Food and Other Exciting Tales

It has been about a week since my last update so I am a bit past due. Not too much has happened since my last update, I have stepped up my studying as midterms approach and have a presentation to prepare for.

Over this weekend I did not do anything too interesting. I ate my first meal of American food since being here, two western meals in one day actually. I had waffles in a coffee shop while doing some studying and got a hamburger later that same day. I sometimes miss certain foods but I enjoy the food here in China, the only reason I ate western food is because the people I was out with chose to eat at these places.

Here are a few pictures of some of the food I have eaten lately:

They opened a new sandwich shop right next to campus that I thought I would try. It is the only place  have really eaten any proper bread here. Rice is obviously the principle grain here.

 There is a curry place that I have started going to that is close to campus. This was named something like seafood black curry.

Here are the waffles, nothing too exciting but they were good nonetheless.

                                         

These next three dishes are from I restaurant I have been visiting with my language partner.
This first one is an assortment of fried vegetables, they lit a fire under the dish to keep it warm at your table.

 This was an egg dish, just the whites with vegitables, that was served cold. Not my favorite but I still ate some of it.

 This last one was a very salty soup type of dish with fish and vegetables.

This weekend I visited with another Chinese friend who I met during the English Mission Town TA program I have been working every other week when they have sessions. We went to a restaurant that serves northern Chinese food. The different regions of China are all known for different types of food, normally northern food is a bit more spicy, there are also other differences that I cannot adequately explain at the moment. This first blurry picture is an eggplant dish with meat. It was my first time trying eggplant and I enjoyed it.

On the left here is a pork dish where the pork is seasoned/cooked with sugar and vinegar. It has a pretty interesting taste, mixed between sweet and savory.

 This was a sweet potato dish with meat. Pretty straightforward, again these types of dishes often have a flame lit underneath.

I actually did do something of interest today. I met with my friend and language partner, since I didn't ask if I could put her name in the blog so I will just tell you the English name she chose for herself which is Sandy. I met with her once last week and again today, we first met for lunch with her roommate. Sandy is a fourth year law student and her roommate is a fourth year psychology student.

After eating they helped me with some Chinese and then I helped them with English. I have been learning some Chinese slang terms from her but am still slow going when it comes to widening my vocabulary. I ask what a lot of things are called but always end up forgetting them. When it came to helping their English we just spoke about different subjects then I explained what a word or term meant when we come across ones they didn't know. It is a bit easier for them to learn since they are practicing the whole time we are speaking and they already have a built vocabulary. I also brought my computer with me so I could share my music collection. I thought listening to English language music might help her a bit and is also a good way to share culture. I mostly have indie bands and alternative rock on my computer at the moment though so am not sure if she will like it or not. I also had some random Jazz, which she said she was a fan of, so at least that might work out.

After we finished practicing and sharing computer files, they took me to a Chinese market that sold all kinds of fresh foods. There were a ton of vegetables and fruits there I have never seen.

The entrance was just in this seemingly random alleyway.

They sold live birds here. Some of them just kind of looked like pigeons to me but they also had ducks and chickens.

 In the background you can kind of see the man weighing the chicken on the scale to determine its price. He just grabs hold of it and plops it on the scale, didn't seem to put up too much of a fight.

 The floor of the fruit section was littered with wrappers everywhere. The whole place as a whole was a bit messy but really was not too bad considering how crowded it is at all times.

 That is Sandy on the left and her roommate on the right. She hasn't yet let me take a picture of her because she thinks that she is old or something even though I allowed her to take one of me. I did manage to snap this banana action side capture. I purchased some of these bananas as well.

 This one turned out really blurry but this is another fruit I have never seen.

Sandy bought some of these and let me try one. I have no idea what it is called.

 You peel off the outside to see the edible soft part.

 Inside of that is a hard core which you can also eat.

They go here once a week to purchase their groceries. This is just an exit onto a main street, an entrance more noticeable than the alleyway.

Next time we meet I think we are going to try to cook and possibly play basketball and/or Mahjong. I am excited because I wanted to learn how to make some real Chinese food while here. So we will probably revisit this market to get some ingredients.

Next weekend I will be visiting Beijing with fellow W&J student Whitney Sims-Rucker along with two of her Spanish classmates. I will be arriving by train and should probably make the arrangements tomorrow. So I am getting excited for that. I will be the only one in the group with a basic knowledge of Mandarin so should practice so I can try showing off  how adapted to China I have become (or more-so to not be embarrassed by how inadequate my language skill currently is).

One other piece of exciting news is that my Magellan project proposal has been accepted and my award granted. After my semester ends here I will be journeying to South Korea to research the Korean comfort women of WWII in a contemporary political context. I will be staying mostly in Seoul where surviving comfort women still protest weekly outside of the Japanese embassy. I know absolutely 0 Korean words to need to start familiarizing myself with some things.

I did promise to add an update about the propaganda museum but will get to that another time, so you're just going to have to deal with it.

Goodby for now.
-Michael