Closed, closed closed

It has been a quiet couple of days. As some of you might know, it is Chinese New Year and I have to admit that they have a much bigger party than the Westerners. It is to such an extend that you need to stock your house with food as you won't find any shops open. I mainly spent my New Years lazying at home, preparing for my studies for this term, watched Chinese television and drank beer. I am thinking of changing my diet from a coffee one to beer diet as this is much cheaper. Before i drink a cooldrink in this country I always go for a beer first. It is amazing to see the difference in price!! Just to give you an idea... one decent coffee goes for the price of 6-7 beers.

I don't really have too much to talk about as I was locked in my room for most of the time apart from getting lunch. To my surprise I found a couple of street vendors that were selling food. Most foreigners would not necessarily buy food from street vendors as this might not be seen as the cleanest. But like I said, I am no longer a foreigner in this country. So I went for it!! Up until now I haven't had any food poisoning or anything yet, "touch wood". And, I am planning to keep it like this for as long as possible.

Yesterday one of the shops which is a muslim food shop opened its doors for service again. I got my Mandarin together and decided to go eat something there. To my surprise they understood everything that I said. First I asked if they had a certain dish, and the chef confirmed that they had it. Then I said to him that I would like 1 dish. He then looked at me and said in Mandarin that there are two, one goes for 3Yuan and the other for 5Yuan. How I knew that he said this I don't know, but I ordered the 5Yuan bowl. I have been spending many hours listening to a Mandarin podcast and I am also spending quite a couple of hours in front of the television listening if I can hear what people are saying in Mandarin. There is one tv series that I am watching and sort of getting into. Catching a word every now and again I build the rest of the story with my own ideas and words.

I will probably be spending the rest of the month planning my studies, learning Mandarin and visiting shops practising my non-existing Mandarin.

(Linyi City, Shandong Province, China)