THE ZOO

Yesterday I went to... The Zoo! It cost 8 kuai to get in, which is just over one dollar. Then it cost another 5 kuai to see the pandas, which is less than 75 cents. The zoo was very clean and pretty inside. Something interesting I noticed is that the children I saw who were visiting the zoo are the only Chinese children I have ever seen misbehaving. Many conclusions could be drawn from that, but I just thought I'd mention it. Anyway, The first Giant Panda I saw was doing the honorable act of eating bamboo. The next one was sleeping. Haha. I love them! And unfortunately, my idiot self forgot my camera, but I'm going to try to get the pictures off my sister's camera onto my computer. One thing I noticed that I have never noticed before Is that pandas have a little tail. its more like a stub, actually, but it's cute. There was a museum thing in the panda area too, and my sister translated a little for me and said that the pandas have faced major problems since the earthquake. One died, and many others had to be relocated and then ceased to eat. Sad face. On a happy note, I got a new stuffed animal panda. His name in "Qiu Qiu", which is pronounced "Chyoh Chyoh". It means ball :). You can see why in the picture. We also saw the bears, and written in very large letters ALL OVER the bear mountain area, it says "do not feed". So what are the people doing? Feeding them, of course. The bears love it, and they are very adept at catching food in their mouths. After the zoo, we went to my maternal grandmother's house, which we do every night of the weekend. And every night I almost fall asleep watching one horrible Chinese soap opera or another in my grandma's bedroom, which is the family hang out area. Today is the mid-autumn moon festival, and as far as I know, the celebratory part of the holiday is giving each other these little things called mooncakes. They are nothing like western cakes, and honestly, most of them taste like crap. The ones with bean paste do, at least. There is one called "Yellow Oil" and that one tastes like peanut butter, so I like it. I'm going to go do homework now. I'll write more when something interesting happens. The Other picture I'm posting is a picture of My family at dinner 2 nights ago. It's my mom on the far left, my grandma and grandpa, my mom's niece and nephew (they are in their 30's), my sister, and my mom's niece and nephew's daughter (she's 14 and the shiest girl I have ever met).

Cheers,

苏娥利