All By Myself

Today I feel like we did quite a lot. I woke up bright and early at 6 AM again and aspired to do my laundry with a machine where the directions are all characters. It took me the better part of an hour to figure it out, due to the fact that you must turn the water on yourself. (Not everything is automatic like we're used to from fancy appliances back in the states!) After I finished that, I went to the store called Almost Home to buy cheese and biscuit mix with David and Spencer. I also went to an open food market, which had things I've never laid eyes on before, most of which I couldn't even begin to describe or explain. I had a BLT with cheese for lunch with Anna at the coffee shop. Afterwards I went with David, Kelly, and Matt to the junk market to buy furniture. Beth and I needed a coffee table for our apartment and we got one for about 7.50 USD that would go for at least 50 USD in the states. This afternoon I decided to venture out on my own to get accustomed to our area. I shopped at the Beijing Market among several other stores and bought some new things to try. Future Cola, which was on my list to taste, is just like Coca-Cola, actually I can't tell the difference at all. I also got Pink Grapefruit flavored Mentos....mmm, I really like them! To top it all off I bought some kind of fruit that looked like a large lime on the outside, but they are orange on the inside and look like a tangerine. The taste was like a citrus mix of tangerine, lemon, and lime...so Beth and I decided to call it a Lemerime. Creative, we know. We had an American dinner tonight of broccoli, chicken, and cheese cassarole over rice with beer bread, salad, and a dessert we belovedly call Afternoon Delight (originally called Digestive Surprise due to the name of the cookies used in the recipe "Digestive Biscuits," like some sort of health cookie). We played a game called Dutch Blitz that Anna and I tied for the win with Dave and Spencer. Anyhow, that's the day. I've learned a bunch of new phrases that I'm working on saying. My posts will cease until next week due to a short break from our city to visit another in our region for a few days. I will update when I return though. Until then, Zai Jian (See you later)!