Yeah, I'll be there, look for an awkard white guy.

If you're busy and all, and don't have time to read all of this...just check out the quick video recap of the past couple days:





It was my second day in Nanjing and I had nothing planned until about 4pm…which means that I had to (on my own) get out of the apartment and explore.  So naturally, I delayed the inevitable and slowly worked up my courage alone in the apartment.  I watched a few episodes of Lost, cooked some green beans and onion, and made some tea.

But then I finally did it.  I got up and went to the Suguo Supermarket across the street.  It was pretty sweet, I’ll take some videos inside the store to convey the craziness.  Eeels, turtles, milk powder...they got it all over here.  But yeah, I still had to catch a taxi to meet up with Sarah and her classmates. 

I walked towards the busy corner.  As I left the apartment complex, I looked down to a piece of notebook paper with the words “Please take me to here” scrawled on it in Chinese.  I planned to say this while showing the driver some Chinese address that Dane wrote for me. “Qing dai wo dao zher, qing dai wo dao zher, qing dai…”  I repeated the words over and over in my head, hoping that I could hold on to them just long enough to yell them in the general direction of a taxi driver.

It turned out that all my memorization was unnecessary, as Dane and company had switched locations (I was running late…because, well yeah).  So I was told to tell the cab driver to take me there.  And it ended up turning into me hailing a cab and then handing my cell phone to the driver while Dane explained to him where to take this poor confused American.

The taxi ride was…surreal.  It lasted about 25 minutes and ran me about $4 (30 kuai).  I really had never experienced hectic roadways (mayyybeee in Jamaica) like this and I hope this terrible picture can adequately convey the chaos.

Got bikes on bikes, son!

I was dropped off in front of the Walmart in Nanjing.  And dayumm...we’re talking levels Jerry.  It seems that most of the super markets in China (well at least in Nanjing) are multiple floors.  And most of the people are shopping with carts, so it’s not really possible to use escalators or stairs.  Because of this, most of the floors are connected by inclined speedy walk-ways, like they have in airports, just with a slight incline.  And yeah, they have a KFC at the end of the checkout area.

KFC...the shimmering light at the end of the tunnel.

And then we went to a hotpot restaurant.  Which is…exactly what it sounds like.  You go down a buffet of raw meat, tofu, and vegetables and put them on your tray and each of the plates of food has a price painted on the plate.  You get as much food as you want and at the end of the meal, the server adds up all of your plates.  At the table, there is a huge pot of boiling water (and boiling soups and such).  You then drop whatever food you want to eat into the pot, wait a little bit depending on the type of food, and then enjoy in a variety of dipping sauces.

...they made me put the brain in last.  And yeah, it was pretty gross.

And once you add in beer to the mix, the meal came to a grand total of about $4.50 per person.  But between you and me…no matter how authentic, no matter how cheap these authentic restaurants are…I still really want to eat at KFC.