Little Cutie

A couple of days ago, while we were walking to a restaurant, we found a cool park area.  Inside, the park there was a building with a lot of cool artifacts.  While we were there, we saw a cute little girl that was running around.  She looked so happy! She ran over to me and said "sister!".  Then she started laughing and jumping.  After that she swung her arms around and gave me a side hug.  She gave my mom a hug and then my dad a hug.  She gave me another hug and kissed my elbow. she was the cutest!

We were at a pond with her mom. Another girl about her age gave me and the happy girl a piece of a chip to feed the fish. The mom of the happy girl helped her throw the chip.  The fish ate it.  When she sat down on a rock, she made me sit down too.  When she got up, I got up.  Then she sat down on the rock I was sitting on. I just cannot say how cute she was!  When a girl came with her baby, the cute girl immediately started saying something to the baby.  I'm so glad I met her!!!!!

the baby kissing my elbow

Hangzhou

This is another place in China where we stayed for a week.  We did a lot of walking around a huge lake called West Lake.  We walked up a very tall hill with the best view of the city and West Lake.  We also got a boat and somebody paddled us around the lake at night, which was cool because all of the buildings were lighting up.  One time while we were walking around the lake we saw a giant 3-D map carved on the ground.  It was as big as a bedroom!  We did not do much besides walking around the lake while we were staying in Hangzhou.

We watched the Pirates of the Caribbean (a Disney movie) one night.  You will find out why...

 

Beijing (our two houses)

We are here! China! We are in our second house in Beijing (in China).  The first house we stayed at was full of stuffed bunnies.  It was in an apartment on the eighth floor and it was right next to a subway station, which was great!

While we were staying there, we went to the Temple of Heaven, which was very beautiful and colorful.  There were also lots of artists painting around the park surrounding the temple.  On that same day, we got this long dumpling thing that my parents LOVED (and I liked it fine).  We also went to a mall with a toy store in it.  I bought a little ball that hovers in my hand.

the long dumpling things

the temple

We went to Olympic Park another day.  We went to the Water Cube, a giant water park.  And literally nobody was there so we did not have to wait in any lines for the water slides.  My dad went on this one water slide where he stood in this little box and then the guy monitoring the slides pushes a button and the floor of the box disappears.  Then he went on a loopty-loop in the slide.  Dad said water sprayed in his face.  Mom also did the slide and she said when you are in the box it does a countdown before the ground disappears.  She said that part was scary.  Dad did the slide a second time, Mom thought he was crazy.

water cube

inside the water cube

We took a subway to Tienanmen Square and the Forbidden City.  At the Square, there was a huge basket surrounded by flowers and lots of people were selling photos.  We went to the Forbidden City, but we did not end up going inside because we saw a cool park to go to instead.  The park was nice and we found a great place with a nice view so I could sit and do my writing.

the forbidden city

the flower basket

where I sat to write 

We took a bus to the Great Wall of China. Then we took a cable car up to the top of it and we walked along it for about an hour.  The view was THE BEST and it went on forever.  SOOOOO LOOOOOONG. We took a five minute long toboggan ride down it (sooo fun).  I wish I could do that again!

the wall

more of the wall

the toboggan

a frog we saw on the wall

In our next place in Beijing, we did not go to that many touristy places because it was the holiday and because we went to most of the touristy places when were staying at the bunny house.  In this place there was a piano (😀) so I could practice a bit.  This apartment was on the 23rd floor (which turned out to be the 20th floor because they have some unlucky numbers that they did not make floors for).

The places that we did go were:

1. Laitai flower market - this market was full of fountains, flowers, bonsai and some very cute sea creatures (fish and turtles) 
2. Jongshan park - this park had a big hill with a great view of the Forbidden Palace, which is way bigger than I thought it would be!
3. Beihai park - this park was huge and we went boating with our friends that we met when we stayed at the bunny house.  
4. 798 Art District - this art area has a lot of galleries with awesome art and you can see the old 798 factory.  This place also had a lot of cool statues where ever you walk.   

painting at 798

798 factory

beihai boats

jongshan park

jongshan park veiw

It's Been a Month!

Yay! We have been on this world trip for about a month! I think I like the trip so far. Here are some of my favorite parts about it:

• when we went to conveyor belt sushi in Tokyo
• when I met Yuka in Takayama
• when we climbed a mountain in Jeonju
• when we got hoddeok in Seoul

My favorite house we stayed at was the house in Jeonju because the owner of the place (BongBong) left a lot of food for us.  The longest bus ride, train ride or plane flight I went on HAD to be the flight from L.A. to Tokyo. The best food I ate was the beef sushi in Jeonju. 

Seoul (in Korea)

We just took a two hour train ride to our next destination, Seoul.  Our place that we are staying is a small apartment on top of a coffee shop.  I did not sleep very well last night because I have a ton of bug bites that are all very itchy.

We walked around a lot last night, looking for a stand that sells hoddeok (hote-duck), a Korean dessert.  Dad found a place on his phone but we found out it closed two years ago.  (Update: we did finally get hoddeok before we left Korea.)

We had Korean dumplings in soup for dinner at a place very close to our house.  I thought that soup was very good!

I like Seoul, but I can't wait to go to China (our next place) because some things are going to be cheap and we might see pandas. Yay!