Only 5 Days Left, Mah Chilluns
Now I shall continue to bore you with bits and pieces of my travels this week:
- went to the countryside (to where my grandparents grew up and where my dad grew up). My maternal grandparents grew up somewhere about 2 hours drive away from the city. My dad and paternal grandparents grew up about 4 hours drive away from the city.
- went to a hot springs resort in Enping (where my dad grew up). Ahhhhhhh, creature comforts: working showers, sitting toilets, clean sheets that don't smell musty, my own room with a TV, HOT SPRINGS!!!!! Yeah, call me a capitalist/consumerist pig, but hey, we all have our creature comforts :B If only I could've stayed for longer than one night ;__;
- went to visit paternal grandparental gravesites that are literally situated on a series of mountains. My eldest uncle on my dad's side is eccentric and of good health: he's approaching 80-something years old, climbs mountains daily by himself, and when he finds places with good fengshui, he goes and moves the graves of his ancestors to the new sites. Too bad his memory is not as good as his health, no one is 100% sure exactly which grave belongs to whom...they weren't labelled with names in those days, after all.
- my dad demonstrated his universal stupidity slash complete lack of social graces even within his home country/home town/home village. He wanted me to take a picture of him bowing at my paternal grandfather's grave like WTF. Even my aunt was like no, you shouldn't. Dad is a retard. He really is.
- went back to the city and spent the last couple of days shopping like mad. CHEAP STUFF. Current inventory includes: a wool dress (?), black leggings, 3 tank tops, 3 black skinny/straight-leg jeans, 1 pair black boots, 1 pair black/white plaid pants, 1 pair dressy-ish black shorts, 3 pairs striped ankle socks, and other miscellaneous pieces that haven't come to mind yet.
- visited MCDONALDS and KFC in China: key differences in the menu are local preferences - instead of apple pie, they have taro and red bean pie in Chinese Maccas. Plus the locals love their chicken, so to compete Maccas has fried chicken and BBQ chicken in local flavours. They also have grilled corn kernels at Maccas, and more ice cream flavours (melon, mocha, and some random things I'm not quite sure of). At KFC they have corn coleslaw instead of chips in meals by default (though you can buy chips separately), and they recently promoted their new menu item: soy milk (served hot or cold, cold one extra RMB). For dessert KFC has egg tarts. Note that if you do plan on trying some of these items, all the menus are in Chinese and you will have a pickle of a time trying to order anything. And people will cut queues just because they can. I take about ten minutes trying to order because I'm pointing at stuff and asking what it is.
- Coca-cola in China: the bottled Coke is terrible. Drink only can Coke to avoid that terribly disappointed feeling when you take the first sip out of a nice cold bottle.
MOAR later, my dearies, probably when I come home Tuesday morning. Is anyone free? ;__;
- went to the countryside (to where my grandparents grew up and where my dad grew up). My maternal grandparents grew up somewhere about 2 hours drive away from the city. My dad and paternal grandparents grew up about 4 hours drive away from the city.
- went to a hot springs resort in Enping (where my dad grew up). Ahhhhhhh, creature comforts: working showers, sitting toilets, clean sheets that don't smell musty, my own room with a TV, HOT SPRINGS!!!!! Yeah, call me a capitalist/consumerist pig, but hey, we all have our creature comforts :B If only I could've stayed for longer than one night ;__;
- went to visit paternal grandparental gravesites that are literally situated on a series of mountains. My eldest uncle on my dad's side is eccentric and of good health: he's approaching 80-something years old, climbs mountains daily by himself, and when he finds places with good fengshui, he goes and moves the graves of his ancestors to the new sites. Too bad his memory is not as good as his health, no one is 100% sure exactly which grave belongs to whom...they weren't labelled with names in those days, after all.
- my dad demonstrated his universal stupidity slash complete lack of social graces even within his home country/home town/home village. He wanted me to take a picture of him bowing at my paternal grandfather's grave like WTF. Even my aunt was like no, you shouldn't. Dad is a retard. He really is.
- went back to the city and spent the last couple of days shopping like mad. CHEAP STUFF. Current inventory includes: a wool dress (?), black leggings, 3 tank tops, 3 black skinny/straight-leg jeans, 1 pair black boots, 1 pair black/white plaid pants, 1 pair dressy-ish black shorts, 3 pairs striped ankle socks, and other miscellaneous pieces that haven't come to mind yet.
- visited MCDONALDS and KFC in China: key differences in the menu are local preferences - instead of apple pie, they have taro and red bean pie in Chinese Maccas. Plus the locals love their chicken, so to compete Maccas has fried chicken and BBQ chicken in local flavours. They also have grilled corn kernels at Maccas, and more ice cream flavours (melon, mocha, and some random things I'm not quite sure of). At KFC they have corn coleslaw instead of chips in meals by default (though you can buy chips separately), and they recently promoted their new menu item: soy milk (served hot or cold, cold one extra RMB). For dessert KFC has egg tarts. Note that if you do plan on trying some of these items, all the menus are in Chinese and you will have a pickle of a time trying to order anything. And people will cut queues just because they can. I take about ten minutes trying to order because I'm pointing at stuff and asking what it is.
- Coca-cola in China: the bottled Coke is terrible. Drink only can Coke to avoid that terribly disappointed feeling when you take the first sip out of a nice cold bottle.
MOAR later, my dearies, probably when I come home Tuesday morning. Is anyone free? ;__;