With all of this in mind I decided to stay close to home and try to get some comfort foods here so I could stay in and watch a movie (I'm thinking a feel good happy movie like The Smurfs...lol). My first adventure was off to Central Business District for some fruit for breakfast. I have gotten into the ritual of having lots of fruit here (and recently lots of vegetables too) and I think that combined with all of the walking is helping my pant size to trim down a bit...we shall truly see when I get home to the states this Christmas for a weigh in...but everything is getting loose which is a good sign :-)
Well with that in mind I was off to buy some fruit. Two bananas, three oranges, and an apple later I'm at the checkout stand with the hard to understand checkers...bwekjhcxvoiujweklfjilu. Nope, didn't catch that one today...I'll just give you a ten RMB note and see what happens. Yep...that worked out...it must have been like 7 kuai. O.k. now that I'm out and about maybe I'll stop into the little technology store here in CBD. They recently installed a projector into the conference room that is right next door to all of our little dorm rooms. So we naturally took this as an invitation to set this up as a movie watching t.v. room. After a little exploring yesterday we discovered that a USB wasn't going to cut it on the projector and that we might be able to do it with a VGA cord. With that in mind I stopped in and knew I wasn't going to be able to ask for what I wanted. But...they had a computer there that a guy was working on. Perfect. After a few points to the right spots on the computer, they knew what I was after...and they had it. Apparently a VGA cord is pronounced 'VGA' in Chinese...good to know. I'm looking at it and decide it is time to practice some new phrases I've been working on. 'Duo sow kuai' (How much is it?) She responds.
Here is the thing about the numbers here. I know them. I can count to a thousand or a million...I can count as high as I want. However...everyone has a slightly different way of putting things together. Think about in the states when we say $204. We might say two hundred and four dollars....or two hundred and four...or two oh four....or two zero four...there are a lot of combinations and when they slide them together really quickly it is hard for me to understand. She says it...I ask her to repeat it and I'm pretty sure she has said the price is 45 kuai. I mull it over and decide I will pay this price...that isn't too bad for this cord (I really don't know how much a VGA cord should be...so $7 seems reasonable). I giver her a 100 RMB note and she is confused. Is it more? Did I misinterpret? She grabs the calculator and shows me 15. I'm thinking...maybe it is 115? that would be more than I want to pay. So I take out another 20 and hand it to her...which she takes and gives me the hundred back with another 5. Oh...it was just 15 kuai. That is good (very cheap)...I'm just really not sure how what she said means 15...really someday I hope to be good with understanding the different accents and stuff with numbers...I'm just not there yet. Sometimes I totally understand it...other times...not so much.
After purchasing the cord I walk out and notice the coffee shop is open. I have never gone in because I've never wanted to try ordering a drink because of the potential disastrous chaos that might ensue. But my ordering skills are better now. I think I could try it. I go in and start looking at what they have. It is a great little coffee shop (only a 1 minute walk from my room)...lots of nice looking desserts all for about a dollar or less and good smelling coffee. I go to the front and look at their menu and they have the names of the drinks in English too! That is good. I know the Chinese word for coffee...however, I've been discouraged from ordering it because it always is followed by many questions. Think of all the questions they could ask when you want coffee. Cream or sugar? What size? For here or to go? Espresso? Mocha? Hot? Cold? Ugh. So many questions. But with English on the menu I'm pretty sure I can do this. I order an americano. She asks me a question which I'm pretty sure means hot or cold...luckily they have hot or cold on the menu to so I point to hot. Then she asks another questions...and I actually totally understand. She is saying do you want it for here or to go. I know this one...da bow. Yes! Coffee successfully ordered to go!
I got back to my room feeling rather excited. Several good transactions and a great cup of coffee...so far so good! Only problem is...I'm still really hungry. Yes, I have fruit...but on a cold rainy day like this...I really feel like comfort food. Making soup is out of the question...but...I have heard that you can order pizza to be delivered. Every since I heard this of course I've wanted to try it out...really for the most part, just to see if I could do it. So I set out to order a pizza from Papa Johns. To make a long story short...
I was successful!! I ordered a pepperoni, canadian bacon, pineapple pizza and had it delivered by a man on a bicycle right to my front door. Success!! Now, after discovering the price of such an endeavor I have decided this can only be done for very rare and special occasions. (Although thinking back...it cost the same as it would in the U.S. to buy it and have it delivered $18.50...that just turns out to be A LOT of money when putting things in terms of normal China prices). However, it did feel like a good accomplishment for the day.
Zaijian,
Gary
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