Monday

Today was pretty cool. It was Kristi's last day in Beijing after nearly four years in China. The Chinese staff here took both her and her replacement (ie me) out to lunch at a nice place in ChangPing. Most restaurants in China do the family style serving method. They give out one or two menus and everybody picks something and then they bring it out in huge bowls and everyone picks what they want from what bowl when it comes by on the lazy susan. Soooo good. Usually some kind of salad with a spicy vingarette, gong bao chicken (you know its American cousin: Kung Pao) sweet and sour pork, beef and pepper, and bowl after bowl of fried dumplings. After lunch, another year-long, Doro, and I went out shopping for groceries and other supplies. Where does anyone go when they need to find good stuff cheap? Wal-Mart! There is a Supercenter here in ChangPing and is pretty much common to American Wal-Marts, including some imported stuff that is like gold over here including Kraft American sliced cheese, real chocolate and Cheetos! Of course, you pay for it but just knowing it's right here makes me happy. I also needed to pick up a Trac-Phone that is required for staff. Last summer, I didn't have one and running back and forth between buildings on campus for information in the high humidity of summer is an experience I do not want to repeat. I got a pretty cheap one, it's a major step down from my beloved iPhone but it will do the job well. They didnt sell SIM cards there at Wal-Mart so Doro and I had to trek across ChangPing to a small electronics booth in Merry-Mart (a Wal-Mart knockoff) to get one and activate it and then finally back on campus.