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So, here's a week wrapped up into 1 day (haven't had much time this week).Sunday and Monday night were room service, nothing exciting there. Monday was my last day of Chinese food at the location. When my Chinese friends tell me that the Chinese food isn't that good, you can understand why I don't want to eat it....On Tuesday, we were trying to finish up the project, so we ate "in" for lunch. They ordered McDonald's for us.I took a picture and I haven't uploaded it yet, but for 2 people, they ordered us 4 large fries, 3 10-packs of wings, 2 Quarter Pounders, a Big Mac, and a double cheeseburger.We were just shocked by the amount of food.I mean… it was just 2 of us…?Am I missing something??
Tuesday night, Sunil took me to a local teppanyaki place - All you could eat and drink for 168 RMB. 3 Cheers for Sake! After that, I finally got to go to "Even Better than Movie World" which is across the street from "Movie World" on Dagu Lu. Well, it was. "Movie World" changed their name a couple days before I got there. Bummer. Wednesday night Charles and I went to the Hongqiao New World Pearl Market. I spent some time in March buying pearls, but we still spent more time there than Charles wanted to. They mainly sell cultured pearls, which aren't fake pearls -they will take a knife or scissors to the pearls for the scratch test to show you it isnt glass or plastic - they are just pearls from an oyster that got a little help to be produced in a shorter period of time. Pearls normally are white, ivory, pink, peach and light purple (I think). In the markets there are greens, silvers, blues, oranges and yellows - the list goes on - these are done using a laser-dye process common to mainland China and Hong Kong. They didn't seem very interested in bargaining, but told me that they started off with the "Best Friend Price".... i mean, if that is the case, then why bother even trying to bargain??
For dinner we went for Indian food (which I just discovered that I like) to Bukhara Grill on Hongmei Road (a couple doors down from the pearl place). The restaurant itself was pretty nice and the food was supposedly very authentic.I let Charles order a couple different dishes, but he made the mistake of taking the waiter's suggestion instead of just going with what we had already decided on. The first plate was chicken something and was awesome… Of the next 3 dishes, supposedly 2 were not spicy. As I have mentioned before, I can't seem to go anywhere near mildly spicy food or my mouth will literally catch on fire. Well, I guess the waiter had a different definition of spicy. I had tears coming down, and Charles was trying very hard not to laugh at my water chugging. I can't remember how many times he apologized, but looking back, it was pretty funny. At least I am trying new things and despite the spiciness, the food was really good!
By Thursday, Charles and I had eaten the prized trio of fast food in China for lunch - KFC, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut. I think we are both ready to be home. Thursday night Charles went to play basketball and I headed back to the Pearl Market.I don't even remember how much time I spent there, but it was rather ridiculous. I couldn't help it - there were so many birthdays coming up this summer! I met up with Charles, Sunil, and Ben for dinner at O'Malley's Irish Pub, which is in the French Concession on Tao Jiang Road. This is actually where I spent St. Patrick's Day this year. (Fun Fact:O'Malley's is the 1st traditional Irish pub in Asia and even today still sells the most Guinness in China.)So while we were eating dinner, we were watching waitresses just take these huge stacks of bread to this other section of the restaurant. About every 5 minutes, there was another stack of 4-6 slices of bread, sometimes with something else (soup maybe?), sometimes not. Every time the guys asked what was going on, the waitresses just laughed. I don't think we ever got a good answer, and bread generally isn't funny… but the sheer volume of bread slices being fed to a few people just made it hysterical.
Today is Friday and we are in the office -heading back to the US through Chicago. I can't wait to get back to sunny North Carolina! I slept all last night, so I have no idea how much sleep I will be getting on the flight. I have the month of July off from traveling, so next time I will be writing will (probably) be from Istanbul, Turkey in August.
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