dinner would be convenient and fun. So, hopefully, I'll be back often!
The main reason we came out today though was to attempt to ride the three-person bike. We'd all seen the bikes in movies, but we'd never seen it in real life, so we wanted to try it! It was 60 Yuan (a little less than 10 USD) for 2 hours, which wasn't that bad of a deal. We had to also give the man a safety deposit for the bike. Unlike in movies, the bike was difficult to ride. I always sat in the back seat whereas my roommate and friend took turns taking the front seat. We often had to stop the bike because we lost balance and screamed 小心 (AKA xiǎoxīn / Be Careful!) at the top of our lungs. While we were taking a break, we saw this wheel ride with tons of lights (which reminded me of Tron) that we agreed to come back and ride sometime soon.
Our three person biking experience didn't end in the best way. After knocking earphones off of a pedestrian, we continued to ride the bike, and we knocked down a pedestrian completely (we also fell, too, and got bruises and scratches). Her husband was so mad, yelled at us, and tried to call the police. Man, we were so scared; all we could do was continuously apologize and try to explain that we were not Chinese people (so we couldn't completely understand what he was saying). After a while, his anger cooled off, and he went to get his car because his wife said she could barely walk. When we left, we sat with the lady (gave her cold water to put on her injury) and continued to apologize. Yes, I took a picture of the lady while we were waiting for her husband. As you can see, she said her left side hurt a lot. Luckily, they were very understanding in the end and just left, but the experience left us pretty scared, so we hurried back to the hotel.
Day 46: At this hotel, we get free breakfast! From being here just two days, I've learned that the food is basically always the same (except maybe the design of the bread and dumplings) like many other hotels in the States, but by being the same, it means that the food is always good.
After class and some free time, our professors told us that we had a group dinner today, so after meeting in the lobby, we headed to the restaurant. On our way there, we passed by the 五四广场 (AKA wǔsì guǎngchǎng / May Fourth Square), which is a landmark commemorating the May 4th Movement in China.
After our quick stop at this square, we continued onto the restaurant, which was right across the street from it. The restaurant was a famous Beijing/Peking duck restaurant, and since it was my first time trying this dish, I was pretty excited.
One of the chefs came out with the duck and sliced up the meat right in front of us. The duck was really good, and I could completely understand why so many people loved Beijing duck. Even aside from the Beijing duck, all the other dishes of the restaurant were really good, too.
After dinner, my roommate, friend, and I (I feel like we're always together) took the long route walking along the ocean front back to the hotel. We were stick a little shaken from the bicycle crash yesterday, but while walking, we ran into another cool ride! It was like a robot that you could ride, and it looked so cool that we added the ride to our list of things to do.
Day 47: Today was more of a work day. Our class was getting harder, so I had a lot of stuff to review. I ate Green Tea Pocky (always a favorite!), and I ate my Banana Choco Pie that I brought from Korea (it's very popular in Korea right now and rather hard to get, so I made sure to buy some for my roommate, friend, and myself). Both were very good.
After snacks and studying, I went to the Ma Family Ramen restaurant with my roommate and a friend (not the one we're usually with). I ordered 牛肉炒面 (AKA niúròu chǎomiàn / Beef Stir-fried Noodles), but the dish I got was not really stir-fried (maybe they misunderstood me?), and it actually tasted like tomato pasta. Even if it wasn't what I expected, it was still delicious.
Day 48: I made sure to take a picture of today's breakfast! I don't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but it's buffet style, and I guess I was hungry today because I got a lot of food today.
Like I mentioned in my post about my first day in Qingdao, our room's air conditioner doesn't work, so I tried to fix it by trying to translate the buttons on the remote control, but it failed. The one good thing is that I found the button to make the wind stronger for a small amount of time, so I just sat around pressing this button continuously after class to get some breeze (although it was a warm breeze) from the air conditioner. While I was messing with the remote, I realized how the top of the remote really looked like Wall-E! Doesn't it, though?
After a small break, our professors took us to the Peanut Research Institute in Qingdao. To be completely honest, the men who were debriefing their work for us spoke only in Chinese using very difficult words, so everyone had a hard time understanding anything they said, and many people quickly lost interest. A lot of us were also disappointed that we never got peanuts at a place called the Peanut Research Institute.
We also got to see their labs, which were cool to see because I work in a lab back at Tech. However, I saw so many safety hazards and lab rules not being followed that I was rather disappointed and unhappy.
After the visit to the Peanut Research Institute and after eating dinner, we came back to the hotel, and before I headed to sleep, my friend brought me a fancy tiramisu donut that she bought at the mall after dinner. It was late at night, and I had already brushed my teeth, so I put it in our fridge (oh yeah! in this hotel, we have a mini fridge in our room!) to eat tomorrow. I can't wait; it looks so good.
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