Wanted: 1 Large Box of Grape Juice...followed by 3 ounces of Cheddar Cheese

So I've been having these really weird cravings lately for food and drinks that are definitely not Chinese, especially grape juice. Seeing as it's something that I don't normally drink, I thought it was really weird and I'm kind of hating that I miss things and am searching for them when there are so many other types of wonderful consumables that I should be exploring. Anyway, this search for grape juice has occurred in 3 different grocery stores and I've come to the conclusion that Chinese people just don't like grape juice. Nor do they like grape jelly/jam/preserves as one of my fellow classmates has discovered in her search for grape jelly. I've finally found my grape juice though at a western grocery store in the embassy district of Beijing and did a little happy dance at it's discovery. I've decided that was also my low point as it was when I thought eating three ounces of cheddar cheese out of the plastic wrapper was a great idea for an afternoon snack...not so much in retrospect. Just really, really sad.

Anyway, the embassy area is near Sanlitun, another area of of Beijing which seems to be a "hip spot" according to Lonely Planet. By hip, I think they mean an area with lots of bars and Western clothing/accessory brands, but to each their own. Surprisingly, this was also the area where I think that I most noticed the supposed desert that is encroaching on Beijing. There was a mini wind/dust storm that really sucked and hurt my eyes here. I ended up at an expat bookstore, which was kind of great because I could order my glass of pear juice without having to point to the menu and use hand gestures.

Speaking of odd adventures with food, which seems to be the trend of this post, I had a cultural/linguistic food mishap the other day. One of the wonderful foods here is called baozi, and it's a steamed filled bun that you can get 10 for 4 rmb, a little over 50 cents. I tried to order 10 for lunch the other day by asking for 10 baozi. Little did I know that I accidentally ordered 10 TRAYS of baozi, or 100 little delicious buns. The lady wasn't too happy when I freaked out and told her I only wanted 1. Moral of this story was 2-fold: 1) Baozi (and jiaozi, the little dumplings) come 10 in a tray and you order by the tray, not the individual pieces. 2) Even though I'm not Chinese, at least I'm Asian so I can probably go back to the little stand and hopefully they won't recognize me.