Adventures in Food, Medical Exams, and Bank Accounts

I few things that I have learned: 

1) Jet lag kicked my ass.  I woke up on Sunday feeling fine.  In fact, I woke up at 8am after having gone to bed around ten.  Seems like a good start, no?  Well, I went down to the store, grabbed an egg tart (THOSE THINGS ARE AMAZING, and if you live in Atlanta, Sweet Hut has ones that taste EXACTLY THE SAME), bought some toilet paper and water, and came home.  I relaxed for a bit, talked with some people and then, at around 2ish, I passed out.  Woke up, decided to go for a walk, wandered around for awhile and then grabbed some dinner (again, an egg tart because I wasn't sure what to do).  Came back.

I had to get up super early this morning.  Today was a long day (it's only 2:43 :(  ), but anyway, I could not sleep last night.  At all.  I tried.  I went to bed at about 11 to get up at 5:20.  And I maybe slept all of 1 hour total?  ~headdesk~

2) The Chinese medical exam is terrifying.  Like, it shouldn't be, but man, my blood pressure and heart rate spiked something fierce.  I mean, it shouldn't have.  And, I only had to do three of the elements of the check because they accepted my blood work, EKG, and chest x-ray, but they cycle you through these small medical rooms where everything goes very quickly.  They stamp a form that I cannot read, and then they send you on your way.  I'm guessing I passed. xD

3) The metro system is really easy to use.  The signs for the trains are also in English, and it helped that our boss gave us (Clark and me) a schedule we had to follow as far as what trains to take.  I got my metro card as well.  It cost 20RMB and the extra 30 (from the 50 dollar note I had) goes towards my rides, which are, by the way, only like 2-3 RMB a ride.  Super cheap!

Metro Card! xD

4) Opening a bank account here is much easier than opening one in America.  Granted, the line was long, but holy cow, it took my passport, a couple of signatures, and viola! I am not the proud owner of a Bank of Beijing bank account and debit card. Yeah, I know, I know.  Very cool. xD

Bank Card!

5) My boss loves boardgames and invited Clark and I to a boardgames thing on Saturday.  We both seem keen on it, which is pretty cool.  It is just starting up, but Cormac is super nerdy and so it is awesome.

6) Food.  So, I've eating a lot of egg tarts, but today Clark, Cormac, and I went out for lunch after all of our errands this morning.  Clark and I wanted Chinese food, so we ended up at this little place called Face to Face. It's quite near where I live, and I got a beef noodle soup which was to die for.  TO DIE FOR.  Seriously, it was amazing.  And, it was super duper cheap! It cost 25RMB which equates to $3.67 in US dollars.  Cheapest lunch ever, and it was a ton of food.

An exciting story:

So, for me this is exciting, and for those who know I had the VSG surgery over a year and a half ago, you may or may not find this exciting.  We were waiting in line at the Medical Examination place, and apparently my doctor put my weight in pounds instead of kilograms.  No big deal, except Cormac pointed it out.  Apparently Jing, the lady in HR, asked him about it because if it were correct my weight would be over 400lbs.  

So why is this story exciting to me? Because when Jing asked, Cormac said I was normal sized. ~squee~ Normal sized. <3<3<3

That is all.