Nanjing...and all that jazz Ni how ma!

Upon reading my last entry, I realized that NCSU's blogging system does not allow for Chinese characters.  It simply replaces them with question marks??? Oh well!

Today was pretty crazy and I am extremely worn out.   But I figured I would blog because there isn't much else to do tonight (this morning for all of my devoted readers!)

Tabatha and I got awkoke yet again at the crack of dawn.  Our body clocks still aren't quite right as we are waking up at about 5 in the morning without alarm clocks.  It's still dark outside when we are starting to get ready for the day typcially.  I forced myself to go back to sleep for a little while today.  It is kind of difficult though because I can't say the matress is extremely comfortable.  I am getting used to it quickly but at the same time it is kind of like plywood - sooo stiff!!!

When it finally got light outside, Tab and I went and got breakfast.  We have been really excited about breakfast every morning so far.  They have the most 'American' choices.  Eggs, Toast, and Peanut Butter and Jelly have been very exciting :) Tabatha likes her dumplings but I discovered something very similar to a funnel cake today.  They have these fried dough sticks that they dip in their hot soy milk in the morning.  I put sugar on it instead and showed them what funnel cakes are like in the US.  Another good part about breakfast this morning was we met a girl in her mid 20's who spoke relatively good English!  She went to Syracuse and got a degree in Retail I believe.  We had a long conversation about many things including the paper industry.  It was interesting - Tab and I were relieved to hear someone that was speaking a language we understood though!!!

About 8 o'clock we jumped on a mill bus and went to Nanjing a little more than an hour away.  I am glad that we did this because it gave us a chance to get away from the APP/Gold East area for a little while.  Steve, one of our hosts, showed us around.  We got a little lost at times but we managed to find our way back eventually :)  We started in Nanjing by visiting the Confucious Temple (so I was told)  I never exactly figured out what specifically was the temple but there was a lot of fancy Chinese architecture.  We went to a lot of street shops and Tab bargained with the people to buy bracelets and things.  I think I'll wait a little before I go and turn into a shop-a-holic!  :-P

Maybe I should start a street shop though?  It could be a hit based on one thing that happened to me today.  It was rather funny.  There was about 10 people standing around looking at me (I've gotten that alot here considering I'm about a foot taller and 100 lbs heavier than anyone around).  Finally, one of those people came over and asked me what size shoe I wore in Chinese - Steve translated for me.  I told them a 15 USA and one of the guys looked really excited and everyone else looked kind of bumbed in that group.  They had put a pool in and were gambling on my shoe size!  Oh the joys of being an American!

We then at lunch at this place called Ma Da Niang which I think means something to the effect of Big Mama or Woman?  It was really good and we had lots of dumplings and a rather weird soup.  It had these clear noodles in it and it kind of scared me.  It took us 20 minutes to find a table here though.  According to an American Tabatha and I met yesterday, there are two things the chinese have a lot of: shopping and food.  They love to eat out.  It was so difficult to find a seat and it was so crowded.  I have never seen more people in my life.  And the crazy part was, it was all underground.  There were big malls above ground and little shops and such below ground. 

After lunch we checked out the big malls above ground.  It was really crazy to see all of the people in the malls we went in.  The first place we went into, Tab's eyes just lit up (as would any womans).  It was an endless shoe store.  I have never seen a larger one. It was as big as the mall in my hometown: Full of shoes!! OMG SHOES....SHOES....SHOES...(for those that get the reference).  We the went on and I bought a little alarm clock since I fried the one I bought the first day because I screwed up my power converter.  There is a reason I don't care for electrical engineering and physics 208 hahah. 

We then checked out another big store that had a lot of really big name designer brand stores.  I felt like I was in NY CITY.  There were stores for Gucci, Prada, Versace, Louis Vaiton (I know I butchered that name), and many many others.  It was kind of cool because I had never really been in stores like that.  Granted, they still had their American prices on it.  I don't know how the chinese can afford it?

Anyways - we looked around a bit more, got lost a few times, and found a movie theatre.  Then it was back home for a quick nap, a bit of dinner, and then some R and R!  The day has ended quite nicely though :)  Today was some sort of a holiday and they have been shoting fireworks outside of our rooms for about an hour now!  It's been real exciting.  I think it scared Tabatha at first though - she had this really worried look on her face when she came to my room asking what it was.  It did sound like guns and cannons going off after all....

Until next time...Zai Zhen!

Posted by rwpridge ( May 18 2008, 08:55:29 AM GMT+08:00 ) Permalink Comments [9]