Aug. 17 2010 - Cards, Dim Sum & Muttart! [Day 2]

At around 9:30 in the morning, volunteers met up with the youths in the gathering room. A few of them were still eating their breakfast so every kid sat around the table twiddling their thumbs. Cards were brought out which seemed to be the greatest ice breaker. (No, we didn't play poker, though it was tempting) and the Chengdu kids started teaching us "locals" a game they regularly played. Everyone was soon laughing and I still didn't know most of the rules (so I lost and I was "punished"), but it was fun!

We toured Edmonton City Centre Mall, which included going up and down the escalators at least 10 times for whatever reasons. Then, we had a small bus tour before stopping for lunch at the Dynasty Century Palace. Our awesome tour guide & translator explained every step of our journey with explicit detail in Mandarin (I hope I can be that fluent someday!). Once we stepped out of the bus, the Chengdu kids started shivering and they couldn't believe that we could stand this weather in our T- Shirts and shorts. My buddy kept asking me if I was cold, even when we were in the restaurant, but I assured her that this was warm weather for Edmontonians. Long story short, dim sum included egg tarts, albino chicken feet (it's not actually called this, but I don't know it's real name) and lots of hot sauce.

Back on the bus, we headed towards the Chinese Garden which showed some projects of Edmonton's dedicated Chinese associations. I think they really connected with the scene of the pagoda, the 12 zodiac statues and the stone bridge. When we were all given free time to chill around the garden, I noticed one of the Chengdu kids slipped a coin in a crack under their specific zodiac animal statue --- maybe for luck or a wish--- but I didn't ask, I just thought it was interesting.

From the Chinese Garden, we walked through paths and bridges and reached the Muttart Conservatory. Throughout the small trek to the Muttart, we were feeding happy mosquitoes. But, as I heard someone say before, we have too much blood anyway, we can't be greedy! My buddy was very tired walking past the cacti and 1,000 year old plants, so she ended up resting on my shoulder standing up!

When we inspected every single plant at Muttart, we drove to Londonderry mall where we all crammed into Dollarama looking for souvenirs. It was so funny when a group of the Chengdu youths went into The Bay checking every price tag to see if any merchandise wasn't "Made in China", I don't think they found anything that wasn't other than maple syrup. They ended up with bags of chocolate and candies that I think wasn't "Made in China". One of the kids also bought a funky wig from Dollar store!

Our day finished off with a very Asian dinner at Good Buddy. My buddy spooned me a piece of the spicy beef, she assured me that it wasn't spicy so I tried it. Then I realized that it wasn't spicy to her! But the spicy sting was gone when we reached dessert. We said our goodbyes at the hotel and we can't wait until tomorrow.

Megan signing off (at a time that is waaay too late)  =D

Until tomorrow!