We have continued on our culinary tour of Asia with our trusty translator friend, Lei. SaiSai’s parents loaned her and their driver to us until Friday, so we have been bee-boppin around town making the most of it.
She is very nice, but her English leaves a little to be desired (i.e. they must use the word "translator" loosely here). Therefore, most of our meals consist of a lot of smiling, nodding and questions about Chinese culture. For example, I asked Lei: “Do people in China do yoga?”. Lei’s response: “Yes, we have vanilla and blueberry.” Me to Lei: “Ohhh yogurt.” Me to Harrison: “Well that question was a strike out, next…...”
She took us to try Hot Pot for lunch. It was a lot of fun and seems like something that would be a big hit in US. We each got our own pot with a different broth, then ordered meats and veggies to cook in the pot, along with a large selection of dipping sauces. Very interactive and 6 hours later, Harrison understood where the name Hot Pot probably derives from- a lot of quality time with the toilet pot. Sorry to be vulgar, but I’m just telling it like it is……
After lunch we headed to Tsingdao brewery- where the most popular local Chinese beer is made….they also serve it in the US. It was a lot of fun and we got to sample the different varieties. H asked the tour guide who owns Tsingdao, to which she responded the government. Ohhh the joys of Communism. It really is unbelievable how nobody in this town speaks English- even people who work at hotels. So basically, if we want to go somewhere, we goggle the address, then email it to ourselves, then show the driver the email with the Chinese characters in it. So much for spontaneity……
This town is freakishly clean and beautiful- you don’t see any trash or homeless people. The crime rates are also freakishly low, so I guess there are some positives to their government system. We think most of the people are scared of us- the large Americans. They don’t really make too much eye contact, except for the occasional school kid who shouts out “Hello” and then giggles and runs off.
We elected to have dinner on our own last night and managed to find a restaurant online called The Diner- it sounded promising and the decor was pretty cute, but the food was not exactly stellar. Luckily, all the menus have pictures on them, so we pointed to a pizza and spaghetti and it was fine.
Apparently there is a pretty active Ex Pat group here and there was a posting about a meet up at Starbucks this morning, so we are planning on venturing over there with a list of questions.
Bryan and some others come into town this weekend for meetings concerning the hospital, which H will attend.
Tonight Lei is taking us to a Korean food restaurant and then she reallllly wants us to do Karaoke with her…..problem is, she doesn’t listen to American music, which means my infamous rendition of Alanis Morisette will not be properly appreciated. I think we will pass on her offer…..
Tomorrow we move hotels to the Intercontinental, which is hopefully where we will remain for at least a few weeks- we are really ready to finally unpack and get settled. The new hotel will be really nice- it is on the harbor where the 2008 sailing Olympic events were held and its connected to the brand new mall I was telling you about earlier. It was built to be the Olympic village.
Send me email updates on your summers- I can’t believe Casey Anthony was not guilty! WOW.
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