March 18; whipped cream = trouble on the subway

Day 42
Tanjin and I started off our day with teaching our extra classes. Here's a look at our (reject? -- there are a lot of broken desks and chairs shafted off in the corner) classroom!

welcome to sunday school kiddies!

desks after we organized them.

every classroom is equipped with a computer, projector and working speakers.
pretty awesome.

parents picking up their kids from sunday  school on bikes.
definitely awesome.

We made a trip to Wal-Mart to pick up the essentials and I miraculously found all the things I had been craving -- whipped cream and cheese.

DAIRY! CHEESE! BUTTER! HEAVEN!

As I briefly mentioned in a previous post, you need to go through security checks if you want to ride the subway. As my bag was going through the conveyor belt, the security lady stopped me and started to talk to me in putonghua (Mandarin). I replied back to her in my most perfect English, "I don't speak Chinese." Looking a little flustered, she went to get some back up. She sent over another security guy who politely asked me in English, "May I take a look in your bag," to which I replied "of course." He found the thing that was making the machine go off: my whipped cream in an aerosol can. As he was examining this strange can, I told him it was food and he politely thanked me and personally pointed me in the right direction. I totally got the right of way.

We met up with John for dinner at Falahfel. At my request through John's spoken putonghua, we got the special room which was furnished with carpet, sofa seating surrounding the room, pretty chandeliers, and a sparkly table. There was even wi-fi, what more can I ask for! Well... the lion man (he's a dude who works there are his hair reminds me of the mane of a lion in a good way) offered us complementary Arabic tea. To make this fantastic day even better, they offered to put my falafel in a wrap (they actually don't have falafel wraps on the menu!). best day ever!

Catherine pouring our special tea

My special -off-the-menu falafel wrap

Falafel Wrap (not on the menu) = 20 RMB

On our way back to the dorm, we hopped on the subway train again which meant I had to go through security check again. This time the security guard who was watching the screen got all hyped up to see something potentially exciting on his screen. Little did they know it was only my can of whipped cream. Once the security guards, now looking a little embarrassed, found out it was only food, they let me go by without any hassle.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm kind of tempted to carry a can of whipped cream with my everywhere to see what the security guards will do next.