Last Day in Zhengzhou
Monday (day 14) for lunch I decided to try something new that even Keith hadn’t tried. I didn’t know exactly what I would get. It is always hard ordering from pictures since we can’t read the menu fully, so I was a bit nervous. But it turned out to be noodles in a peanut sauce with green onions peanuts and some sort of spicy meat and bean sprouts. It was so good and I was glad I was adventurous!
For supper I also tried something new and it was good but not my favorite. It was more noodles with mushroom and beef and cilantro. The sauce had a different taste that I didn’t really care for. The beef was interesting as it tasted more like ham!
I got a cream puff pastry on the way back to my hotel. The girl working there showed me on a page where she had written in English “Do you like puffs?” “I don’t speak English.” She told me her name and I told her mine.
Another cool experience in China: Day 15
Tuesday, I checked out of my hotel, got 4 cream puffs, and met Keith at the college. I called my mom while I was walking over. It was the first time I had talked to her since I left Canada and it felt like forever since I had heard her voice! For lunch, we met some of the students to say goodbye. I had plain noodle soup with beef but I wasn’t super hungry. I commented on one of the students earrings and said they were very pretty and sparkly. She seemed super happy that I had said that!
They had to leave early to go to a class so we finished our lunch. We were just leaving the cafeteria when she messaged me and asked if we had left yet. When I told her no, she sent me a picture of the earrings and said “for you” and to wait for her. I wasn’t completely sure but it sounded like she wanted to give me her earrings! And sure enough she did. She told me they were new and this was the first day she had worn them. I teared up a little bit, it was such a thoughtful thing for her to do! I don’t even have my ears pierced but it was so special for her to want to give them to me.
We got to the railway station at 3pm and our train left at 4 so we had plenty of time! No rushing around to catch the train this time, thank goodness! I was sad to leave Zhengzhou, I had made so many good memories. We had only been there two weeks but it seemed so much longer.
Arriving in Nanchang
After the four hour train ride, I was tired. When we got to the railway station in Nanchang, 2 of Keith’s students and another student not in his class were there to pick us up. They were all very nice and even took our suitcases and pushed them through the station for us. There was a little confusion of them trying to remember where they had parked their car. “Too big! Too big!” they kept saying about the parking garage. Eventually, they found it and we hopped in.
It was funny to watch/”listen” to them try and navigate their way from the train station to the hotel. They told us the interstate was closed and so they took us down these roads that seemed in the middle of nowhere. At some point it was like it wasn’t even a road at all as it was bumpy and not even paved. Off roading in Nanchang the first night there! We got back into the city again, and the students checked us into our hotel. They even made sure we got to our room before saying “Goodnight” to us in English and heading back to the college.
Dinner in Nanchang
We decided to go out and find food. The area right next to our hotel is called Wanda Plaza and has so many bakeries and food stalls and all kinds of different things. We ended up eating noodles with seafood at a cute little restaurant. Octopus, small clams, and whole squid along with some spicy noodles. I had a bad headache (my first one since being here!) and so I didn’t eat all the noodles but I ate all the seafood. I wasn’t brave enough to eat the shrimp heads but the shrimp meat was very tasty!
When I brushed my teeth that night, I noticed the toothpaste had a lemon flavor to it which was weird! Tasted a bit like the lemon Fisherman’s Friend (cough drops) you can get.
I will have more posts up soon! Did you miss my post about Food and Fun in Zhengzhou? So far I am loving Nanchang. It is different from Zhengzhou, but there are so many different foods to try and so many new places to explore! So excited to share all of it with you. Please, ask any questions about anything you are curious about and I’ll be happy to answer. And thank you so much for all of you that keep coming back to read my latest post, it means a lot!
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