Friday Night Shopping, Exploring and Eating

Hello, this is Marie here. I changed the comment options on here, so it's now possibly to write something even if you don't have any kind of blog account. Just select 'Anonymous' and go ahead and write your comment. Let me know if you have any troubles!

Nothing much exciting has happened over the past week. I've been going to a coffee shop nearby which has a really nice atmosphere, free wireless internet, and good coffee and other drinks. For some reason going there really improved my mood and made me feel better about being here. 

The weather has cooled down considerably. I've pulled out my winter stuff (gloves, hat, scarves) and used it all for the first time this week. 

School is still rather busy for me and I have to prepare a presentation for my newspaper reading class. I really hate that class as I am the only westerner and therefore about the slowest at reading characters among all my classmates. It is really challenging....so challenging that it is actually a bit discouraging. The other classes I'm taking all feel like they are the right level for me, but in this one I just constantly feel like the slow kid in class. We have to do two assignments each week in which we write very short essays. For one, we have to pick a newspaper article, write out all the unfamiliar vocabulary in the article (for me that's just about every word), write an article summary and then write out our opinion on the article. Finally, we have to think up two questions for the class. I am so slow at writing that it's a bit of a nightmare for me. Anyway, that's what I'll be working on for the rest of the weekend. 

Here's a picture of a lunch Zoe and I shared earlier this week. One is a bamboo shoot dish, another is bok choy and mushrooms and the last one is eggplant, potatoes, green peppers and meat. It was delicious and it cost us about $4 canadian each.

Now for what I did Friday night: Zoe and I went to a shopping area in Wudaokou (the area where her old university is located). I spent way too much, but I had fun doing so. I got some new shirts, a pencil case, DVDs and other things. I also noticed a ton of yarn stores there, so at some point I'll probably go back to pick some up.

After all the shopping (plus Zoe got a haircut), we went for dinner at a really delicious Korean place. Zoe had been there in the past with her boyfriend and really enjoyed it. It was the perfect thing for a cold evening. We ordered a hotpot and a korean pancake.

Here I am with the hotpot just as it was starting to cook (the korean hotpot comes with everything already in it.
Here's the view of it all from above:
The delicious Korean pancake:
A nice picture of Zoe and an awful picture of me. Photo smile + awkward hunched posture = looking much larger than usual.
Here's the hotpot once it was all cooked and ready to eat. So delicious!
After eating, Zoe took me to the area "where the locals hang out." On the way we saw huge bundles of stuff for recycling. Zoe said people bring stuff they have collected (such as bottles, styrofoam, etc.) and drop it off here. They get paid based on the weight. 

At one point in the evening we saw an old lady with a gigantic, heavy-looking pile of recyclables. It was sad seeing such an old woman having to do that kind of work. She was pedaling so slowly and really seemed to be struggling. It looked like so much work for probably a very small amount of money.
The area where the locals hang out was really interesting...based on some of the stares I got, it was obvious that not too many foreigners go there. I took a few pictures to give you an idea of what it looked like. Here's a street of shops selling everything from food (butchershops, groceries, restaurants) to clothing:
Here's me looking like a dorky tourist:
Another view of the street:
Mantou (steamed bread) for sale:
Sorry for the blur, but here's a butcher shop:

And that's it for my Friday night! It was fun and nice to get off campus to explore. I am so sick of homework!