Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Carrefour and Dinner With the Dean
After finally waking up on Sunday August 7th, I ventured to the Carrefour in search of lunch and necessities. Underneath the Carrefour, there is a place called Mega-Bite, basically like a little food court but its all local food (ie no chain restaurants like US food courts). I was almost tempted to get KFC across from the Mega-Bite until I noticed no where on its signage did it actually say KFC anywhere. But the picture of Colonel Sanders was there (or it is an intentional likeness). So i got some dumplings but these mofo's were big and filled with juice, which means I ended up with more of it on my shirt than in my mouth. I'm sure the locals got quite a kick out of me that day. But for $1.20 this is quite the value. I just need to adjust my technique.
Upstairs shopping, nothing too exciting, aside from the $10 Absolut Vodka. What was strange about my shopping experience, and maybe word had gotten around about my debacle downstairs, was that many of the Chinese shoppers were absolutely fascinated with what was in my cart. Really, it was pretty weird walking down an aisle and people passing me would lean their heads down and do a quick visual examination of what I had picked up. I don't know if this was sheer curiosity or if they would see my vodka and then go running off to pick some up themselves. I was tempted to test this theory by stocking my cart exclusively with tampons but I didn't have the patience for the level of commitment this comedy would require. Perhaps next time.
And the worst of this was when I finally finished I was queued up for the cash register (of which there are 60!!! And there was still lines!) and the couple in front of me turned around and started point at individual items and having some sort of grand debate about each one. I really wished I could understand them at that point.
The following Tuesday, all the international students were invited to a Sichuanese restaurant (and this isn't your US Sichuanese) for dinner. The Dean is a very smart person, and he let us know it, literally. He started talking to us (there were 2 tables, I was at the table he was seated) and among the first things he said was that he was the best English student at the universities he attended, he had the highest GMAT and TOEFL scores, etc. I'm not sure if this is because its a Chinese thing to do, or to prove to us he was qualified to be our Dean, or just a little bragging.
Food was served on a Lazy Susan (one of those round, spinny things in the middle of the table where all the food goes), and they do NOT mess around with there spices. One dish that was chicken and peppars had MORE peppars than chicken! Even the SOUP was spicy. I was really looking forward to a break and to cool my mouth down, as I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to spicy food, and I dig into the soup only to find it is not intended to be a break from spiciness but just as spicy as everything else. Thank god for cold beer.
Some of us headed to Latina (in the same complex) for after dinner drinks. Here we were treated to an Italian classmate, decked out in a white shirt and white pants, going up on the stage and singing U2's With or Without You. Great fun.
sichuanese. spicy. politics. latina and philippino band, antonio dancing.
Upstairs shopping, nothing too exciting, aside from the $10 Absolut Vodka. What was strange about my shopping experience, and maybe word had gotten around about my debacle downstairs, was that many of the Chinese shoppers were absolutely fascinated with what was in my cart. Really, it was pretty weird walking down an aisle and people passing me would lean their heads down and do a quick visual examination of what I had picked up. I don't know if this was sheer curiosity or if they would see my vodka and then go running off to pick some up themselves. I was tempted to test this theory by stocking my cart exclusively with tampons but I didn't have the patience for the level of commitment this comedy would require. Perhaps next time.
And the worst of this was when I finally finished I was queued up for the cash register (of which there are 60!!! And there was still lines!) and the couple in front of me turned around and started point at individual items and having some sort of grand debate about each one. I really wished I could understand them at that point.
The following Tuesday, all the international students were invited to a Sichuanese restaurant (and this isn't your US Sichuanese) for dinner. The Dean is a very smart person, and he let us know it, literally. He started talking to us (there were 2 tables, I was at the table he was seated) and among the first things he said was that he was the best English student at the universities he attended, he had the highest GMAT and TOEFL scores, etc. I'm not sure if this is because its a Chinese thing to do, or to prove to us he was qualified to be our Dean, or just a little bragging.
Food was served on a Lazy Susan (one of those round, spinny things in the middle of the table where all the food goes), and they do NOT mess around with there spices. One dish that was chicken and peppars had MORE peppars than chicken! Even the SOUP was spicy. I was really looking forward to a break and to cool my mouth down, as I'm a glutton for punishment when it comes to spicy food, and I dig into the soup only to find it is not intended to be a break from spiciness but just as spicy as everything else. Thank god for cold beer.
Some of us headed to Latina (in the same complex) for after dinner drinks. Here we were treated to an Italian classmate, decked out in a white shirt and white pants, going up on the stage and singing U2's With or Without You. Great fun.
sichuanese. spicy. politics. latina and philippino band, antonio dancing.
