A Vanilla Latte, please

For some reason I keep getting drawn back to Qingdao. However, this was by far the most fun I've had there. I went with four friends, to meet up with Yuri, who we stayed with while we were in Korea. She has an apartment a short cab ride from the city. Since we wanted to leave Friday from work we hired a private driver to pick us up at the end of school and drive us the 3 hours to Qingdao. It would have taken a really long time to go all the way downtown and get on a bus. The private driver was 120 rmb/person (~$18), but a little expensive for China standards. The ride down there was fine, but when we got there he demanded more money. We of course refused, but it was hard to fight in Chinese, as no one was fluent. We called one of our friends who speaks Chinese to talk to the driver. At the end of the conversation he stole the phone and refused to give it back unless we paid an even more ridiculous amount of money. After we threatened to call the police he lowered his price to the point where it was just easier to pay it than bother with this anymore. Not a great way to start our weekend, but we were glad to be done with that episode. It's unfortunate that people try to take advantage of others, thinking they don't know any better. I know people in my country can be equally as awful, but it makes me sad that there are people like that.

As most of my trips so far, this one too revolved around food. We quickly dropped our stuff and headed out to get pizza. The closest thing to real pizza in China. It was delicious. We just stayed in on Friday night, ate pizza and drank soju. It was a nice relaxing evening, especially after the shennanigans that started it off.

The next day we took our time getting up and ready and then went out for Indian food and Baskin Robbins. Amazing. We went straight from there for Starbucks (I told you this weekend was all about consumption - just trying to do my part). We spent a little time roaming around this very tiny, but beautiful, park. After that we just headed back to Yuri's to rest and get ready for the evening. We spent the evening touring several bars around Qingdao. The first place we went wast the Shangri-La Hotel, which was beautiful. It must be nice to be rich! Although Qingdao is significantly nicer than Yantai, the people there don't seem as friendly. They have a lot more foreigners, so we were stared at less, however the foreigners pretty much stuck to their own friends. Here in Yantai, everyone seems pretty happy to talk to everyone else. That is one really nice part about living here.
On Sunday we slept in and then headed to Metro, which is a Costco-like store, but you don't have to buy everything in bulk. I bought myself a very cozy robe, as the weather is getting coooold. I have realized this might have been a mistake as I have actually contemplated whether or not I can get away with wearing it to work. So far I've managed to leave it at home, but I'm not sure how much longer I can hold out. I also bought tortillas and refried beans that I am saving for a very special occasion. Perhaps my birthday next week!

We left there, happy with our purchases and headed to the bus station. After the debacle with the driver, we decided we should probably hop the bus back to Yantai. The bus decided to make an unscheduled stopover at some other, seemingly abandoned, bus station for a half an hour, which we weren't thrilled about. Gotta love China! We all made it home, safe and sound, around 9pm on Sunday. All and all it was a really nice weekend. Any weekend that involves Starbucks and mint chocolate chip ice cream can't be bad!