Adventures in Guiyang

On Sunday night, after work, Caitlin and I went to eat some noodles cooked in clay pots with Philip. It was very good street food. Philip is middle-aged and also a new teacher- he is supposed to be starting a math program at our school that Caitlin will help with. He has lived in China for around 5 years so he has some pretty interesting stories. Then Wayne invited Caitlin and I to hang out. He gave us a little tour of some good places to go and showed us how to get to the main street and the big grocery store. Wayne has been here a year and has a lot of local friends. We met up at a bar where he knew lots of people and hung out with his friends. Everyone is very friendly and his friends mostly speak some English so it was really fun.

 

Then on Monday we slept in and Caitlin and I went back the way Wayne showed us to get to the grocery store. This sounds ridiculous but the grocery store is SO FUN! It has 3 levels with about anything you could ever need. The candy section alone is amazing- I will have to go back there and try all the different candies. They have people everywhere to help you shop and they kept talking to us in Chinese- one girl gave us a free shampoo sample so that was nice. We bought these drinks they have everywhere- it's a make your own bubble tea kit. I am having my taro flavored one right now and it is good! In your cup there is the tea powder, tapioca pearls and a straw and you just stir in hot water, it's pretty fun. Also at the store they were selling these flaky pastry roll things that were really good.

 

Later we went to dinner at the restaurant with the picture menu that Matt and I had been to. We had better food this time though I think. I had beef and broccoli and we got bao zi, Chinese buns filled with something delicious like in this case potatoes and sauce, and we had egg tarts which I had a lot in Hong Kong- they are little pie crusts filled with an egg custard. All very good.

 

Today, our other day off, we are planning to go to Qianling Park, a big park with a temple and wild monkeys. Then we are supposed to help the Chinese girls cook for Ping's birthday party tonight. Uh oh. I can't cook but hopefully I can do something.