Day 3: Wednesday July 28

Woke up early to the sound of grandma talking on the phone. My mom's mom has lived with me ever since I came back from China for the first time when I was 2. She's the one that's always home so me and my brother and sister are the ones that are close to her. My parents and my grandma always have arguments but I don't know how we'd manage without her. She cooks and cleans and everything, but unfortunately she's staying in China this time. A lot of her friends and relatives are passing away and she tells me she wants to see them one last time before she loses anymore. I know I made it sound more dramatic than it should be but it's what she told me. She's not arriving home on the same flight as us, in fact she's not coming back. Grandma said to call her whenever we wanted her back, but I don't know how that will work...

Anyways I want to blog more because it's entertaining when I'm bored. So Mom said to wake up early so here I am; took a shower in my super cool VIP suite and got dressed to go to the "something" zoo. I forget what it's called.

I turn on the TV since I have some rare down time. Our vacations our usually really stressful and un-fun so this is nice for a change. Watching Ghana and Australia soccer but the TV lags. Plus it's in Chinese so I had a hard time figuring it out. Sweet, ESPNSTAR it's in English and holy shit!!! Matt Garza no hitter!!!! Please tell me I started him in fantasy baseball fingers crossed. (Turns out I did start him, but that week he accounted for 170.5 of my 300 something fantasy points so I still lost damn) OK I'm calmer now wow isn't that the fourth no hitter this year? Now it's the results of the 20 km walk lol these people look really stupid. Reading the bottom line like I do at home. Terrell Owens got traded to the Bengals. Dan Haren got traded to the Angels. A lot has happened in 3 days.

Breakfast at the White Tiger Cafe inside this huge amusement park/zoo/hotel/water park/restaurant. There's real white tigers in an area around the hotel it's pretty cool. Figured out the name, it's Chimelong Zoo and this place is called Chimelong. Pretty sweet but we can't go to the zoo; it's raining pretty heavy. Some of Grandma's old friends are here from Austin. Small world haha. I wonder if I'll see anyone from school or I know that would make my trip.

My contacts are killing me is it something in the air? No offense but China is not the best place to go babe-hunting. There should be a universal rule where kids from vacationing families can hang out. Or maybe that's a bad idea. Who knows?

Well we're in the zoo and guess what? We are hiding from the rain next to the pelican exhibit because there is thunder and lightning and everything else that comes during a thunderstorm. This sucks, I think we should've taken a hint when it was pouring rain this morning. Well we are all seperated. Aunt's at work, Mom went back to the car my aunt let us borrow to get her camera, Dad is renting a stroller, and me, my siblings, Xiao Xiao, and my grandma are sitting here. Thank god for my ipod. *huge clap of thunder* Ok maybe not thank god thank my thoughtfulness lol I have a feeling I offended people with that line. And apparently we are supposed to meet my cousins in ShenZhen today. Wow we are off schedule.

We are all reunited now, except for my aunt, and leaving the zoo. We got a refund though, since we didn't see anything but pelicans.

Just ran through the rain to go back to this gift shop near the pelicans to buy Emily, my sister, this fat squirrel/panda thing that she wanted. I know, I know, I'm such a great person. I hope I can get this much exercise everyday. Lol I looked like a thief running back with a stuff animal in my hands. And it felt weird paying 45 yuan for a stuffed animal because it sounds like a lot but it's still only 7 USD which is a deal I guess.

We are hiding from the rain in our hotel room. My aunt has these 2000 yuan gift cards that her friend gave her that she forgot to use. How to you forget 2000 yuan? Oh wait, she lives the high life haha. Derek and Xiao Xiao are both being annoying in their own ways.

Ate crocodile for dinner in the Unicorn Restaurant in the hotel in, once again, a VIP room. It tasted okay I guess. (Later it turns out this dinner costed 3000 yuan. Yeah I know.)

I need my Ipod with me more I need to keep track of things. I also need more pants with pockets. I'm so used to carrying around my bag all the time now.

Back in the hotel room. It's pretty hard getting used to seeing a 6 pack of 7-up for 58 dollars, I mean yuan lol.

For some reason here I wrote "crazy asian people" and I forget why I wrote that. Oh well.

Really digging the sexy businesswoman outfit but then again it's all that looks good around here.

I'm out.