Shopping

This morning I looked at my leg and I have a really bright bruise from where I whacked myself bowling yesterday. Pictures just don't do it justice. It is really painful and I have to be careful. When walking today I was getting a cramp in my calf muscle which was part of whacking myself. I would strongly recommend caution when wielding a bowling ball.

Matthew and I went shopping at the market today. We wandered around and got veggies and eggs. Much of the market was closed for the new year. We couldn't get potatoes at the market as they didn't have any at the stalls that were open. Matthew and I try and speak mandarin with the people in the stalls but many of them speak a local dialect so it is hard for us to understand them. We do understand numbers but sometimes even that is hard to understand if they don't say it slowly enough. One of the venders got frustrated with us not understanding that it was 1 quai 3 jiao. She just took the money out of my hand when I was trying to figure out how much it was. I understood the 1 quia but I got confused when she said 3 after the 1. Jiao are a fraction of a yuan. 1 Jiao is like 1 1/2 pennies. We were able to get everything we needed. Oranges were really expensive so we didn't get them at the market but decided to get them at the store.

We took our eggs and vegetables back to the apartment. leg was all cramped by the time we got there so we rested a while. Then we walked to Wal Mart. By the time we got there I was ready to get in the cart and be pushed around the store. At Wal Mart we got stuff we couldn't get at the Market. I got a small notebook for other than journaling. I also got some really cheap pens. They had a pretty picture on them, well, more cute than pretty. My current pen is on its way out. Most importantly, we got some more peach nectar.

In the Wal Mart I watched a woman spit on the floor. I had previously thought that the Wal Mart was pretty clean. There is no smoking allowed, so it is pleasant to be inside. After the woman spit she walked right over it. I think if I spit I would at least not step in it right after I spit.

Jinpeng cooked dinner for us tonight. We had a tomato and cabbage dish with rice. It was really good. We ate all of it without any trouble. Our other roommate that went home over Spring Festival came back. I still don't know his name, neither does Matthew. He brought back some candy, and traditional food like chestnuts. He doesn't speak as much English as Jinpeng but he was nice to share with us. The candies were really good, and I thought China wasn't catering to my sweet tooth.