Wow. So we made it to China. It was a long flight, but we made it. 13 hours is a long time. When we arrived and finally got off the plane in Beijing, we obviously had to go through Customs. Agustin, Rocco and I were standing in line with everyone else and then all of a sudden one of the officers gets told something and heads over to agustin and me. She looks at the 2 of us, pulls Agustin aside and then makes him get out of line and show her his passport. She interrogated him for a second and then let him continue. Glad to know racial profiling is a worldwide issue.

Bruce met us outside of customs and took us to the hotel. He was hilarious and a great translator. he told me I was a flower and the boys were just leaves. I accept.

Once we got to the hotel, there was a small issue with getting our rooms. It was taking forever and I was having none of it. I caused a small scene and she gave us a free wifi password and sent us on our way.

The three of us, Agustin, Rocco and I decided to try to go find some dinner. It was 10pm and the bellhop told us that the only thing open was a restaurant called Hotpot. We found it on my phone and tried to walk to it. It was located in a mall that was closed. We ended up circling the building 3 times and then finally finding the entrance in a sketch alley.

No one speaks English. No one. And for anyone that knows me or works at the rec center with me, accents are impossible for me to deal with. So imagine me, trying to do anything in China and then magnify it by 1000. This restaurant was a mix between the Melting Pot and Korean BBQ. You order the raw food and then submerse it in a broth bowl in the middle of the table. There were pictures of the food and basically I just started pointing at things. We almost ended up with Brains and fish heads. Yikes.

No one spoke English but alcohol has a universal understanding. After many warnings before we got to asia, we were told to stick to drinks that you see them open (ie wine and beer). So Beer it was. We got our raw food (ended up with lamb and mushrooms) and lots of beers. San Ping Liang piju. Three cold beers. Thats the only phrase I need to know for 4 weeks. You have to specify cold because warm beer is an option and thing here. Our BBQ and 12 beers ended up being 356 RMB, which is equivalent to 54 US dollars. Tara 1. China 0.

The next day, our guide picked us up in a huge tour bus to take us shopping. We were still missing some items for the event we are doing. We got to this "mall" that was 12 stories high. The only way I can describe it was a swap meet on steroids 12 stories high. You would try to bargain with them about the price and then walk away and they would chase you through the aisles to get you to come back. Each stall was the size of a bathroom, so they didn't have a lot of quantity. They had to keep sending their "guy" to their warehouse to see if they had enough of what we wanted. This process would take anywhere between 10 and 45 minutes. I have zero patience so I gave up about 30 minutes in and waited at the exit for everyone. But not before buy a mini hookah, tobacco and all accessories for 25 dollars. Win.

After this, we walked through an area called the Lake district. Aptly named due to the large lake in the middle of it. There were street vendors selling food. On closer inspection, they were bugs. Baby scorpions, HUGE scorpions, beetles and caterpillar type things. The worst. All the bugs were on skewers and the scorpions were still moving! Seriously, the worst.

We found a restaurant to eat lunch at and seemed to order everything on the menu. After much eating and drinking, we made our way back to the bus to continue on to Tianjin. The bus ride to Tianjin was about 2 hours, so of course we had to stop at a liquor store. While we proceeded to buy cans of beer and bottles of wine and something called firewater, we also decided to use the restroom before we left.

The restrooms. Holes. In the ground. Serious. I can't even. It's a good thing I work out. It's a serious quad workout. If you find a normal flushing toilet in China you are crazy lucky.

We got on the bus and continued to drink. Firewater, it turns out is high proof vodka with the jankiest aftertaste ever. It was terrible, and yet we were still drinking it. Chasing with beer. Good times. The bus ride was long and I ended up having to watch over my boys. Agustin got that glazed look in his eyes and I had to hold his head for most of the trip. Rocco passed out and then fell out of the bus when we stopped. All turned out alright, but man am I tired. We've only been here 2 days and it's exhausting. We board the boat tomorrow, so the adventure continues.