Some Numbers for you

1: The number of days that the sun has been out since we got here. Today is that day.

98: the percent humidity everyday

407: my room number

59: number of stairs to get to the 4th floor

2: the number of cokes I have had in the past 6 days. Coke light is still not popular over here and is still really hard to find.

1.12: the amount in US dollars that my lunch cost

1: the number of times that I have eaten a western meal. It was at McDonald's.

2: the amount in US dollars that my McDonalds meal cost.

37: the number of times I have thought that it would be nice to go to Chick-fil-A or Moes for dinner.

2: the number of times I almost threw up at dinner last night.

6: the number of times I had to chew in order to swallow the nasty duck egg that made me want to throw up at dinner last night.

2: The number of takes it took to get our voice recording correct today.

So, out of those numbers, probably just the last two need more explanation.

Last night the girls and I went to eat with some friends and they said that they were going to treat us to traditional food. (I am sure that the words that they used was actually "some very famours food." Here is what was on the menu:
baotzi- these steamed dumpling type things that aren't too bad. It is a big dough ball with something in the middle. A surprise if you will. meat or veggies or seseme filling. Supposdly, Marco Polo had them and when he went home from his travels he couldn't figure out how to reproduce them and he ended up with pizza. Strangely, they don't taste anything like pizza. At all. Not in the least bit. hmm. pizza would be good.
the rice balls wrapped in bamboo leaves- I don't remember the techinical name. I had these last year and liked them. They are also very famours. you unwrap the bamboo and inside there is a sticky sticky rice ball with again another surprise in the middle. Last year, I had meat ones and fruit ones. They were good. Last night it was some whit substance. I asked my friends and they shared that it was "meat fat." Yup. One big glob of melted fat. I know that my cousin Robbie would love this one.
gelitin soup- cold. sweet. weird in texture.
some sort of wonton soup- good but extremely spicy. I drank a yogurt after dinner to hopefully head off any indigestion.
And then the eggs-
There were two different eggs, both prepared differently and cut into about 8 slices. One was perserved in salt and I think that it may have been what they can the humdred year egg. I don't think that it was every cooked, I think that the salt just cooks it. You don't eat the white part, only the yoke and it tasted like sand.
The other egg....I am not sure that I can write this without gagging.
I always use to say that I could be on fear factor and do the eating challenges. And when Rebecca and I talk about the Amazing Race, I am always the one to do the eating things. I am not so sure after last night.
They said that it was just duck egg, and I am not sure how it was prepared. they also said that it is okay to leave this kind of egg out for 6 months.
The yoke was the same color but the white part was translucent yellowish orange and had a consistancy of harden jello. When you think that it is going to be an egg, there is just no preperation for what I put in my mouth. You should all have the same joy.


And then the recording. So, there is a high school English teacher in the city that needed some English voices recorded for her classes. From what I understand, it is for an exam that her students will have to take. She needed us to do the part that the students will listen to and then answer questions. A guy friend and I went with her to a recording room today and read the very cheesy script. There were 10 texts total. This was text 2:

Female: I would like for you to go shopping with me on Sunday.
Male: Why do you need me to go?
Female: It is very difficult to buy shoes for you without your feet being present.

We got paid 200 kuai each to do it (about $25 USD). But to me the best part is that all over this part of the country, there will be high school kids learning English with a Southern accent. I will be very very FAMOURS.

That's it for now.
Zai Jian