Well, it's been a while since we've updated. It's difficult to capture all of the experiences that we've been having. Sometimes our two weeks in Beijing has felt more like two years. We've had the adventures and challenges of learning more of the language, getting around on public transit and the basic survival skill of getting food. Here's a little about what we've been doing:
Man vs. China: Maybe you've seen the t.v. show "Man vs. Wild?" In this the host is dropped off in the middle of a wilderness and must do what he can to survive. This is what has happened to us in some ways. Our leaders have wisely refrained from coddling us and showing us how to perform basic life skills. Yes, they've given us aids, but they've also just let us free to roam through Beijing, learning as we go.
Getting food has been an adventure. We were given a Chinese/English paper menu with many of the common dishes found in China. We were let loose on the restaurants around our hotel. Quickly, reports came back of the restaurants that had either an English menu or a picture menu. A few times we ventured into an unknown restaurant to find out that they only had a printed menu in Chinese. In these cases we held up the menu and asked in broken Chinese, "What do you have?" After a fun game of pointing, nodding and conferring with our dinner mates, we made our choices. We've yet to find something that wasn't delicious. Our new favorite food is a dish of stir-fried eggplant, potatoes and green pepper. Hao chi! (That's Chinese for "delicious!")
Shopping at the supermarket is another challenge altogether. We quickly recognize brands that can also be found in America: Dove chocolate, Oreos, Skippy, Lay's potato chips and Pringles. We've were also surprised to find products from Bimbo, a Mexican pastry company found throughout L.A. Once we pass beyond these recognized brands we have to resort to a new method we like to call, "What's in the picture on the package?" This was how we found strawberry-flavored Cheetoes! And, they were quite tasty! We've avoided anything that has a picture of a shrimp on it. Some recent fun finds have been: chocolate chip cookies with strawberries or cherries, crab flavored Pringles, chocolate swirled peanut butter, apple-flavored soda, and many more. We are enjoying trying the different types of Chinese snacks too. We're eating a lot of banana chips, dried hawthorne (also called haw fruit), coconut bread and little chocolate cookies that are shaped like mushrooms. They're the only mushrooms Brian will eat. :) In all our searches we have yet to find the elusive Nutella. We found a German version called Nussa but haven't tried it yet.
Please check out our webpage for additional updates and pictures. We'll continue with more of our China adventures in our next note…
