Friday is Culture Day

It's so easy to move to a new city and get stuck in a routine doing the same thing and seeing the same sights. So on Fridays, Ben and I finish class early, then spend the next few hours exploring the city. I call it culture day. Nothing planned or major, just getting off the bus a few stops early or going to a market that we haven't been to before.

Today I actually remembered my camera, here is what I saw:

First Ben has a big bowl of postage stamp noodles. They are called postage stamp noodles because after the cook stretches out the dough for the noodles, he cuts them up in small squares, the size of a stamp. It's almost like a stew, not quite a soup, but a little more broth than a stir fry. It's one of our favorite dishes to eat here.













It was a little to early for lunch for me, so I sat and watched two boys at the next table cleaning green peppers. This is a common sight in the late morning, as I often see the restaurant staff chopping meat, peeling garlic, or slicing vegetables in order to prepare for the lunch crowd.







Then we were off in search of a particular discount art supply store, as Ben has been wanting to draw (he's a really good artist!) A really nice sketch pad was $1, can't beat that price.





Afterward we decided to walk the long way home to explore some of the side markets. Not intending to purchase anything but rather practice some basic Chinese phrases and see how much I could understand.





Some nice hot corn on the cob was the perfect lunch. This vendor would hardly stop for us as she was in a hurry to catch the lunch crowd down the road while her corn and sweet potatoes were still hot. The corn was so soft and warm, perfect for such cold day!






We mainly walked past shops with clothing and bag in it. The vendors often change this stock depending on the weather. Today most of the clothing were coats and long underwear in preparation for the cold weather. Most of the ladies are so petite here. I tried on a few cute coats as I was curious as to my size...I'm an extra-large!


I found some pretty cool bags. I also mean this literally, as one bag had the word COOL written on it in big black letters. I picked up this bag to pose for a picture and the sales clerk told me it was 95 RMB. I replied, 'too expensive' and put the bag down. She then lowered her price to 65 RMB. What a drastic price drop, it's hard to know what is a reasonable price.





Almost home, I saw these Tibetan ladies with such colorful clothing. They graciously posed for my picture after I gave them many complements of how pretty they were. They were speaking to us in Chinese, but I couldn't understand much, so I kept saying in Chinese, thank you and you are so pretty. Such cheerful ladies!