I can't believe it happened!

   Ok, this is totally embarrassing but I missed my flight this morning! It's never happened to me (or maybe Donald remembers something that I don't). Either way, totally embarrassing. I swear, though, that I planned plenty of time to get there early but traffic was bad for some reason so the Taxi ride that was supposed to take about 30mins ended up taking 1hr 5mins. What the heck! I was 3 minutes late for check-in, had to run to see the man with authority to let me though and he totally denied me (I was about 5 mins late by the time I got to him). I begged and pleaded but he wouldn't budge. So the next flight wasn't until 5:30pm today so I missed an entire day of my trip and had to call my manager to tell her what happened. She couldn't believe my luck b/c it really shouldn't have taken that long to get to the airport.

   I ended up at the office at my normal arrival time but with a HUGE headache that has now developed into a really sore throat. I hope I'm not getting sick!

I must have looked a little ill after getting to work b/c my co-worker, Tina, offered my some of her breakfast. Which I accepted b/c I was hungry and always up for trying new foods.

Tina had brought a few of these in to eat for breakfast and shared one with me.
It was pounded rice with sweet bean paste, peanuts and black sesame inside coated
in coconut. Much sweeter then I was expecting from looks alone. Very delicious.

Tina and I seem to share a lot of the same taste in food so I made a request that she takes me grocery shopping with her before I go so she can show me what she buys, then I can buy it too with the hopes that I will like whatever it is. She also shared these with our team for an afternoon snack. Does anyone know what it is? I didn't until I cracked it open.

Toasted nutty goodness, a nut that I have NEVER seen in it's shell

...It's pinenuts! They are fun to eat like pistachios.

Now I'm safe and sound in Qingdao (pronounced Ching dah-aww) after a funny cab ride to my hotel. I had a co-worker right out the address and name of the hotel in Chinese for me so I could just hand it to the cab driver. Well, I got in the cab, handed the guy my piece of paper, he started to drive off then proceeded to talk to me in Chinese so I just gave him my I don't understand you look. He repeated something over and over and it seemed that he didn't how to get to my hotel or that for some reason he couldn't take me there b/c we got about a 1/4 mile out of the airport and he slowed down to talk to several cabs that were pulled over for their break. The 3rd cab driver seemed like he knew what my guys was asking but then all of a sudden I was pointed towards the other cab and basically told to get out. I grabbed all my gear and showed the other cab driver my paper and he nodded positively. In about 5 minutes I was at the doorstep of my hotel. I still am not sure what was wrong with the first cab but i'm safe and where I'm supposed to be. That equals a happy ending to my day.