Mmmm.....Authentic!!!

my right eye and my stomach are more than a little upset with me right 
now!  i met a 3rd grade english teacher today.  she invited me to go out 
for a traditional hunan meal.   here's a tip for anyone who comes to 
china....don't eat traditional anything your first day, unless it's 
traditional american...and i'd be wary of that too.  i made a mistake 
walking past mcdonalds and kfc today!

so, i was playing at using chopsticks eating noodles, and they brought 
out this soup that she had ordered.    i attempted that dish too, but 
somehow managed to splash it into my right eye.  not sure how to explain 
that...it's even harder to explain in broken english!  it was "boiled 
fish in pickled turnip and hot chilli", wow did it hurt!  the letter i 
sent yesterday asked why they leave the skin on all the meat?  well, the 
same goes for the fish....they clean the guts out, then dump the fish 
into a pot and boil it with a pile of spicy things, then heaven help you 
and your stomach.  it's a little rough on me!

i did somehow manage to pick up a bus pass today as well, that was 
exciting, you would not believe the size of the train stations here.  
they're apparently putting in 15 different subway lines here, i have no 
idea how many they currently have, i think you'd have to be able to read 
the details of the sign to understand.

the bus that i took was an experience in itself.  i'm going to guess 
that the average height of chinese people is or used to be 5'5", i had 
to duck my head and sit in a children's seat, i didn't fit.

i did see a sign last night where i recognized 3 out of 4 characters.  i 
then translated the type of store for the english teacher i was hanging 
out with, she busted up laughing.  the first symbol was mountain, second 
i didn't know, third was the number 5, and the 4th was gold.  i took it 
to mean that somewhere in the mountain of goods were 5 useful items.  
apparently you can't take the actual meanings of the individual words, 
when put together they have an entirely different meaning.  i also 
thought, originally, that the more complex symbols had something in 
common with the symbols that make up the character.  but....if you take 
the mountain character and put it on top of another mountain character, 
it means exit.  i think i'm lost, but at least i'm still amusing others.

i went through "book city" yesterday as well, it was 8 floors of books.  
i went into the foreign language section, and all of the titles are in 
chinese, the book itself is in english, so, you've got to be able to 
recognize something about the cover to find a book that you want to 
read....good luck!  i think i'll stick with amazon....which is a whole 
lot cheaper as well.

i also learned that you are allowed to have more than one child in 
China.  apparently, though, you have to purchase the privilege....it's 
120,000 RMB, or roughly $20,000 USD....

i'm currently debating on breakfast.  i can go down to the square 
downstairs and have dim sum for roughly 10 bucks...OR i can spend 30 on 
an american style breakfast....i think i'm going to go with what my 
father would do in this situation....turned out to be a great idea.  the 
fruit here is amazing, a lot of it i don't recognize but it's so good.  
i love the apple-like things that i now call power adapters!  (i 
mentioned earlier that they sent them up when i asked if they had a 
power adapter.  i did finally get a power adapter that i could plug my 
power adapter into, so, it works...sort of, i have a power adapter 
plugged into a power adapter plugged into a power adapter.  it keeps 
things charged, but i can't help but wonder if it's a bit of overkill, 
there has to be an easier way.  i'll figure that out later.  
fortunately, there's a walmart near me, hopefully they will have 
something that i can use.  there's also an electronics marketplace 
nearby where i think my apartment is going to be, so i may have to give 
that a try too.

it's sunday right now, i'm actually taking a day just to wind down, 
relax, get things in order....and when i say things, i mean my system, i 
am just taking the day to relax, listen to some music, and read, 
tomorrow, i go in search of school locations.