So Many Title Ideas...

It's been a whopper of a few days! Let's start at the beginning.

On Tuesday, I was suppose to meet a few of my friends for a day in Tianjin. Tianjin is a city about an hour and half bus or car ride from Beijing, but we were taking the bullet train which only takes 29 minutes! I made it early to our meeting spot, but then I realized I wasn't getting any texts back from my friends who are usually much more likely to be on time than I am! My phone has pretty much died, but everyone knows that I can hear when other people talk, but I can't talk back to them. Miles called and told me that they were beginning to worry that I wasn't there and he gave me directions on where to go in the railroad station. This began about 45 minutes of crazy panic. I kept getting calls from the other three telling me where I should meet them. The funny thing was that I was exactly where they asked me to be! Eventually, it all began to dawn on me, and later on I realized from them, that I was at the wrong train station. Miles called one last time with directions on how to get to the train station where they were at! I frantically made my way back on the subway to get to Joyce who had waited for me at the station. I felt so bad for wasting my friends' time! Joyce was so sweet and made me feel better about it all, and we got tickets to get on the train.

The bullet train was amazing. The inside was pristine and the time went by in a blink of an eye! A screen scrolled how fast we were going and that fastest our train reached was about 331 kilometers per hour or 205.65 miles per hour!

We reached Tianjin and met up with the boys. We took a rather spiritual taxi ride to a famous inside market and restaurant area. We had lunch and did a bit of window shopping. Then, we walked through a few neighborhoods until we discovered a cool outdoor market that had lots of beautiful statues. We passed a stamp engraver shop and Joyce and Miles told me that I really should get myself a stamp with both my English and Chinese name. We went in and Joyce helped write out my Chinese name and I wrote out my first name in my normal signature. The engraver told us to come back in an hour.

We continued to meander around until we found a bell tower. We were able to get up to the tower and we all took turns ringing the bell! It was pretty fun and we got to see a nice view of the city.

We walked back to collect my new stamp, which I hope I'll be able to use for a long time, and walked to the center of town. We first stopped in to a Disney English school to check out the competition. The people at the front desk were really nice and answered all of our questions.

We made it to the big market and had fun looking at the antiques. We made our way to a park that had some old military tanks and crossed a beautiful bridge. Tianjin has a lot more bridges and water compared to Beijing.

Joyce and I went back to the railroad station to get back to Beijing while the gentlemen continued their adventure. Joyce and I met up with Cindy and Stephanie for a hot pot dinner. We had so much fun giggling and catching up! Then, we went to Hou Hai to check out the rooftop bar that I thought would be perfect for our going away party. We got to Hou Hai and I just couldn't find it. The only time I had been there was with James and Miles during our stinky tofu adventure. The girls and I called up the boys who tried to help us get back to the bar, but we weren't able to figure it out. We ended up walking al the way back to the start of the area and wound our way back to bar! I was so excited to find it! The girls and I had a lots of laughs at the bar, but we decided that it wouldn't be a good place for the party. We each had a moijito that was not good and cost way, way more than normal ever for a bar. Plus, the owner of the bar told us that we were crazy for thinking the drink wasn't very good.

Yesterday, I spent the day with Marie and Sabrina. We went to the neighborhood that houses the university that Marie will attend next fall to study Chinese and acting. Sabrina was able to help Marie register. The campus is infamous for training the best Chinese actors. The halls are lined with portraits of the most famous Chinese theater, movie and television stars! We then went window shopping through the neighborhood. It was a really fun day.

Then, I said good-bye to the girls around six and went to Sanliturn. I wanted to pick up some movies to watch during my trip and then went to have dinner. After I paid for dinner, I remember putting my cute panda wallet back into my purse. However, as I was leaving the restaurant there was this big commotion at the front door involving two rather large Russian men. I thought it was a bit weird but I wasn't too concerned. I should have had my radar up way more! I followed one of the men down the escalator. However, at the end of the escalator, the man stopped right on the platform and I slammed into him because he was just too big to get around. I remember that his buddy was right behind me. I squeezed by and went to the bathroom. After I washed my hands, I went into my bad for some lip gloss and I realized my wallet was gone! I checked the toilet I had used, but it wasn't there. I went to the security place right outside of the bathroom and reported my wallet. Then, I went back to the restaurant and the wait staff totally took care of me. They searched the restaurant and talked to every single waiter and waitress on the floor. They even let me use their phone so I could call some of my friends to ask for help. Then, it began to dawn on me what had happened at the escalator and at the lobby of the restaurant. I had been had.

Luckily, they had only taken my cute panda wallet. I was able to take the subway home and still had my keys and ipod and everything else in my bag. I was able to get ahold of Stephanie on Skype and she was able to freeze my bank account! The creeps hadn't accessed any of my money! I was so thankful for that and all of Stephanie's help. She also was able to text Cindy and Joyce to let them know I was safe and ok at home.

The only way I can get a new bank card to access my money though is with my passport. However, my passport is at the visa office right now and there is no way for me to get it! Luckily, I had some spare money in my apartment and my friends have offered to loan me some money until everything works out.

I was upset last night, but I am feeling better about it right now. I feel really lucky that I wasn't hurt and that I have made such caring friends while I have been here. I could have been so much worse.

I like to think it's just one more interesting layer to my adventure.