So it's a national holiday here in China! We are off work for seven days (Oct.1-7th)! It is so awesome to have 7 days off of work to enjoy China life. I don't have plans to see any Beijing tourist attractions because everyone around China come to Beijing for the holiday. So I am just going around and hanging out with friends here in Beijing.

Tuesday was like our Friday night so the foreign teachers at school went out! We decided to order some food from a local restaurant and pick up some drinks and hang out at the apartment. We order lamb. OH MY GOODNESS it was delicious and super cheap compared to Western prices! I have to say this was probably the best meal I have had in China. Everyone back home keeps asking me about the food and I keep saying it is ok but it's not my favorite. Well, I might have found my favorite! And it is also expensive for China standards! LOL. It was so good. Did I say that? Well I need to say it again.... IT WAS DELICIOUS!

Our AWESOME group of foreign teachers starting the holiday off right!

On Wednesday it was rainy here so I stayed in and watched movies. We went out for a little bit just to get out of the apartment but it was nice to have a lazy day. :) I also got some laundry done! Laundry is still the chore I loath even here in China because it is the one thing that is never done. You are always wearing clothes so there will never be a time that laundry is all done! UGGHH It's the chore that never ends, it goes on and on my friends. People started washing clothes not knowing it wouldn't end, but they continued washing clothes forever...just because it's the chore that never ends.

Thursday (today) we went to the infamous Silk Street Market. This is considered one of the 7 wonders of the modern world. I was definitely expecting something different than what I saw. I was thinking it was going to be an outside market because it is where the Silk Road was and that was were people would bring their merchandise to sell, it was like the black market of the old days. But nope, its like a mall with tons of small shops. It's kind of hard to go shopping here because you can't look around at the different things without the Chinese people trying to get you to buy it before you have had a chance to look at the product. It's crazy! The salespeople stand at the entrance to the small shop and yell at you while you are walking by. I can't tell you how many time I heard "hey pretty girls", "hey girl", "beautiful girls come look at this", "girls buy a shirt for your boyfriend". I wonder if they have to practice these phrases before they can work at the shop. We also had people asking us if we wanted to buy a suit. All of us were girls! Crazy, but definitely something you have to experience!

The infamous Silk Street Market, not at all what I expected!

Spent the day shopping with these lovely ladies!

Then we went to SanLiTun, a popular expat area. We looked at another market there to see if they had any clothes but they were kind of expensive so we decided we would go to the Zoo Market sometime during the holiday. We also stopped in the Apple store. I really wanted to see the new iPhone 6 plus (OMG its huge!) and we looked at the iPads. It was crazy packed and we didn't make it past the first table. Good thing the first table was the iPads.

Before we headed home we went to a local market to buy some fruits and meat. It was really cool to see the different sellers set up with their produce and groceries and meats. I am also very glad that I don't have to go places like this to buy meat in the states. I am pretty sure I would become a vegetarian very fast if I had to look at meat like that every time I wanted to buy it. I ended up buying some Nutella (because it is very hard to find here in China, surprise surprise) and some granola bars! Yup I can still eat Western food here in China, it's just a little more expensive but totally worth it!

This is how you buy meat at the market in China. Ummm, no thanks! LOL

Well there are still 5 more days to enjoy in the holiday! I bought Rosetta Stone Mandarin Chinese for 60RMB (about $10) so I plan to start that and then I bought some movies for 10RMB (about $1.60) so I will have stuff to do at home when I am not out hanging with friends! Happy National Holiday!