DAY ??: COUNTRYSIDE WRAP UP

07:38BST 07/17/2008

KUNMING - WANG LAOSHI'S APT

okay so maybe the countryside wasnt thaaat bad. the first day took a lot of getting used to because there were so many people (none of whose names i could keep straight), they didnt know how much chinese i did or did not speak, and their putonhua had a really heavy accent on top of being really fast. other things that put me on a slight edge were the scary toilets, the bugs everywhere (side note: im not really afraid of spiders or whatever, but there were just SO MANY all the time that i figured id probably end up dead soon), and stray dogs and cats probably with rabies like no ones business. but honestly, after about two days i got used to it.

whats more, the fact that there was no english was really a plus. even if i couldnt keep up with the convo, just listening to the sentence structure really helped me out. also, the kids there were a lot more at my level, and my adorable mei mei (little sis) was so cute that every time i would used jacked grammer, she would go, 'bu dui' (not correct) and say the sentence right.

the second day was pretty interesting. i woke up early and went for a nice run. i dont know how far, but i was running for around 50min so you can guess. the road took me down and around two small mountain slopes and along much farm land. i stopped when i got to the city because i didnt want to push my luck on not getting kidnapped. there were a lot of people on the road, and many of them had never seen a white person before (yang laoshi told me later) because they all stared pretty hardcore. after i got showered up, we went out to the gong shan (public mountain) (im not sure if all the mountains are public or not but this one was) to pick wild mushrooms. i think i may have said this before, but yunnan province is reknowned for its many different variety of mushrooms that take to the temperate climate. we, however, only found three. either way, it was a nice walk!

that night, to my excitement and great relief, we did a huo guo or 'hot pot' for dinner. id been hearing about this and its pretty cool. so you get a big pot on a hot plate in the middle of the table and start with a stalk of water, spicy, and oil (side note: everything in yunnan is spicy - they use a red powder with pepper seeds in it among other things, hereinto referred to as 'spicy') and you literally just throw a bunch of stuff in. ours had these fantastically cut bologna rounds (so that they looked like a sea urchin), a whole chicken, tofu chunks, tofu skins (they look like lasagna noodles), green beans, mushrooms, cabbage, tomatoes, ... i feel like there was more but ive forgotten already. anyways, as people eat away at the hot pot, you just add more junk in, let it come to a boil, and continue to chi fan (eat food). i was excited to experience the 'huo guo' but also happy because i didnt feel crazy obligated to eat all of the fifteen thousand dishes that are usually on the table - i could just pick as i saw fit. after dinner, rob threw in the movie 21 and i dont even remember how fast i fell asleep to that one :).

the next morning i had another great run, only i ran into some trouble when i was chased by a big stray dog for about fifty meters. i tried to look really fierce and yell kuai qu! (get lost) but he only chased me more. it wasnt until i passed a bunch of people on the road that i think he got distracted and left. rob and i watched some 'sunny in philly' and the i play gymnastics with the chitlins while we waited for wang laoshi to pick us up. thus ends my story in the countryside.
when we got back into kunming, i wasnt really sure how this was going to go (as per usual) so when wang, then yang laoshi left and rob said we were on our own, i got really excited. we went to an internet cafe for like, three hours (we both had nutty stuff to get back to) and then we went down by yun da (the university) to try to find some NOT chinese food. we were shooting for thai but after roaming several blocks, we gave up and settled on indian. we had garlic naan, chicken korma (spicy please), chicken something else (it was yellow and pretty mild), two big bowls of (not basmati?) rice, and two bottles of tsingdao (china beer). the service was slow but the atmosphere, the food, and the company was great! the bottles of beer here are big enough to fill two whole mugs, so between the two of us we downed three. not ready to resign, we looked around for a rowdy bar and grabbed two more giant bottles of lan cang jiang (the yunnan beer). when we realized that the apt's guard was probably going to shut the gate, we hurried home and got some sleep. i know i came to china to soak in the culture, but it was a nice pause for a minute. OH! and food and all of our drinks was like, 15 bucks (and i think we were honestly at an expensive restaurant). AMAZING!

today i think im going to get some more shopping done by the university and see what kind of trouble i cant get into. wang laoshi is, i think taking us out to lunch and then over to a 'ping pong chio jian' (a house of ping pong). all and all, this trip just keeps getting better.

oh, shout out to amanda for the bug spray in the survival kit. i think youve saved my life 5 times over. thanks!!!
j

side note: i also havent figured out how to reply to comments. to ms. petersen, the nest was under a security run through and no one could get near it... i saw the outline of it driving by at night though :/. to amanda: omg i know right?! that camel and i had chemistry. i have something esle that i think youre going to like. to everyone thats reading and posting: thank you for your interest and well wishes, you know youre getting presents!