Settling In

The past few days we have been getting used to our new surroundings and figuring out how to get around. We have a driver named Liu and he doesn’t speak any English. He takes Adam to work and back, and if I need to go somewhere during the day, I tell Adam and he tells Really to call Liu and tell him where I need to go. Eventually when I know enough Chinese, I’ll be able to call him myself. But for now, since there’s no way for him to know where and when to pick me up after I’m done shopping, he comes shopping with me. It’s very weird. I don’t like having someone watch me shop. I can only imagine what he’s thinking too. He’s very nice, though, and he at least pretends not to mind. :)

Our questionable food item of the week was a bust. We’re not sure what it was, but I think it was pig feet. Here’s a picture of the packaging:

And here’s a picture of it cooked:

It was basically all fat. There was a tiny sliver of meat that I ate, but thank goodness we had back-up dumplings or we would have gone hungry. Also, I’m disappointed by the abundance of American junk food available here. I was hoping there would be none and I would be forced to eat healthily. But now I’m going to have to use will power instead. One thing I did discover, happily, is the joy of cooking fresh broccoli. I’ve always bought frozen in America and I liked it, but I had no idea what I was missing by not buying raw. With a little bit of oil in a frying pan (not vegetable oil, but it’s got a picture of a fish on the jug so it must come from fish), the fresh broccoli tastes like heaven. And one head of broccoli costs about 50 cents USD. The broccoli farmers here must be very poor but I’m lovin’ it!

Adam and I went shopping for winter coats and long sleeved shirts this weekend. Guys’ clothes are very stylish here so it was easy to find good stuff for him. I was able to find a cute pea coat for me but shirts were a no-go. The below picture is a good example of what’s in stores right now for girls:

Not really my style. And it doesn’t help that the employees are all over you when you enter the store. And you always have to ask them for a bigger size. Even Adam, who is quite fit, needs to ask for a bigger size most of the time because Chinese people aren’t just skinny, their bone structure is also smaller than ours, generally. But speaking of skinniness, we’ve discovered how the Chinese stay in shape. On our way home from shopping, we walked by the sports complex that’s near our apartment and there were a ton of people outside in the square doing a simple choreographed dance in unison. I use the word “dance” loosely, because it was like a Chinese Macarena. I didn’t have my camera with me, dang it, but I found a picture online that demonstrates the number of people and the scale of the whole thing. It was pretty funny to watch.

Here’s a picture of Smudgie's darling face:

I was out walking him around our complex the other day and a security guard asked me what kind of dog he was and I understood him! I didn’t understand every single word, but I heard him say “shenme” (what) and “gou” (dog). I told him pomeranian and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. There’s probably a Chinese word for Pomeranian but I don’t know what it is.