like a day in Manhattan
despite the fact that we had crazy smog last week, today was virtually smog free. how we can go from 452 on thursday to 19 this morning?!?!....well, I'm not sure that I'll ever figure it out. anyway, while I was waiting for my washer/dryer combo to run through it's 3.5 hour cycle (no, that's not a typo) I decided to venture out for a walk.
It's a little overcast, and there was a slight breeze...similar to a lovely late fall day in Manhattan. First I headed down to a popular shopping mall for expats. It's called Sanlitun. There are loads of stores that you'd all recognize...adidas, h&m, michael kors, armani, etc. there's a great bookstore, some cool looking high end shops and a few western style eateries. It's also a lot closer than I thought it was...very walkable. Guess I'll be spending more time there!
From there I decided to find my to the western style grocery, Jenny Lou's. We've driven there before...so it wasn't that hard to find. It was nice to be able to window shop through some of the stores along the way...lots of individual mom and pop shops catering to expats. I've got my eye on a beautiful italian bakery....looks like they carry a great selection of bread! Guess I'll be heading back there as well!
I wandered back through some side streets. Mostly past loads of foreign embassies. Who knew that Uzbekistan needed an embassy in china? I was going to snap a few photos but all of these buildings are guarded by chinese soldiers...and I'm not so sure I want to mess with that. I ended up walking past one of the "rivers" that cuts through the city. Not really sure why they call them that though...it doesn't even look as though the water moves. Nevertheless, there are always people fishing in these rivers...haven't seen anyone catch anything yet. And I sure do wonder what they do with their catches? ....can't imagine that they'd actually eat it.
Back now to my apartment....and my laundry is still not done!