Well we left the airport and took a cab ride that rivals any amusement park roller coaster in the United States. It was full of U-Turns and dead end streets. It is quite funny here how the cars and people interact on the streets, the cars drive into hoards of people and the people don't even bat an eye at the cars ready to run them down. I am very thankful that Mengchen was here to help direct the cabbie. We finally get to the hotel where I got checked into the room and left my things while we start out on our days set of events. Mengchen told me that she would tell me when I can take her picture, I must have missed the translation as you will later see.
I tested out my computer and discovered that I can get in and do anything that I may need to do remotely and I am able to get to my emails even though I use secure protocols. I chatted with Jim via Yahoo for a little while and Mengchen thought she would have some fun with him and start sending him IM's as if she was me. I knew that this would not take Jim long to figure out that it was not me. Anyway, after all those fun and games we set out to find ourselves some breakfast.
We came out of the hotel and got that breakfast with a street food vendor. We got a type of egg sandwich which was quite interesting. They were made in a heated muffin tin and the egg and fillings were added to the sandwich. The sandwich was then removed and more batter was put into the muffin pan and the original sandwich was flipped over back on top of the newly added dough. As the dough expands, kind of like a pancake, it encases the entire egg and filling.
We then went and found ourselves a place to get something to drink. I had a hot tea and she got a hot soy milk. Now I should probably take a minute and mention that Mengchen does not like her picture taken and I learned the hardway. I should have gotten the hint in the Cab one might have thought. When we were taking pictures of the muffin sandwiches, I took a cheap shot picture of her while we were trying to see the picture of the sandwich. She started to scream give me the camera in a crowd of people.. It made me look like a crazed tourist hassling the citizens of Beijing and with the police around I need to act fast. So I gave her my camera where she proceeded to delete any picture that had her in it. This was the start of me losing access to my camera, but I did end up gaining a personal photographer.
After breakfast I had a good strong feeling that she was getting a bit tired and begun to think that I was going to win this bet! So we finish off our breakfast and head to Tian'anmen Square and
the forbidden city.