Friday, April 15, 2011

Eggs, Octopus, and Other Delicacies by Abby Goldstein


So its Friday and we all know what that means, its time to make the second post of the week.
On Wednesday, April took me out for my Chinese lesson, it was not huge, we just went for a nice little walk and went into a home furnishings store and she pointed things out and told me what was what. It was a relatively short lesson, and when I got home, it was dinner time, which was literally just a bowl of steamed carrots, I talked to Dan and Britt on skype. Britt and I decided to go for substantial food instead, and went to the top floor of Ito Yokado and got some sushi. We ordered California rolls (which you would think would be a safe choice), and were in for a bit of a surprise. The roll consisted of some sort of vegetable, covered in ketchup and mayonnaise (ewwwwww). After that we went downstairs to look at a dessert shop, and i got some jello-esque concoction and Britt opted for a dry piece of cake. We went out to have a nice low-key celebration of her receiving her first paycheck. We went to Jiû Paí street that Richard and Kiki took me to my first day here. There I met a bartender who was not there during my previous visit, Matt, who came from Orlando, Florida. We sat and chatted with him and Chinese co-worker “Kid Panda”. We got up on stage and danced with some students from Culinary Institute of America (just 2 hours away from Syracuse). I found out that we had a mutual classmate (super small world). Then I played the dice game with Liangliang who I call Mr. Bartender. After we made our attempt at chatting with each other, Britt and I headed out to a different part of town. There we met some more foreign students. I chatted with a girl from Sri Lanka, and we met two other Americans, both boys, one from Los Angeles, the other from Massachusetts. We got in around 1 a.m.
On Thursday, I finished editing more than half the English on the website, just a few more pages to go (woohoo!). I had no set Chinese lesson, so April took me out to experience some more culture. We went to a “hot pot” restaurant. It was sooooooo delicious. I ventured out of my comfort zone a bit. I tried chicken neck, octopus, quail eggs, lotus, and some chili peppers. The food got progressively spicier the longer the pot simmered (go figure). We were so full after splitting the huge pot between the two of us (which came out to about 100 RMB total). We headed down to a Club called Babi different from the first Babi club I saw. We sat down and had a beer then headed down the street to Club Seven, where we played the dice game for a good hour. Following that, we went to a roadside stand and got some BBQ I decided to go for quail eggs again (what can I say? They are my new fave).  Then we headed home at around midnight. I received a text message from Liangliang, which, by the way, made me happy. He had to use a translator to figure out what I was saying. Apparently I forgot to tell him my name originally so he had me listed in his phone as “Lovely Girl” (insert your “awwww” here). He wished me a happy holiday (I am guessing he meant good evening).
And today, I have been working for the majority of the day, I am about to go for my Chinese lesson earlier than usual, right after the lunch break ends. I will fill you in on everything else next Monday.
Much, much love,
Abby

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