The Amazing XinJiang Restaurant Fiasco and Other Tales...

The Amazing XinJiang Restaurant Fiasco (don't worry, it has a happy ending)

This story begins a long long time ago before Lissa and I got to China. Our friend BaiJie told us both of this amazing XinJiang restaurant right next to campus that we absolutely had to go to. So, maybe a week and a half ago, a group of us went off in search of this amazing XinJiang food, only to discover one restaurant claiming to have a 2 hour wait. What? we say to ourselves, we'll have none of this! So we leave in search of more easily accessible food and plan to call and make reservations to eat at said XinJiang restaurant.

So, this past Thursday Lissa calls the XinJiang restaurant and eventually successfully makes reservations (props to her) and the three of us wait expectantly for the Saturday when we finally get to eat this delicious food. Saturday finally rolls around, and the restaurant calls to confirm our reservation. [we think this a little strange] 6:30 approaches and we leave for the place, only to discover that they don't do reservations at the restaurant we think is the one we made reservations at...The hostess points us in the direction of another XinJiang restaurant and tells us that may be where we want to be. We get to that one and discover this, too, is not the right restaurant [though we intend to go back there sometime this week.] Now, vaguely panicking, we discover that Lissa still has their phone number, so she calls them to find out where we're supposed to be, which turns out to be the second floor of the XinJiang Hotel, not the first. So, we hurry over there, finally figure out where the elevators are, and get to the restaurant, only to be met with the question: "did you reserve a special room?" To which we, obviously, answered "ummm, no?" However, after a bit of discussion, we naturally discover that we had, indeed, reserved a special room.

So a woman ushers us into a room, set for four, complete with a chandelier, 3 wine glasses per table set, a coat rack in the corner, and a name (something like Peaceful Harmony, only it made sense...). Lissa, YaLi and I look at each other in terror. How expensive is this actually going to be? We awkwardly order food (with much input from the waitress, who is really all too kind to us), are told that yogurt is good for our bodies, and generally have no idea what to do with ourselves. But the food comes and is delicious. Everything is mutton, which tastes so good after so long of not eating it, and there's lots of bread (naanish bread, but a lot denser). We even splurge and each get another yogurt at the end of dinner: plain yogurt with a dash of honey, sesame seeds, and golden raisins; we're pretty sure all the waitresses think we're crazy. One of them took to explaining how to eat each dish when it came out: "you just pick it up and eat it with your hands" or "use the spoon to mix everything together." We finish eating, but then sit there for another 20 minutes drinking tea and decidedly avoiding the bill, which turns out to only be 230 RMB- 73RMB per person, which is less that 10 US$ per person...which was a huge relief.

Anyhow, it was entirely the most ridiculously awkward dinner that I've ever had...but it was so much fun. And now we're planning trips back just to eat their yogurt...


School Related Things...

On Thursday night I talked to Lea (!!!) and found out that 2 kids from SAS were here last spring (one of them was in our class at SAS). And the next day in class with one of my teachers, I found out that she taught them both! Apparently they did the same thing as I do: "Well, in Singapore..."

My oral test this week went much better than last week, probably due to the fact that the two topics I had to talk about were the environment and being a stay at home mother...hm. Speaking of that....

Chenjun has maybe found me an internship for the summer!!! She has a friend who does research on panda bears in Sichuan, and they're willing to look at my resume for summer work. If I can manage to get that, and figure out how to get Middlebury to give me funding for an unpaid internship, I'll be set! Also, my Environmental Law and Policy professor emailed me to tell me to apply for a scholarship because he thinks I'd be a strong candidate (?????). That's exciting solely because it means he doesn't think I'm an idiot, but I'm going to apply and see what happens...Also, grades from last term came out this week, and I didn't fail! I even did respectably in GIS, which makes me really, quite happy.


Chang Cheng & Other Outings

Last weekend the group went to the Great Wall (Mu Tian Yu -which, mother, is said with 3 syllables, not the 4 syllable Mu Ti-an Yu. It's like the Tian in Tian'an Men Square). It was pretty really beautiful and nice to get out of the city for a bit (pictures on facebook). Last night we went to the LaoShe Tea House (pictures on facebook pending). The Tea House is based on a book and everthing is Qing dynasty style. While we drank tea we watched singers, a bit of Beijing Opera, acrobats, musicians, shadow puppets, comedians, and all sorts of other entertainment. It was an interesting glimpse into Chinese history and really fun. Today RenLi, YaLi and I tried to get train tickets for our Spring Festival travel plans (which are going to Luoyan) but you can only get them 4 days in advance...this may be problematic...But then we venured out to Tian'an Men and the Jing Shan Park just behind GuGong. The park has at least 1,000 years of history and there a small hillish-mountiain it it that has a stunning view of the city (pictures on facebook). There were more "ancient trees" which is quite thrilling. Oh! And for the first time (ever in my life?) I got asked to be in a picture with Chinese people. I'm pretty sure it was because YaLi has strawberry blonde hair- I'm the boring kind of foreigner. Anyhow. About halfway through the park I could no longer feel my extremities, so we came home.

Tomorrow is an adventure day with my roomate: we have plans to go see 2 temples and a HUGE bookstore. I'm determined to buy a book in Chinese that I can actually read. We had a reading class on Thursday where our teacher gave us an essay and had us read it and then we discussed what it was about, but I only recognized...mmm...15% of the characters...maybe. It was hillarious...and so depressing. So I'm going to find a book that I can read, so I don't feel completely incompetent all the time...

Anyhow, I've written a ridiculous amount and should probably start my homework, or work on my resume or applications...::sigh::

Love!