Beijing Auto Show

So Sunday to Tuesday was a holiday here and I wasn't sure what I'd be doing for it.  I had a few ideas but none of them seemed to be coming together.  Then I saw on facebook that Top Gear had pictures from the Beijing Auto Show.  I had put it on my calendar to go see it but since nothing is ever planned here I rarely look at the calendar.  I thought I had missed it but no, I only missed the Press Days.
I half seriously suggested to my friend Kelly that she should come with me.  She's never left Dongying and is quite shy so I never actually expected her to say yes but she did!  She has zero money so I said I'd cover the bigger costs.  Figured it would be fun to have some company for the bus ride and wandering around.
I had told her I'd meet her at her school at 7:30 Sunday morning.  When I got there she was nowhere to be seen.  I waited awhile and tried to call her many times but her phone was off so eventually I just left.
Just as I was about to get on the bus she came running up to me.  Apparently she had used her phone too much the night before and killed the battery so her alarm didn't go and I couldn't call her.  You'd think you'd make sure to plug it in if you had a big, early trip the next morning but planning ahead is never a strong point in China.
She showed up at the station with just a purse.  I looked at her a bit funny but she didn't seem to understand why I thought this was weird.  Apparently it's totally normal to go away for even a week and not bring any extra clothes at all.  Might explain why my kids smell so bad by Friday classes.

Anyway, the bus turned out to be a sleeper bus.  I'd never been on such a thing before.  I have no idea why we needed a sleeper bus for a 5ish hour ride, especially one leaving at 8am but that's what it was.  Everyone has to take off their shoes and put them in a bag.  That was fine for most people but my shoes are a bit bigger than most. It was actually fairly comfortable although for a long trip it might be more annoying.  On the plus side I met some people on that trip that live in Dongying and are not first year students! Also their English is great.  With any luck I've now made some friends I can hang out with past 9pm.
We made good time and got to Beijing and found the subway.  Of course Kelly had never been on a subway before and now she's been on about 20 of them.

Mommy, what is he doing?

That afternoon we headed to Tienanmen square.  Kelly took lots of pictures of random things.  She likes to take pictures but don't think she's ever had a camera so she has a habit of getting way too close and ends up taking a picture of nothing.  I entertained myself by trying to get in as many pictures as possible that others were taking.  As a foreigner, if you're smiling you can get away with a lot here.  People would just laugh and love it.  They also want their kids to talk to me.  It was fun but clearly Kelly was not used to such behaviour and was always a little embarrassed, but she could talk to the people so she warmed up eventually.
That night we met up with Maggie who I had met back in August on the train and seen in Beijing with Nathan. She's probably the most bubbly Chinese girl I've ever met.  I love it :-)  We went to a Japanese hotpot type place.  Delicious as always.
The next day Kelly and I got up early to go to the auto show.  I had looked it up on the official website.  We headed over but when we got off the subway I knew something was wrong.  There just weren't enough people.  We wandered for awhile and eventually found out that it was in a different place with the exact same name.  Even though this place also had posters for the show everywhere.  Kelly started asking people how to get there and every person had a different answer.  Eventually I figured out where it was but by then Kelly was convinced that some people knew the best way to get there so we ended up going in circles for awhile until I finally had enough and basically grabbed her hand and lead her to the subway.  It was way out of the city.

We got there around noon.  I was ready for big crowds but Chinese crowds are a different variety.  They push a lot and walk infront of you.  It can get annoying sometimes.  They do this at the subway too.  My favourite thing to do if they stand RIGHT in front of me is to say hello quite loudly right into their ear which is not right by my mouth.  It usually embarrasses them quite a bit and they leave :-)
The show was fun.  Lots of funky cars and models everywhere.  It was also very Chinese is that the models would do "shows" and weird dancing.  I don't remember anything like that at the Toronto show.  Kelly was a huge fan of the models.  I know no one will believe me but all but about 1 or 2 of the pics of models were ones she took.  She was absolutely enamoured with them.
Chinese people LOVE free stuff.  At auto shows you can get various free trinkets and they would form huge "lines" to get a chance at these things.  Even just pamphlets were in high demand and it was not uncommon to see men carrying 30 different bags from different companies.
The show closed early at 5pm so we were there until the end.  The line for the subway was absolutely nuts.  By this point I had been standing and shuffling pretty much all day and was exhausted but Kelly wanted to check out the bird's nest Olympic centre so we took 4 different subways and went there.  It was May day so there was a bit of a party there which was fun but I was really sore and hadn't really eaten all day so we hung out for a bit then went in search of food.
The next morning we wandered around a bit then headed for the bus home but first I made sure to find a Subway to get a good sub.  Turns out there is one at the bus station but I wanted to be sure I got one while in Beijing :-)
Overall pretty good extended weekend away!  Pictures all up on Picasa.  I took out a lot but for the auto show I left quite a few in.  I figure if you like cars then it's all interesting and if you don't then you'll go quick through anyway.
As always I love hearing from all of you, drop me an email and let me know what you thought of the pictures!
Wiseguy1
PS: No real update on the job search.  Still waiting to hear back from the college about getting a better apartment for next year.  Hope to know in a week or so.