Dough shao chien?

Shopping is good, especially when all your money is worth seven times more! Can you guess what we did today? That's right, shopping!! Love, or Charie- an American teacher, took us to the city center to check out some of the vendors. We took the #38 Green bus through the main part of town. We started with a small underground market. Bruce and I felt adventurous and bought some pastries from a Chinese bakery. It paid off cuz they were yummy! Walking down the streets is almost like walking down the streets of San Francisco, well it would be if they sold squid on a stick and puppies. There were people with bicycle-drawn carts that carried roasted nuts and fruit and vegetables and even a few live chickens! But the most exciting and overwhelming emporium was the three-story shopping building that resembled the scene in Labarynth when Sara meets the Junk Lady. You could buy ANYTHING there! Hats, purses, shoes, pots and pans, jewelry, bedding, make-up, knives, books, toys, you name it- they had it! Bruce and I looked for almost two hours. As tempted as I was, I didn't buy anything. I've decided to wait and see what else is out there. Although I would have bought a pair of cute brown Puma shoes if they had my size... After that we went to Jia Jia Yue- Walmart, for more food. We made it back to the school just in time for dinner.
As we walked up the steps to dinner the familiar scent of playdough and seafood filled our noses. When we walked in, no one was there- not a good sign. We grabbed our trays and headed for the service. Chris- another teacher from the states- stopped us. He said that dinner tonight consisted of bones in a brown sauce and fish skins over rice. Sound appetizing? That's what we thought, too. Luckily, Chris and Charie and another American guy invited us out to dinner. We walked into town and ate at a little hole in the wall restaraunt. It was the best meal we had had! One dish even tasted like Orange Chicken! My favorite dish consisted of peanuts, vinegar, green pepper, and onion. They ordered about 12 dishes which we all shared. Its really cool how they eat. We all sit around a table and the meal is served on a lazy suzann the size of most of the table. We use chop sticks to grab what we want and put it on our small plate. We went home full and happy.