A Couple Luxury Items

Last night Enoch and I decided to brave the Merry Mart together while everyone else was going to Hot Pot again.  I indulged in Hot Pot on Monday night and learned two very important lessons:

1.  My chopstick skills are at such a low level that a process like Hot Pot is not the 'best' idea for someone with my 'skillz'. 

2.  The spiciness in the Hot Pot will just wreck my stomach! 

So with the above two lessons learned we decided to skip out on the excursion tonight.  For those of you unfamiliar with Hot Pot, essentially you go into a restaurant and it is all you can eat and all you can drink (beer, tea, soda, etc....all fair game) for a little less than $5.  They bring a little pot to your table and put it on an induction burner.  You can choose spicy, mild, or non spicy.  We actually got half non spicy and half mild (and my stomach is STILL on fire).  You bring the little pot up to a boil and then choose from the myriad of vegetables, noodles, meats, etc. to put into the pot and boil until tender and done.  Everyone else just LOVED this, for me it was good food...and a good price...but my hand literally ached from trying to use the chopsticks for so much...and my stomach burned.  It is definitely something I will go back and do again...but after a bit more tempered practice with the chopsticks.

Back to the Merry Mart.  I have discovered that Enoch and I make a pretty good team at the Merry Mart and just in general around Beijing.  He is first generation American and his parents are Chinese.  So growing up his parents spoke Chinese and he can speak it and read some.  (He says he doesn't speak well...but he speaks well enough...and really well in my book).  So his skill set there is definitely complementary to my complete failure to speak the language.  So what do I bring to the table...hard to say, but I would call it just general know-how.  I seem to always land on my feet in tricky situations and can maneuver pretty well by picking up on social cues (something most other academics DO NOT UNDERSTAND).  There is a general common sense thing that can provide a lot when doing certain tasks.

So early today Enoch helped me get my passport photos taken (note to anyone traveling internationally...apparently it is a good idea to have like 10 extra passport photos when traveling...yeah one or two won't cut it...so don't leave home without them!!) I found the right building where it could be done (or at least I conjectured it could be done based on the yellow kodakish sign above the building...Enoch was less sure...but sure enough when we got there...they do Passport photos!!).  His Chinese helped make the process a synch and I was hugely relieved to have the passport photos I needed.  At this point we decided to tag team the Merry Mart tonight.

I set out knowing what I was going to get...but needing his Chinese to help me get the right size...this is what I came home with...

That's right...a mattress pad.  My bed already had one...but this was the best I could think to do to try to help out my back.  I ended up getting the King size (for my Queen Bed) but it ended up working pretty well in terms of strapping onto the bed.  I wanted Enoch to help me get the right size (Queen) but it turns out he didn't know the word for 'Queen' so he told the sales lady 'a mattress cover as big as him'.  She was pretty adamant that the King was the only one that would do...I laughed a lot when I found that out...the Chinese think I am so huge!  At any rate, I used it last night and I honestly can't say I noticed much of a difference.  But, I hope in the long run it will help.  I think my back is slowly getting slightly more used to these beds...so that is a good thing.

After finding the mattress pad I showed Enoch my secret supply of foods that will sustain you from your room without having to go to the cafeteria for every meal.  I've recently added frozen chicken nuggets and popcorn chicken to the rotating items in my fridge (along with yogurt and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches...lol).  We both agreed I should invest in a toaster oven...perhaps next week.  We also had several long debates about what several products were.  You would think his Chinese would give him an advantage here, but I think I hold my own in this contest.  As always, when the debate turns to food versus cat food...we know it is time to go home.

Our other spoil from the night...

I just drank it while I was typing this blog...and it was...juice...but beer...but juice...yet beer.  It was...strange.  I think I'll stick with the regular old sing tao for now. 

After our Merry Mart exploits Enoch, Chris, and I FINALLY figured out how to watch movies on the t.v.'s in our rooms.  We have these nice flat screens...see..

but they have been impossible to figure out.  Enoch gets credit for sitting there and watching me be frustrated with the t.v. for long periods of time and Chris gets credit for letting me borrow his external hard drive which we finally successfully got to play.  I get credit for pushing every single combination of buttons possible on the face of the Earth until the settings first changed from Chinese to English and then allowed for a search of the USB device.  I don't know how I will watch movies on this as I do not have an external hard drive which the t.v. recognizes and it also won't recognize my computer :-( But...I have faith I can download some movies and put them on a thumb drive and watch from there.  These are the little chores that keep me going.

O.k. that is more than enough for tonight.  Tomorrow is an early day of teaching.
Zaijian,
Gary