It has been so long since I have written, I don't even know what dates thing happened on.
I haven't written lately because during the day I pretty much do the same old, well that is when it was raining. Last week it was gorgeous and for the first time in at least a week it was not gray and I could actually enjoy a blue sky and warmer weather. But first I will back up a little bit and share some things that have happened in the last few weeks.
One day a couple of weeks ago Caitlin and I went into the city with the French guys. It was a chilly night but a very clear night (after a day of on and off rain). We went to The Bund area and went to a bar called Bar Rouge. This Place would have been awesome on a warm night. They have a big rooftop patio that overlooks The Bund and PuDong. We were able to go out there for some pictures and to just take some time to enjoy the gorgeous skyline, however it was too cold to enjoy our drinks outside. We didn’t stay long but it was nice to get out and be back in the city with great company.
A few weekends ago was filled with homework, a little bit of running, some euchre and being lazy.
One Friday night some people went to a Korean restaurant to eat dog. That’s right, puppy! I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about the dog meat. I would like to try it before I leave China in May. I didn’t go with on Friday because Catholicism is in the Lenten season now, which, among other things, means I am not eating meat on Fridays. So I decided not to go to the restaurant because I knew I would want to try the dog if I went. Instead I stayed in and had a pretty crazy Friday night filled with laundry, homework, and watching the show Friends. Since I bought the complete set a while ago I wanted to start the series from season one…I forgot how many funny episodes there are right at the beginning of the series. It was a quite night but very relaxing.
The next Saturday night, Caitlin and I went out to dinner with a couple of girls that we met on campus. They took us to a place outside of campus with delicious dumplings. In instances like this, it is good that I am not a picky eater because the girls just ordered a few dishes they liked and the four of us shared them. They were delicious!!! One of the dishes was a new type of dumpling that I don’t think I had tried before…very tasty. Another one of the dishes looked/tasted like a sweet potato...I am not sure if that is what it was. But for the sake of this post I will call it a sweet potato. So there were chunks of this sweet potato on a plate caramelized in a sugary goodness. The girls told us they had to be eaten fast because they would harden. So you pick one of the chunks up and you dip it in water. Yes water. As first I was a little hesitant, thinking that it would make the potato soggy but it made the caramelized top from sticking all over the inside of your mouth. They were very yummy!!! And after a short amount of time had passed they were in fact very hard. Eventually these little potatoes got to the point where they couldn’t even be pulled apart. But they were great while they lasted. The dinner was a lot of fun. The girls spoke English very well and they were easy to talk to. It was a wonderful evening. Later that night we went upstairs and just hung out with the guys. Nothing really exciting just some dorm life.
Sunday was filled with homework and an adventure to the post office. The woman that lives in the dorm, the IE, came to our door and told us in Chinese that Caitlin had a package at the post office. I wasn’t able to pick up on too many full sentences but I picked up on enough Chinese words to know that’s what she was telling us. It was a gorgeous afternoon so we headed out to the north side of campus, where the IE told us the post office was. After making it out to the north side of campus, which took us about 45 minutes, we couldn’t find the post office. We received some help from someone on the street and he pointed us in the right direction. Turns out the post office is only about a 15 minute walk from our dorm…The IE was way off in her directions. It is not like this was even lost in translation because we had her point to our campus map for us. Thankfully the weather was great and we now know where the post office is on campus.
During the week Caitlin and I met a Liu Yanchen for lunch. We went to a restaurant outside of campus. It was a really cute restaurant…it didn’t feel like a Chinese restaurant at all. I don’t remember the type of food that we had but it is the common style of food served in northern China. The dishes were spicy but thankfully I have grown to enjoy some spice. Liu Yanchen ordered so much food for the three of us. She ordered two types of meet dishes, one with beef, one with lamb. Two types of vegetables, eggplant and corn, and she ordered a soup! There was so much food on the table it was ridiculous. The meet dishes were mixed with vegetables and potatoes and one of them even had noodles mixed in. The soup was good, a meat broth with noodles, but it was one of the last things to get to the table so we were pretty full by the time that came out, and didn’t eat a whole lot of it. The eggplant was amazing!!! I don’t know what type of sauce was on it but very good and not spicy J the corn was more of a dessert…it was a thin layer of corn and pea kernels held together by sugar and cut in pie shape pieces. The food was delicious and very different from a lot of things we have eaten already. I love going out to eat with people that know the language; they always order such great meals!!!!
The remainder of last week was spent studying for a Heat & Mass Transfer exam that we had on Thursday morning. After the exam we headed out for another weekend trip. This time we were headed to Xi’an and Qingdao.
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