Chinese Food

Well, where do i begin.  How's the food? will be the question.  is it like the chinese food we have here?
let's just say that my best chinese vocabulary deals with food.  i wasn't going to fool around, i needed to make sure i got what i wanted.  when i asked this young chinese girl about some food, she told me this joke (which is actually pretty true).  she said the people from the _______ province will eat anything with wings, except a plane, anything with legs except a chair and anything that's in the water except a boat.  nothing is off limits.  I have found that to be true.  the food is good, you never know every ingredient, but it has been tasty.  I am including some photos of my favorite places.  I have not seen an egg roll yet.  the night lights up with street food venders.  if you are choose carefully you can find some good bbq chicken, etc.  they make up the fried rice right in front of you so you can tell them what to put in it.  most everything has meat, but not much.  The noodles are fresh and almost everyone eats rice noodles in soup for breakfast, although there are other options.  The combos are good and the dumplings (like the potstickers) are excellent.  the fruit is everywhere and quite fresh.  If i didn't have to walk so much and climb so many stairs i'm sure i would be gaining weight.

street food - jishi, jitui (bbq chicken wings and drumstick)

my favorite guy on the street - yangzhouchaufan (fried rice)

the muslim noodle guys niurou chaulamian (beef and noodles)

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best jaozi (dumplings) in town

shaoyafen (duck soup with rice noodles) my father in law would have loved it
i hope the connections cooperate and i can post some info on my trip to Hong Kong this coming week

March 16, 2014  Youjiang Medical College for the Nationalities

University life here is quite different than what I'm used to at CNU.  let's see, at about 7am some very loud music is piped in throughout the university to start to wake everyone up.  the 1st couple of songs are kind od mellow and then about a 15 minute, big band version of the Chinese National Anthem comes blaring through.  It's time to get up!  Everyone has an 8am class (except me) so everyone gets up, heads to the dining halls and then a stampede to the 1st class.  Time is built into the study for an afternoon nap, it's expected and a part of the culture.  Seems like a good idea to me and part of the culture here that's easy to get involved with.  At about 4:30 most are finished with classes and hit the athletic area for PE classes, soccer, basketball (until 10pm) volleyball and of course ping pong.  It's impressive.  Of course the ping pong tables fill up fast (about 20 of them) and the level is very high, girls and boys.  i haven't really beat any of the girls yet, never mind the boys, and a 7 year old teacher's kid gave me a pretty good battle (the spin on his shots was incredible.  they are serious players.  Everyone is doing something, dance, tai kuan do, badminton, it's a good thing.  the following are some pictures of the university, which has about 10,000 students.  the dorms are about 6 to a room except in the foreign student building, where there are 3.  I actually live in an apartment in the dorm so i feel like i'm back in college with all the noise, etc (kind of)

settling in

i spent 4 days in shanghai before heading south to baise.  the city is massive, 21 million people.

i visited a couple of international schools and watch them play some soccer.  the schools are very nice.  i am settling in here in southern china.  the apartment seemed a bit rustic at first but after a day of shopping and getting used to all white block and marble structure, it doesn't seem too bad.  business done in china seems quite different than in the USA, no teaching schedule nor definite time to begin the semester.  i expect i'll get a call soon and get started. the weather still cold and no heat inside.  supposed to warm up within six weeks (hope time goes by fast) now that i have successfully have gotten on bloodspot then maybe i can post more often.

ready,set,go

you can keep up with some of my adventures while i'm gone at this site.  hopefully i will post an update at least once a week.  we'll see how it goes.