Day Off.

Elena told us we had one more day off before we had to dedicate the rest of our days to tennis and BOCOG.   I woke up early to make use of these precious 24 hours.  The day started out with my usual yogurt, granola and fruit salad at Lush.  I broke from my routine when I ventured out on the subway on my own.  I took the new blue line, number ten, to the Llama Temple stop.  I felt like a true Beijinger, if only for a moment, as I confidently moved through the transfer without a posse of friends following.   Though this wasn't difficult as I wanted to visit the Llama Temple, which is conveniently named a metro stop for its proximity to the station.  Outside in the humidity, I looked up and saw the decorated walls of Beijing's famous Buddhist worship site.  Walking the streets before the entrance, tourist shops dominated.  Inside were laughing Buddhas, bundles of incense, and smiling Chinese faces.  Come inside.  I resisted buying the incense.  Inside I saw that many did to respectfully worship Buddha by burning, as requested by the signs, three sticks of incense.   As the second temple that I have visited in China, this one was distinctly different.  The Llama Temple was filled with actual Monks, although filling jobs as security over the many Buddhas, rather than actually worshipping.   People were deeply engrossed in praying, despite the many tourists hovering around the arsenals (that would include me).  To try to preserve the last scrape of sacredness, the Llama Temple prohibited photography inside the temples.  Having enough, I left through the emergency exit door (no alarm sounded however).  

It was miserably hot by this point.  Imagine Iowa's humidity trapped in a small bubble.  That is what Beijing is like as a result of its horrible pollution.  I walked across the street, pass the shops with big bellies of Buddhas, and followed the sign of a Beijing Hutong.  The narrow road winded around the corners of the old homes.  I found an ice cooler with Magnum ice cream cones to cool off, for a cool price of 5 kuai.  The road ended and opened into a bigger roadway, one wide enough for two cars to pass by simultaneously.  A big red lantern caught my attention and beside it read a sign for classical music and a tea courtyead.  I was curious and at first thought, my dad loves classical music.  I should have known, I'm in China, their definition of classical music is going to be very different.  And it was.  Classical refers back to old Chinese instruments.  Inside I found a woman playing on a harp-like instrument.  I listened as I ordered my tea and sipped to the afternoon's delight.  It was another check on my summer's to-do list.  

I followed the corridors of the hutong back to the subway to meet with some girls at the Beijing Blue Zoo.  Given directions through the phone, I navigated myself half-way across the city to meet them at the gate of the aquarium.  Apparently, I'm only directionally challenged when I'm sitting in the passenger seat of a cab trying to communicate in Chinese.  It turned out that the aquarium wasn't worth the 75 kuai we spent, but seeing the mermaids inside the shark tank made it worthwhile.

We walked back to the subway, they went home, I changed subway stops to go to the real zoo and met up with someone else.  Only after we did find the zoo, it was just ten minutes before closing.   We tried to explain using motions of taking pictures and saying the word pander, that we would be quick, but they didn't back down and the mass of people leaving the gates told us we should leave too.  Plush pandas are sold everywhere, China's iconic symbol.  But because Beijing has an accent r in their Mandarin when they pronounce panda it comes out more like pander.  Now almost daily I use this word.  "Pander, pander."  

Disappointed, we occupied the time by taking the subway to Tianamen Square to see the lowering of the flag at 7:30.  We arrived at 6:15 and already rows of Chinese were lined up against the fence facing the flag pole, waiting.  We people watched until the guards closed off the busy intersection of traffic and marched swiftly to the matched beat.  Half an hour the lights turned on to set Mao glowing.  This was our cue to get back on the subway to Wangfujing to go to the night market.  

Across the street and a block away, rows of street food vendors await.  Tucked inside the somewhat hidden food mysteries are all kinds of meat and creatures on a stick.  With encouragement, I tried scorpion, seahorse, squid, and chicken.  Halfway through, I wanted to become a vegetarian.  Diane, my fellow food critic, was already one and just laughed at my looks of disgust.  The night vibrance was fun and you just have to smile when vendors poked you with still moving scorpions dangling on a stick.  My suggestion of advice, stay away from the one kuai meat.  It can't be good if that is half the price of a one way ticket on the subway.  

We ran to catch the last returning subway home to Wudaokou station at 10:45.  Overall a very successful day.  Hopefully I'll get one more of these before the real craziness of the Olympics sets in.