Selfies in Beijing... Temples

Nihao (Nee-how) and welcome back!! 

I recently finished my six day vacation visiting with two of my good friends John and Haydee. We worked together at the Casablanca American School a couple of years ago. After all of the craziness and acquired survival tactics...  BUT of course after we completed our two year contracts... we all got the heck up out of there. I came here to Abu Dhabi and they decided to go to Beijing. My vacation actually started in Abu Dhabi with a trip to the Chinese Embassy. I still can't believe that I needed a dang visa to go to China. Yea I know... you're as surprised as I was. I've always been a person who believed that if I needed a visa to visit a certain country, obviously I wasn't wanted there. "Us Americans" believe that our good ol' blue American passport will get us any and everywhere... well China ain't havin' it! The worst part of it all was the price for the visa... Emirates pay $30, Canadians pay $50, and Americans... we pay $140!!! Seeeee... we need to be careful about the image that we portray to the rest of the world because I know I'm not rich... but clearly China thinks I am.

 My itinerary began with a one hour flight from Abu Dhabi to Doha, Qatar. I had a four hour layover before my nine hour flight from Doha to Beijing. You all have already heard my stories of how uncomfortable long flights are, so I'll save all of my venting about coach class seats for later! Honestly, I was very excited about this trip and I couldn't wait to get there.

Arriving at PEK International Airport

I arrived in Beijing on Sunday at about 1am. John, Haydee, and Mr. Wong picked me up from the airport. Mr. Wong is the trustworthy driver that they call if they need a ride around the city. He was very nice. When we got to John and Haydee's house we spent the morning reminiscing about the good ol' days in Casablanca. It was great getting a chance to catch up with the two of them. Of course John and I spent the night drinking plenty of beers!!  We used to spend night after night throwing 'em back in Casablanca. That morning was no exception and it was as if no time had past since the last time we saw each other. After a few beers, I found myself up doing the heel toe and shakin' a tail feather while DJ John played all the cuts from Nelly and the St. Lunatics. He always finds a way to bring out that little Alton girl tucked away inside of me!

At the Temple of Heaven Park

The next day we woke up and visited the Temple of Heaven. This place was absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect sunny day and we were walking around without a worry in sight. I recently bought myself a selfie stick. It's a stick that you are able to attach to your phone to take pictures of yourself. It's perfect for the solo traveler because you don't have to worry about asking folks to take your picture for you all day. The Chinese people were obsessed with my selfie stick! 

Curious George... watching me take a selfie...

It was funny because so many people literally stopped and were staring at it. Ya'll  know I thought they were staring at me right?... I've heard so many stories about Chinese folks being in such amazement at the sight of people with dark skin... but they were actually more interested in what I was carrying. Haydee started calling them "Curious George" because the curiosity was out of hand; some times even rude. The funniest was a man who came and dang near laid his head on John's shoulder trying to watch John take the picture of Haydee and I with the selfie stick. Little did they know... the dang selfie stick was made in China!! 

I'm surprised everybody didn't have one!

After we left the Temple of Heaven we went over to a little Chinese restaurant called Hot Pot. When we got inside we were greeted by waiters and waitresses who didn't speak any English. Haydee has learned a lot of survival phrases in Chinese however, the menu was too advanced. We felt like we were saved by the bell when the waitress heard us speaking in English because her reply was, "English??"

 She looked at us like "my bad... I didn't know ya'll spoke English." Then she gave us an English menu. Honestly it wasn't much help because we could read the English but she couldn't. When we attempted to order in English, she couldn't understand anything that we were saying. We had to point to the picture of what we wanted so that she could understand what we were ordering. 

Our vegetables with the hot pot and rolled fish on the side.

We honestly had no idea of what we ordered so we started to look around and observe other people in the restaurant. The waitress brought over a pot of hot water and placed it on a burner. Then she brought us a small bowl of cilantro and a packet of peanut sauce. We were completely lost! We watched a woman open the peanut sauce packet and squeeze it on top the cilantro...  we saw another woman take the packet of sauce and squeeze it into the pot of hot water. Haydee and I looked at each other for approval and put the peanut sauce on top of the cilantro. The waitress then brought us a big plate of vegetables with noodles on the side and big plate of fish that had been rolled like a meat platter. 

At Hot Pot eating noodles... of course John had Subway instead! 

We weren't exactly sure of what to do next so we started to look around again for confirmation.There was a man across from us taking each vegetable and dipping it one by one into the water. After it boiled, he would eat it. Haydee decided to put on her chef's hat and create her own hot pot. She put everything in the water... the veges, the noodles, and the fish... she was making soup. All I knew was that in a matter of seconds, everything started to smell so GOOD. I was anxious to start eating. Chef Haydee made sure that our food was nice and ready and the both of us dived right in... It was so TASTY!! 

Of course we had to end this spectacular day with some retail therapy. You all know that China is known for replicating, duplicating, and copying many products. I went to two knock off shops while I was there; Hongquiao Pearl Market and Sanlitun Ya Sho Market. These places were filled with any and everything that you could think of. When I saw five floors of electronics, bags..., shoes, bags..., clothes, bags..., coats, bags..., house ware products, did I mention bags...?? I went crazy. For my New York Canal Street fans... these places are like Canal Street times ten! Of course I went in and bought a few things...

I heard that some of the products sold at these stores are made from the same materials that the original companies use. I heard that the Coach factory, for example, is open from 9am to 5pm daily. During this time "they" are making products for Coach. In the same factory, from 6pm to 8am, "they" are making their own stash from the same products however, these products won't be delivered to Coach... they'll be sold to folks like me! 

Now I'm not sure who "they" is but does it really matter? Just give me a nice hand bag... I'll take the green one please! While I've heard that many of these bags are made of the same materials, China has been getting in trouble for reproducing the emblem or company name on the bags. Shops like these are actually in the process of being shut down because of complaints from big companies. So... are you ready for the "but"... some things are always too good to be true. You can end up with a leather bag that looks exactly like the original; same material, same tags, same zippers, same buttons BUT... your emblem on your Michael Kors bag ends up looking like this! Womp... womp... 

Michyel Koks! 

Even if this scenario is a false fantasy and none of what I wrote is actually true... PLEASE don't be the barrier of bad news. I bought a few items that I'll be styling on the fancy streets of Abu Dhabi and I made sure to leave out exactly what I bought. Don't worry... no one will ever be able to tell the difference. Besides... my knock off was made in the same country as the real one... I just paid less!

We have arrived at our first stop. Next stop... The Great Wall...

All passengers should proceed to the next gate.

Besos  

Men playing Chinese Chess...  

Every time I buy this beer in the states, it costs about $8...
this beer is about 50 cents in China! 

Chinese Writing

Hawai'i is Aloha... Traveling back...

Aloha from Hawai'i... 

Aloha from Hawai'i!

Shockingly it was only about a month and a half ago and I still haven't had a chance to share it with you all. My Hawaiian adventure was actually cut a bit short due to circumstances provided by Mother Nature. I can talk about it now because I survived... but while I was in it, I must admit... I was a bit scared.

 It was my third day in Hawai'i. Since my arrival we had been receiving ample warnings about the hurricane and meteorologists were predicting that it was going to hit the next day. I remember I was sitting in the living room because I had just waken up. I was the only one at the house because my cousin had gone to take the kids and Baby Nicole to school. His wife was already at work. My cousin Anthony is in the Navy and has been living in Hawai'i for a few years now. He invited me to come and visit and because I had never been to Hawai'i, I figured why not? I've always envisioned Hawai'i through the stereotypical tourist eyes. I imagined beautiful tanned women with long and dark hair in coconut bras and grass skirts. They would greet me as I got off of the plane by saying "aloha" while doing a hula dance. I would be given a lei to put around my neck and someone would hand me a coconut filled with rum with a mini umbrella on the side. No one could tell me that I wouldn't be laying out in a hammock on the beach while falling asleep to a beautiful sunset. Wait... didn't you see that post card too? I'm sure it isn't just me. Sadly my post card dreams were miles away...

Outside of the house that day...

I heard someone knocking at the door. I started thinking, "Anthony has a key... why would he be knocking?" I went to the door and shouted out, "who is it." When I opened the door, there was a man standing there with a stack of papers in his hands. "Mam here is information on how to prepare for the storm." He was going from house to house handing out Hurricane Survival Packets. I asked him, "do you think the storm is really coming"... Anthony kept saying, "It ain't gone hit... ain't nothin' gone happen"... and I believed him. If that was the case, then why would this man be handing out survival packets explaining how to create a survival kit and providing listings of all of the hurricane shelter centers in the area? He responded, "it may not hit us hard but it is coming."

When Anthony came home, I told him about the man stopping by and gave him the packet that he dropped off. Anthony stuck with his intuition, "Maaaannn ain't nothin' gone happen Tiff... this happen here all the time... they make it seem so bad... it ain't gone be a hurricane by the time it get here, it's just gone be a tropical storm." The weather had been beautiful all week. Even that day, it was cloudy but it didn't look "hurricany" outside. Besides, I had never experienced a hurricane before so I wasn't sure what to look for. Growing up in Illinois we had plenty of tornadoes and thunderstorms so I figured if I could handle Mother Nature in that sense, then a hurricane shouldn't be that bad. At least that's what I told myself... I still couldn't keep that voice out of my head that kept a thick knot in my stomach.

Family day at the beach...

See Hawai'i is a state that is made up of eight islands. I flew into Honolulu but I was staying in O'ahu. The big island, which was directly in the hurricane's path, was going to get hit first. We were like fourth in line so the hurricane would have to get past a few other islands before it could actually come to us. Knowing that bit gave me a little reassurance that things may just be ok. I just felt like I wasn't tryin' to go out like a sucka... what would I look like dying in the states? I've been so many places around the world that it would be more exciting to hear about me getting caught up in a tsunami in Japan or an earthquake in Haiti... not a routine hurricane in Hawai'i... everybody knows that Hawai'i has hurricane season every year! Guess I should have known that before I booked the flight!
(WARNING: family... this was a joke ok...)

Meagen, Anthony's wife,  got off of work a little early that day so we made a few errands around town. There were gas stations out of gas. There were grocery stores low on everything; specifically out of water though. People knew that if there was no water that meant no baths, no flushing toilets, nothing to drink... that could be bad. People had already been out buying and stocking their shelves with non perishables in hopes to be prepared if they were trapped in the house for days. I started to panic...

Anthony thought this was funny...

When the kids got home later that evening, we found out that school had been cancelled for the following day. People were convinced that the hurricane was on its way. In addition to all of the panicking messages from friends and family checking in on Facebook, we made the mistake of turning on the news as well. I saw palm trees swaying vigorously from side to side. The man who was reporting was speaking in a terrifying slow, deep, and serious voice... of course the footage was of him in the middle of the storm about to get blown away himself. He just happened to be the brave reporter who decided to risk his life to go to Hawai'i and stand in the eye of the storm to get footage. This was pure stupidity... I don't know where he was reporting from because it hadn't even started raining where we were. We were letting that craziness effect us and that made us even more scared. We had to turn the TV off...

Beautiful sunset

The next morning we woke up to strong winds and strong rain hitting the windows. The rain had finally started and there were spurts when the rain would slap into the windows really really hard and then it would just be normal rain. This happened on and off throughout the day. We didn't lose any power, water, and we weren't stuck in the house for days. As Anthony predicted, by the time it hit our island it was reported as a tropical storm. Thank you Lord for keeping us safe and covered. As soon as an opening came for me to get on a flight, I got up out of there!  I made it out safe and sound without a scratch. While my post card dreams of Hawai'i are still tucked away in my heart... the next time I choose to visit I'll be sure to avoid hurricane season. Even though they aren't the typical memories that I would want to experience on vacation... I am still thankful. Thank you Hawai'i for providing me with a great story to share with my children!


Besos...

We went to visit the pineapple farm...
I did not know that pineapples grew on the ground.

Coconut water man!

Fresh Hawaiian Coconuts

The fish were huge in the pond.. 

Next to the statue of Buddha

.

Shopping for sea shells...

Ummm these donuts right here..

At the Japanese Temple

Hawaiian shaved ice... mmm...

Anthony explained that Aloha means being chill...
Hawaiians are Aloha... no worries in the world!
I pray to be Aloha...

The Americana Morenaza en Colombia~ Summer in Cartegena

Cartegena

After we left Medellin in the wee hours of the morning, we found ourselves waking up in Cartagena. Cartagena is definitely a place that many tourists visit while in Colombia. Honestly, I remember sleeping on the plane and somehow waking up long enough to collect my baggage to jump into a taxi and go back to sleep. The distance from Medellin to Cartagena was only about 2 hours but we were exhausted. We had just spent the previous night partying with Juan and arrived to the airport in the nic of time to catch the flight. While we were in the taxi, Max bumped me and said, "look Tiffany, this place looks like Miami".  I opened my eyes long enough to say, "umm hmm" and I was back off into sleepy land.

Our view from the apartment

When we arrived at our Airbnb apartment, I was quite sad this time. We had had such a wonderful experience with Juan and he had such a nice home that I had high expectations for the last stop... nope... there was no comparison. We were greeted by two very sweet ladies who gave us big hugs when we walked in and then they showed us to our room. I tried to join them in civilization, however my body refused and I politely excused myself so that I could go and finish off my sleep. I remember laying across the bed and sleeping for what felt like 8 hours.

Lunch with our hostess

When I woke up, Max was already busy looking at maps and finding things for us to do. We were invited to come and have a nice Colombian lunch with the two of them. We sat around at the table with our broken Spanish trying to be cordial but thanks God for Max's translate app... it was definitely a God send.

At the Walled City

After lunch, Max and I got dressed and headed out. Cartagena did look a lot like Miami and we were in walking distance to almost everything. We walked the boardwalk near the beach and it was a beautiful sight to be seen. The first place we visited was the Walled City. Cartagena has a huge fort area which dates back to an era where there were slaves and many other things being imported and traded in and out of the area. Just being there, you could feel an odd feeling as if you were back in time. There were people who were selling many different things on the streets: necklaces, bracelets, purses, clothing, shoes, crafts... clearly the spirit of trade never left! We found ourselves at a nice restaurant called Cafe del Mar but we only sat down for drinks and after we went searching for food.

Walking through the Old City

On the boardwalk

While we were walking, we were approached by a guy named Joseph. Joseph didn't look any different from Max and I, he could of easily been mistaken for a relative. Because we had lost the battle of finding many English speakers, at a certain point, we stopped looking. Shockingly, Joseph approached us speaking in English. He asked us if were were interested in eating and handed us several menus to many of the restaurants. Our attention shifted because performers started salsa dancing and putting on a show. I mean these folks were gettin' it! Boom... boom.. boom.. boom.. boom.. boom. One thing that we noticed right off the bat was that folks in Cartagena were much darker than the folks in Bogota and Medellin. In the beginning of the trip we felt like outcasts in Colombia, now... we felt right at home. What's more sexy than a chocolate muscular man speaking in Spanish and moving his hips to Salsa music... boom... boom... boom... boom... boom... YESSSS!

Oh sorry... Joseph... so Joseph approached us speaking in English... we decided which restaurant we wanted to eat at and we sat down. Joseph sat down with us. Max and I were very interested to know how he learned English so we asked... "how did you learn to speak English so well"? We were waiting to hear him respond with a story of living in the states or some school he had attended but all he said was, "I speak many languages: English, Spanish, French, Italian...", I said ooohhhhh... " so you speak MONEY!" The first time I met a guy like Joseph was in Morocco and he was a Moroccan man who could speak many languages as well... including Japanese! Neither of them went to school to learn the languages, they just listen closely when they are dealing with many different tourists from around world. They study language because language allows them to communicate with people and communicating with people allows them to offer goods and services and offering goods and services creates revenue and revenue is what... HELLO!! We all know how much money talks! I love it! We were laughing and joking when he mentioned that many people in Cartagena go to the countryside to watch cockfights... then he asked us if we wanted to go and see one. Max was so surprised to hear about chicken fights and had no idea that something like that even existed. It's a brutal brawl that I had no interest in entertaining so we politely said, "no thank you." That's one thing I can leave Cartagena without seeing and I'd be completely fine with that.

The next morning we woke up with plans to go to the beach. Max and I went to have lunch at what ended up becoming the highlight of our trip... Crepes and Waffles.
That restaurant was AMAZING! OH my goodness... they have a huge variety on the menu where you can order almost anything and they'll throw it inside of a crepe... chicken, beef, cream of broccoli soup... whatever you want... in a crepe! I absolutely loved this place... well WE absolutely loved this place.

After lunch, we headed to the beach. On our way, we bumped into this guy named Eddie. Eddie said he was from Texas but he was mixed with Venezuelan and Mexican. He spoke English so we all instantly bonded. Eddie's crazy self confessed to us that he had been drugged and robbed the night before so we ought to be careful while we were in Cartagena. Supposedly, there is a drug that you can slip into someone's drink or wipe on someone's skin that causes them to lose control. Eddie said you don't lose consciousness or anything, you just do things that when you wake up the next day,  you have no idea of what you did... I sound silly rereading what I just typed... well Eddie said it happened to him so I figure... why lie to me? He said he was drugged and robbed by some man and woman and he had a police case pending... well anyway... we bumped into Eddie on our way to the beach. He instantly started feeling Max and he wasn't going far from anywhere that she was. Max had brought her Beats Pill speaker and we were jamming on the beach. Drinking and singing to the tunes of Marvin Gaye, James Brown and his cousin... Chris Brown... LOL! We had so much fun. We stayed at the beach until sunset and then headed back to the apartment. We agreed to meet up with Eddie later on that night so that we could go out together.

Sadly it was a bad night to be out in Cartagena and we ended up sitting in a bar by ourselves. After a few drinks we walked over to the Walled City and saw a whole bunch of people sitting outside "people watching"; we decided to join them. There were actually many people to watch: prostitutes, pre-surgery, post-surgery, old, young, tourists, drunks, sobers... there were many. At that point, the both of us were beginning to get annoyed with Eddie's ass. He had turned into a bickering little girl and his disagreements and lectures were bad business for our night out... oh and the sorry sob story about him being drugged led into a story about his wallet being stolen which lead into Max and I paying for his drinks... so that made it even worse because nobody wants a sober around people who are drinking. Brotha... you shouldn't have a worry in the world. While we were sitting, a woman named Farrah approached me and said, "I can look at you and tell from the way you wear your hair and the way that you dress that you aren't from here... where are you from?" I was shocked that she was speaking in English too... I told her and she shared that she lived in the states as well.

Max started to get bit by the Salsa bug again and she was ready to dance so her and Eddie decided to. She got up ready to show off her Salsa lessons that she had devoted so much time to perfecting while Eddie got up and did some jig that Max was not vibing to... FAIL. They must have a different Salsa in Venezuela... but of course Americans call anything Salsa dancing! Minutes later, Farrah brought over her Colombian friend and he and Max went inside one of the Colombian Juke Joints and danced the night away... Eddie... was... PISSED! He was fuming with jealousy and envy to the point that it was seeping out of his pores. He even got up and went to peek inside to watch Max... I knew it was time to call this man the five letter word... C R A Z Y! When Max returned, she didn't make it any better by saying how well of dancer that guy was and how he was so good at Salsa... Eddie was looking like he was ready to go to war.. like there was about to be a Salsa battle kick off in the middle of the streets. I blame Max though... a perfect example to the song... I heard about this girl her name was Maxine... a dunna dunna dun ta dun... and if I ever tell you bout Maxine, I oughta say I don't know what I know but murder she wrote... murder she wrote... of course I don't know the words... but that's HER! It was time to go before any blood was shed.

The next morning Max and I decided to do a boat tour. There are boats that would take you out to the islands where you could spend the day touring or simply relaxing on the beach. That was right up our allies! The tour was fine but we were more interested in the MEN. These chocolate brothas were clearly from a different breed. They were muscular, their hair was curly, their voices were deep, and their Spanish was sexy...

Max's boo... Mr. Chocolate!

Colombian "Chocolateness"

Max was in love with our tour guide! Her and I kept giggling at everything that he said because she wanted to fold him up and take him home in her suitcase. I remember Max was trying to talk to him at one point.... in so many words, she was trying to tell him that she would teach him English if he would teach her Spanish... of course I chimed in with the most broken Spanish and said, " es de clase de Espanol en tu casa or no?" Max and I busted in laughter and so did a few other people on the boat. The funniest thing was when we docked on the beach, Mr. Chocolate personally walked us to some secluded part where people could lie down on beds instead of beach chairs... I told Max "girl he is trying to lay in this bed with YOU!" That's why he took us over there! We politely said no and went to find two chairs so that we could lie out in the sun. He was a cutie though.

Hotness... 

When we got back that night, the both of us were exhausted. It was my last night and I was scheduled to leave the next morning. I had to head back to Bogota to fly from there back to the states. Max had two more days before her departure. We decided to end my trip with dinner at Crepes and Waffles. It was as good as it was the first time. I had a wonderful time in Cartagena as well as Colombia as a whole. I would definitely say that Medellin was my favorite and I have had thoughts about making my way back there. Colombia... you have been wonderful and the memories that we shared with you will be in our Morenaza hearts forever.

Besos

Life at the beach...

The Walled City

Beach Pic... 

Max at the Fort

Watching the sunset... 

Dos Americana Morenazas!