Two in One Day

My two o'clock appointment had to cancel. Something about someone coming to visit maybe? I didn't really understand, but that is a state I am getting use to. Here, I rarely understand fully what is going on around me.

I think that has been one of the hardest lessons for me. I like my independance and I like being able to manage on my own. Here it is a little difficult and I am constantly having to ask how to get somewhere, or say something, or even do simple things. It has been very humbling, which is probably something that will be good for me.

I promised two stories-
Monday's lunch by myself went as well as could be expected I guess. I decided to eat in a restaurant that I had already visited and I decided that I would have sweet and sour pork since I knew that they served it. Well, when I tried to order, the waiteress looked at me with a blank expression. I showed her in my book the characters and she said that they did not have it. (I was a little frustrated becasue I know that we ate it there last week.) I pointed to another dish that I had never tried but someone had told me was good and she nodded that they had it. In English it is called "fragrant like fish chicken," which sounds really nasty, but isn't so bad. I also had to ask for rice and I apparently said it funny because the waitress went and was laughing at me with the guy at the bar. I have decided that it is okay that they laugh, at least I am trying. There was a sort of awkward moment when I was done, becasue all of the waitresses were sitting down eating and I didn't want to disturb them to find out how much I owed. (Unlike the states, the waitress brings you your food and then doesn't come back. She doesn't come back to fill up drinks because the Chinese do not drink with their meals and so you have to bring your own drink if you expect to have anything.) I just picked at my food until she got up and I felt like I could ask for "mai dan"- the bill. I ate at the smae place yesterday with some friends and we had sweet and sour pork. Maybe they just don't serve it on Mondays.

Rachel and I had some time to blow Monday afternoon and so we decided to go into the coffee shop that is outside th back gate of the East (Freshman) Campus. The window of the shop says "Savor Our Coffee. Savor Your Life." We decided that we liked it a lot becasue it was air conditioned, they brought water as soon as we sat down, they played American country music, and they had a bilingual menu. Rachel got a chocolate iced coffee that she swears tasted just like any Frappachinno. I decided to be adventerious and ordered the Mexico Sunrise Iced Coffee. The menu didn't have descriptions, just the name. Since it was on the page with the Irish Coffee, I fugured that it would have some sort of liquor. However, I started to get a little worried when I saw her reach for the bottle three times. The two women behind the counter labored for a long time on my drink. Rachel's drink came and she was 3/4 of the way finished before mine was ready.
The bottom 1/4 of the glass had a clear liquid (I think that it was peppermint syrup)
The next fourth of the glass had a green peppermint liquor.
The top half of the glass was the ice coffee (I suppose that it is to represent the red in the Mexican flag, maybe?)
Upon further inspection, I found that there was something floating around in the glass. The sun. More commonly identified as a raw egg yolk. I VERY carefully fished out the egg yolk and then drank the rest of the drink.
I think that next time, I will stay with something I can recgonize.