Nihao, China!

We left Korea with hopes the North and South would kiss and make up. Who knows, maybe one day the South will call the North ‘Yankee’s’ and be united again, and their civil war will be something learned about in history class, not lived daily.

Onboard the plane to China, we were fed an early in-flight lunch and settled in, preparing for what we had heard would be a fairly challenging few weeks…

Back in Minneapolis, we loved to host our friends and family at our apartment. Every get together, regardless of theme or celebration, always had a few constants: copious amount of cocktails, chips and salsa, and Bowls (oh, and a ridiculous mess to tend to the next day…). Bowls is a wonderful game introduced to us by a couple of friends a few years ago, and quickly became the normal evening event after a few drinks and devoured snacks.

(some of my favorite people, on one of my favorite holidays, about to play an epic game of Bowls)

Our house rules are simple. Take note now, as I may challenge you to a game upon my return to the States.

The group is divided into two teams. Since our friends like dramatic flair, we always ended up Boys vs. Girls, and a combo winner/loser couple often went home continuing the theatrical events and arguments of the game.

Each person receives a handful of blank pieces of paper, typically 3-5 pieces depending on the number playing, and writes whatever they want on that paper… a word, phrase, name. Totally up to them. The strategists out there would cater their words to their teammates, making it harder for their opponents. More on that in a moment.

Each piece of paper, with quickly scribbled words, are gathered and placed into a bowl. The starting team selects a member to kick off the first of 3 rounds. That team member has 1 minute to get his or her team to accurately guess as many of the words or phrases as possible. After a word or phrase is accurately guessed, it is discarded into a second bowl, hence the name of the game. The second bowl, however, is never used, as pieces of paper are hurled into the air and float down to the ground like snowflakes in an effort to speedily snatch the next piece of paper. At the end of a minute, the next team takes their turn. Minute by minute, rotations continue between teams until all of the words or phrases are emptied from the bowl.

After all the slips of paper are used up, the 2nd round starts. All the discarded papers are gathered and placed back into the bowl. Again, each team takes turns trying to guess as many of the words or phrases as possible, using the same words from round one. After all the words are used up again, move on to the third and final round. Same words. 1 minute to get your team to guess as many as possible.

At the end, the team who successfully guessed the most words from all three rounds is declared WINNER, and prances about gaily, bragging loudly and harassing the losing team. This is why many couples went home bitter…

Round one is played like ‘Catch Phrase:’ say whatever you want to get your team to guess. Just don’t say the word(s) in the phrase.

Round two get’s more difficult: only 2 words are allowed. Sometimes pointing is allowed. Sometimes it isn’t. Same with rhyming. Oh, and sometimes “Um” counts as a word. Or “OMIGOSH THIS IS SO HARD!” and then you’ve screwed it all up for your team.

The third round is the most challenging. No words, only charades. Pointing is questionable. In the early days, when we were cutthroat, pointing was abolished. Later on, we all softened up and tried to avoid WW3, and allowed it every once in a while.

Seems simple enough, right? Let me walk through a real life scenario, Boys vs. Girls, where both teams were quite strategic.

Boy draws what we will call “Phrase X”, quickly describes, and boy team guesses accurately. Boy team moves through 5-6 slips in the 1 minute. Nice job boys. Girls chatting entire minute and not paying much attention.

Later on, in round two, girl draws “Sheet X” mentioned above, is stumped, and uses two words that she thinks best describe the unknown phrase. Girls don’t guess. Boo girl team.

In round three, boy happens to draw “Sheet X” again, and with what looks like a silent toss of a football, boy team accurately guesses again. Way to go, boys.

Game ends. Not sure who won, but arguing likely ensued.

Girl team asks: “what the hell is ‘The Annexation of Puerto Rico?!’”

Boy team laughs and high fives. Says something about a football play. To this day, I don’t know. Maybe it’s from a movie? I think Little Rascals or something. Of course, it's also probably a very important part of Puerto Rican history. I will write all about that when we go there one day.

‘The Annexation of Puerto Rico’ almost always makes it into each game of Bowls, and Girl team tosses the imaginary football, as we now know how to guess that one.

Guess who put that ridiculous phrase in the bowl?

Will.

That same game, I think the girls had “pirouette” in the bowl, which 75% of the boys couldn’t even pronounce. High five, ladies.

Anyway, it’s a lovely game. Writing about it makes me miss our friends dearly. We really did have so much fun playing (well, most of us). Miss you guys.

Okay okay… why does this matter? Well, because communicating and navigating in Japan was like the 1st round of Bowls. With a some effort, I could communicate fairly easily by describing what I was trying to say, even if it took a little work and the actual word I was tyring to communicated wasn't able to be used.

Korea was like the 2nd round of Bowls; less English was spoken, and there was much more effort and strategy needed to try to communicate. We would really need to hone in on a few key words in English that were common enough for even barely-English speakers to understand. Or, use the select key Korean words we knew to get our point across.

Preparing for China, though, made me feel like I was walking into the 3rd round of Bowls the first time “The Annexation of Puerto Rico” was drawn by girl team. We had heard China would be very difficult to navigate; train and bus tops weren’t written or announced in English. Very little English was found on menus or in stores. Street signs lacked English translation counterparts. Less people speak English in China than our previous stops. And, my Mandarin barely extends “Nihao.” Add the exile of Google and social media, and I was nervous, but excited, and hopped off the plane expecting to get lost and preparing myself to stay patient through struggle. I hoped we’d figure it out…

“Welcome to China! This way to baggage claim!”

“Taxis and Ground Transportation”

“ATM”

“Snacks”

Omigosh! I can read Mandarin!!

Not…

Every single sign in the airport was also in English. We made it to the train after just a little back and forth, hopped off at our station, used the English street signs to guide us to our Guest House, was greeted with a smile and “Welcome to Guest house name,” quickly asked where laundry was, and ordered our free welcome drinks from the café in English. So much for the hassle!

I will say it was a bit more difficult to navigate through China, but not nearly as hard as we’d mentally prepared for.

We’d also heard the food in China would be horrendous. From rumors of skinned cats and dogs hanging street side, so bland and gloppy looking dinners, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. Per the usual, we got settled into our room, a 4-bed coed dorm, and set off to find dinner a little earlier than normal, just to avoid getting hangry (that’s a real word meaning “anger derived from intense hunger”). Thus far, hanger as been the key contributing factor to our spats. After the first bite, we laugh and beg pardon for our sassy attitudes. According to Auntie, I’ve been way since I was a baby…

Not far from home, we found a little spot no bigger than a closet, where people grabbed skewers of mystery meats, veggies, fish cakes, and packets of ramen noodles to be boiled in a piping hot broth. Price was per skewer, so we loaded a plate to share, added some ramen noodles straight from the college-favorite bag, and spooned a greyish sauce over the whole plate, just like the locals. I added a heaping scoop of chili flakes in oil to my half, and we squeezed in at the table packed with people, elbow to elbow on tiny stools with barely enough room to maneuver our chopsticks.

Although I still don’t know what I ate, we went back there three times throughout our time in Beijing. The greyish sauce was an incredible peanut gravy, and I quickly learned the fresh veggies were stored in a cooler off to the side, so plate 2 and 3 were piled extra high with more bok choy, broccoli, and cabbage and much less mystery meat. We made out with about 20 skewers plus noodles, totaling a few bucks for both our dinners each time we ate there. Not a bad deal. We did notice, however, that the food stand had received a “frowny face” from the department of food safety. That didn’t stop us from returning, as we quickly learned most places barely made it with a “flat-line face”, roughly translating into “not awful, but I saw a rat in the kitchen.” And, later in the trip, I indeed saw a rat scurry out of a restaurant, followed behind by the lovely chef who had just prepared my dinner. Wonderful…

Since dinner was quick and super cheap, we meandered around the hutong, or alley, where dinner was, and stumbled upon a fresh food market. We browsed aisle after aisle of fresh fruits and veggies, and counted more types of eggs than I new existed. None of the eggs are stored in coolers. Makes me wonder what's worst: having uber fresh eggs unrefrigerated, or clearly older eggs that need a cooler...

Still obsessed with finding apples as good as in Japan, we bought a few and some mandarins, and headed back home for bed. The apples were only ok. I miss those big juicy Japanese beauties!!

Even though it was only a partial day in Beijing, I fell asleep with a full belly, mandarins waiting for me for breakfast, and my very own soft pillow. It was a successful first day, and I felt more ready and confident for our China adventure.

Only bummer was not checking Instagram or FB in bed, a la my normal nighttime routine!

From Beijing, with Love,

Sara + Will