Had a pretty surreal day. Our school is having a sports exchange with the local foreign language University, so the school has decided to have a Olympic opening ceremony as far as I can translate. All I know is my teacher made a point of reminding me to go about 5 times so with a Korean friend we went along. We were quickly assembled into lines, before me, a french guy and a russian girl were pulled out to stand up the front, I gather purely because we were white and tall.
Then we practiced marching to “yi..er..yi” (1..2..1). After about 20 mins of this we were let go and told to return for further practice the next day, because I gather we were “shit” (not direct translation). After been mildly shaken from this experience (note previous candid remarks about never getting liberal NZ students to march), the french guy suggested Mcds was in order, I agreed as it was midday and could find noone else keen to find solace in a bottle. As per orders from my parents I took my camera along so they could get an idea of the city (might even post them somewhere), so looking like a complete tourist we filed into McDonalds.
Enter great example of Chinese contradiction. It appears Chinese McDonalds (with support from Coca-cola) are giving away collectors cups to mark the 60th anniversary of Communism coming to China. The irony of a flagships of Capitalism giving away collecters cups to mark the anniversary of the dawn of Communism seems to be completely missed.
Still McDonalds still tastes the same, though I looked like a complete dick wandering around with a cup and camera all afternoon.