Up the creek without a paddle

UPDATE I got a new VPN and put up some pictures from HouHai!

UPDATE Just kidding about the pictures that I mentioned posting below... My blog doesn't like to update through email if I include pictures. When my VPN works I will update with pictures from these glorious days that I write about here.

I have attached pictures of day 3 of my first holiday. They mostly go along with the following post... But because of VPN issues I have to email my posts in right now and cannot embed the pictures in the post.
And by "creek" I mean lake... and by "paddle" I mean engine... But you get the point.

For our final day of Dragon Boat Festival, Anna, Theresa, and I decided we would go to HouHai ("Ho Hi") to explore and have a little fun. HouHai is in the center of the traditional hutong area of central Beijing. The hutong is full of restaurants, shops, cafes, and street vendors and it has a beautiful, picturesque lake in the middle of it. We began the day by taking the subway out to Guloudajie where Anna's subway card mysteriously decided to stop working... Much to her dismay she had to cry out, "huai le," to have the attendant fix the problem. We walked through Gulou and into HouHai and found a rather expensive, but still delicious, restaurant by the lake. I ordered duck and enjoyed every moment of eating it! After eating we decided to rent a boat and drive around the lake for an hour. So the three of us hopped on board with our captain, Anna. We were ready to speed out into the open sea and go exploring. This would have been great, but speed we did not. Instead our boat crept at a snail's pace through the water. The paddle boats went by us. The swimmers went by us. The baby ducks went by us. Just when we thought it couldn't get any slower, the engine died. Our boat was huai le. We were stranded. Three white girls in the middle of a lake. Anna found the company's phone number so she called.

Anna: "Umm, hello?"
Company: click
Call back
Anna: "Ni hao. Engwen?"
Company: click
Call back
Anna: talkingasfastaspossible "Hello! Our boat is dead on the water. We need someone to fix it."
Company: click

We began getting concerned about making it back in the one hour time slot allotted to us. Surely they would not understand our English when we explain why we are late. Thankfully, a repairman showed up from across the lake. All we could say was, "huai le." He pulled out his Swiss Army knife and stuck half his body in the water. After a few attempts he was able to make our boat start. Now don't get me wrong, we still maneuvered the boat at a snail's pace back to the dock. But we did make it back, without even a minute to spare.

After laughing hysterically about our boat troubles, we caught a taxi and went to April Gourmet. This is a treasure buried in Tuanjiehu that sells foreign food. I bought some blueberry muffin Pop Tarts and gawked at all of the imported cheeses and cereals. I will certainly be returning for gouda and Fruity Pebbles.
We then booked it back to Gulou to meet up with more friends in another hutong. We ate Mexican on the roof at Amigos and chatted the night away. The curse of huai le seemed to have dissipated. I enjoyed an oreo McFlurry and a nice walk along the alley of the hutong and then headed home with Theresa. I went to sleep and was well rested and ready for the first day back to work.

So upon arriving to Romp n Roll yesterday morning, I was informed that my class for the day was canceled. Occasionally I am happy to have a canceled class. However, it was my only class for the whole day... I spent my 9 hours of work doing a lot of sitting, web searching, snoozing, pacing, studying, snacking, and reviewing. The day felt like it dragged on for an eternity... When it was finally 6:00, I headed out the door and decided I would walk to Paris Baguette to fulfill my cheese bagel craving I had been having. I crossed the street from the SoHo building and tripped on some medal thing coming out of the sidewalk. I was thankful not to fall on my face. I lifted my left foot to continue walking and off came my flip flop! I started laughing out loud. My shoe had now fallen to the huai le curse. I turned around and walked towards home, shoe in hand. As if I don't get stared at enough in Beijing. I'm sure they loved to see the white girl with only one shoe walking on the nasty, city streets.

Think you have figured out what HUAI LE means? Leave it in a comment...