03-03-2016

Today's pictures are of FOOD (#amazing)! I've had a sore throat since yesterday afternoon and was otherwise feeling a little under the weather, so I decided to get soup for dinner. One of my first meals in China was at this place which I went to with a few other international students where you can pick out what you want (and that particular day we all decided that everyone had to get at least one chicken foot to try, but since I did not particularly enjoy that, I passed on it today).

Most of the stuff in the soup is tofu (shout-out to Kenny who knows that his sister loves tofu). When your order is ready, the number on your receipt is called, and I'm embarrassed to say that that aspect had me scrambling onto the restaurant WiFi to figure out how to say 137 in Chinese (granted, if I had figured it out in time I wouldn't have registered it anyway because they say it too fast for me to understand, but knowing that the number would end in 7 [七, pronounced qī in pinyin] was my saving grace).

This is where the magic happens. There's actually another shelf just like this with items to add to your soup, but there were customers there when I took this picture. And yes, you even pick out your noodles. The soup is charged by weight, so the amount you pay varies. My bowl tonight was about ¥17, which is a tad expensive in my opinion, but it was worth it. I almost ate too much but at least my tummy is full and happy ☀☁✰♬

03-02-2016

ISEP food stipend. I'm still amazed by how cheap everything is here. We were given ¥60 for meals per day, which sounds like a lot until you realize that's only about $10. It goes pretty far though - a typical meal usually ranges from ¥6 - ¥20 ($1 - $3) depending on where you go. It's also convenient that food is super accessible. My problem is that I usually can't read the menu (if they even have a hand-copy available) so I'm limited to pointing at random things. I'm hoping to improve my skills though, so I've learned to at least recognize the characters for beef, pork, and fish (牛肉，猪肉，and 鱼 respectively). Hopefully that 'serves' me well in the future (ohoho).

because stuff is cool

I like letters. I also like stuff. I have a couple of addresses on hand, but if you would like to give me stuff or letters or both, here is my postal address!

Valerie Vacek

Overseas Students Residence Building, Jiaoqiao North Campus

Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics

No. 169 Shuanggang East Road, Xialuo, Changbei District, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province

P.R. China

Postal Code: 330013

03-01-2016

My dorm neighbor and I went exploring around campus today, and we found this. In case you can't read it, the sign says 'Museum of JUFE (Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics) History: The Museum of Chinese Tax Receipts'. We wanted to go inside to see these 'artifacts', but the guard didn't let us in. I don't know why - all I understood was that she asked what we were doing, and we didn't know how to respond (we both hardly know Chinese).

02-29-2016

Some guy was meandering around with a monkey on a leash in downtown Nanchang, and we held hands for a little bit. He also kissed my hand. I expected monkey hands to be rough or calloused, but they were really smooth. I guess I don't actually know if it was a he, but whatever, he was really cute.

02-28-2016

There's a pavilion that I can see from my eighth floor dorm room, and sometimes it's fun to just people watch. This was a group of people who seemed to be doing morning aerobics (and a lot of them look older - one girl and I both agreed, 'this must be why they're all so skinny!' when we saw this). Anyways, they just show up, hang up their items (like heavy jackets) on the clothing lines, and join in.

There's also a group that does dancing here around 7:30pm - 9:30pm. Another girl who studied here last semester said that this happens daily, which can get a little irritating because they play music that's pretty loud. But it's still cool and interesting to see and experience.

02-27-2016

This is a sign in my bathroom which welcomed me after I arrived to my dorm at about 11pm. In all honesty, one of the things I'm super excited about is looking at all the English translations I can find in China because I find them amusing, and buying stuff with said translations.

Yesterday at the market, I saw something (I don't remember what object it was) but it had a translation that basically talked about doing everything together with one person and it ended with 'You were my best friend', and I don't think it was supposed to come off as devastating as it sounded..

Today (2/29) when I was out walking with a few other people, we saw a guy with a jacket that read 'DREAW TEAM' on the back, and I guess I just never realized how similar Ms and Ws can look..

Then at dinner we saw someone with a Mickey Mouse jacket that read 'MIKEY MOUSE' and the people I was with questioned, "Who is Mikey??" and one girl answered jokingly, "Oh, it's Mickey's twin brother that no one knows about."

Oh and then there's this from earlier today..

(in case it's hard to read:

'Carry a coffee then come into my heart

Its you that who appears in boundless huge crowd

Possibly, the first one you thought of everyday is me')