"Where's the Meat Dish?" "Meow....."

On the Sunday morning of my first full week, I continue to be happy with my decision to move to China.  How could I not be?!  Endless adventure, new friends, professional growth.  The only thing I am not happy about is my decision to leave ALL of my useful outdoor Patagonia gear in Canmore...including my backpack.  That was silly.  As previously mentioned, the mountains are my happy place, why wouldn't I have brought that?!  BAH!  Perhaps all of the moving, couch surfing, Ontario visiting, babies being born and dinner with Olympians (that's right...maybe that will be it's own blog post soon...), kept me too busy to think logically about my packing.  #liveandlearn

On Saturday night, I went out with 8 other teachers/staff from the high school.  A few of us biked from the school compound (where our apartments are) to town, Luxu (pronounced Lushu).  It was about a 10-15 minute bike ride.  It was beautiful out last night, no wind, decent temperature (no coat) and you could see the moon!  We stopped at TESCO to grab some necessities and continued on to our principal's beautiful (actually) apartment.  It over looks a lake, and has a wall of just windows.  Being there definitely has me thinking that I will move out to a different apartment, closer to town and further from school.

We ended up going to a dongbei food restaurant.  The teachers must go there often, because as soon as we arrived, we were escorted upstairs to a private room.  It was great!  One of the other teachers ordered for us all, and slowly, one by one, the dishes came up and were spun around the lazy susan.  It was REALLY yummy food.  Sweet pork (I forget the actual name) was the main attraction...it came last.  The entire meal only cost us....get this....$8 each!!!!  I couldn't get over it...you can't even buy a pint of beer in Canmore for $8.

What I learned from that restaurant experience
- you can bring your own alcohol into most chinese restaurants #winning
- don't look into any restaurant kitchen on your way up to the private room (this is very important)
- cats (and kittens) enjoy meowing and roaming around while you eat.....and go surprisingly quiet and invisible when you are wondering why the meat dish is taking so long....

Today, I went with my friends into Luxu to do groceries and look at getting myself a new bike.  A new Giant cruiser (with basket, cup holder and panier racks) goes for less than $300!  I think that may be an investment I make sooner than later.  I experienced being a "white, tall, Canadian" today, with people waving to us as we biked past them (like we were celebrities), people asking for photos with us, and people just straight up staring, like you've never been stared at before.  We stopped at the Wet Market (a building with local fruit, veggie and meat vendors) and I was shown the places to get fruit and veggies.  I paid about $2 for lettuce, spinach, a red onion, a large carrot, ginger and garlic. We had a fun (but chaotic) adventure into the city today, but got a lot of necessities and stocked up on food and drinks for the week.

 

Not quite a mountain bike....

Biking past some interesting things....