Me, Here, Stuff

So I've been told that I need to write more about me, over here and stuff. Not so much with the social observations. I'm gonna try.

So I'm eating like a king. Food is very inexpensive over here. And I'm talking about the good food not the 2 RMB lunch that the workers at the foundry eat. I'm eating lots of vegetables and fish. Dumplings and won-tons are falling from the sky.

Breakfast was kind of hard to get used to. The Faguo Hotel doesn't serve anything that is even remotely recognisable as a western style breakfast item. I'm going to have to have a trip to the Sunny Side Up Cafe and The New Louisiana Cafe for breakfast when I get back. I also kind of miss cereal, of any kind.

The drinks for breakfast are:
Water (hot or cold)
Orange Juice (really its Tang) and its hot
Soy milk - warm
Regular milk - warm
Nothing else. No coffee.

The Chinese palate rotates on the salt/fat axis. I can get behind it for the most part but I do like the sweet stuff. My belly is evidence to that.

The Faguo Hotel is new-er. It was constructed in 2003. This does not mean its modern, not entirely at least. The guy who built it blew his wad on the marble and granite and then went cheap on the windows. The sad thing is that even though the hotel was built in 2003 it looks and feels like its 50+ years old. The decor is uniquely Chinese but feels like something out of Rat Pack Vegas. The exterior is dirty and rusty. They heat everything with coal over here so anything outdoors acquires a fine layer of dust almost immediately.

The bed is a box spring with a blanket tossed over it. The pillows are top notch. The bathroom has this strange / interesting shower module that has a ton of functions built into it. I haven't tried any of them out but I could listen to the radio, whirlpool my feet, stand under a rain shower, get blasted by horizontal jets or take a normal shower.

TV is boring to say the least. I can't understand any of it and none of the programming is compelling me to try anyway. I haven't found anyplace to buy cheap DVD's yet but I couldn't watch them if I did because there isn't a player in my room.

Getting my laundry done is a luxury. I put it in a bag and set it by the door. When I come back its clean and folded. Unlike at home, I put it away.

I'm smoking again. At least I fit in.

I've fallen in love with roasted hazel nuts. However, I suspect they're roasted over a coal fire.

My hotel room overlooks a little stadium. This stadium hosts some kids playing soccer in the afternoon but seems to have as its main function that of an open market in the morning. I wake up to the sound of geese cackling, or at least that's what it sounds like to me. Really its some announcer hollering over the PA something in Chinese. It may be the equivalent to an auction but I wouldn't know.

I have as a neighbor an elementary school. The kids seem to get out at about 1pm, so I've only seen the scrum that is "pick your kids up at school on your moped" once.

I carry WAY more cash here than I ever did in the US. Hell, I have $ 7 in my wallet that I couldn't change at the airport and this is more than I usually carry. Almost without exception the Chinese businesses won't take my card. This has been hard to get used to.

I'm stuck with a cold right now. I wish I could go to the drug store and get some medicine that would work. I also miss my family and am bummed that I won't be able to go trick-or-treating with my kid. But otherwise everything is OK.