Still Exploring

These two days off after our long weekend of teaching always seem to
fly by much too fast. Luckily, it's been sunny and much warmer here-
even getting up into the 60s, which is quite nice considering the
highs barely in the 30s. I walked around quite a bit and did some
shopping. Of course, grocery shopping is never mundane in China- as I
was checking out, the old lady behind me looked through my entire
basket of stuff I was buying, even picking up and touching things. I
was buying cereal, a very foreign product, at Walmart, to be fair.
Then, I found the shelf of English books at the Foreign Languages
Bookstore, which a pretty random selection of books- mostly classics
and a few other things. I bought Freakonomics, which I've been wanting
to read for a while. It was certainly a better selection than I
thought it would be, although I'm pretty sure it's the only place to
buy English books in the city. After that, I went to a place I'd never
been- Momo Tea. I really should try to go more places, but when I'm by
myself I find myself reluctant to try and find somewhere new where I
can order/has an English or picture menu. But this is a great
discovery! It's a Taiwanese style tea place, and they also have lots
of snack and dinner foods- including sandwiches, Thai, and Korean
foods. Plus, the waiter was super excited to see me- he spoke some
English, so I could order really easily.

Otherwise, I've been attempting to start my lesson plans for
Thanksgiving weekend, and plan my big vacation in February. I will
probably be meeting up with Kate and Siggy from the 14-23, in Hong
Kong and the Philippines. If anyone will be in Hong Kong then let me
know! Or if anyone will be in Asia from Feb 1-14- I will probably be
traveling by myself during that time. It's hard to decide where to
go-so many possibilities! I am thinking about Malaysia/Thailand, or
maybe Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos. I might join a tour to meet people,
still deciding. I love planning these vacations though- it's so nice
to have something exciting to look forward to!

I can't believe it's almost Wednesday- tomorrow morning I have Chinese
lessons and teach my starter class. sigh.