A Chinese Bookstore and Bus Ride

This morning Jose and I woke up at 6:30 AM to go for a run around West Lake. West Lake is this supposedly beautiful lake here in Hangzhou, but we have never been able to find it. Jose and I set out with this goal, but fell short again today. However, we did get a nice run/walk in around the city in some places we had not yet been. Later we talked to a fellow student and got new directions to this lake. Perhaps tomorrow will bring the discovery of the lake. After a breakfast of bananas and peanut butter in the room, we headed out to a local bookstore that was much like a large Barnes and Noble. I bought some Chinese music CDs that turned out to be pretty good, a Chinese U2 CD and DVD, some books, and some Mao postcards. Pictured below are the Chinese translations of two familiar American books Hoot and The Cricket in Times Square.

After finishing at the bookstore we all parted ways and Jose and I went out walking around this new part of town. We walked a while and then started talking with a Chinese girl who knew English. She helped us pick out a bus to ride to get back to our hotel. Since the bus schedule is entirely in Chinese characters, it is impossible for us to read without help. Jose and I did get on a bus and then took it until it came near to the street our hotel is on. We stopped by a restaurant that looked nice for lunch, only to find a menu entirely in Chinese with no pictures. The waitress seemed to know this and just fixed us a bunch of fruit on a tray. So, we ate that and then the waitress brought us more. We grew concerned that she would keep brining more, but she didn’t. After lunch we went back to the hotel for our afternoon Chinese class. Below are Jose and I with our Chinese friends, and also us on our first Chinese bus ride.