Out and About

I took another walk by myself again yesterday. I found a new way over to the subway line. I even went into the subway to get the layout of everything. It looks great! The only problem is that everything is written in Chinese - imagine that. The good news is that the signs have Chinese characters as well as the alphabet form. I am sure I can figure it out once I start riding it.

Trip to the Subway 

On the way home, I stopped to pick up some fruit and get something to eat. I few things became crystal clear during the experience. At the first market, I realized I need to learn how to count. Because when I went to purchase my fruit, I had no idea what the man said I owed him. He got a rather perturbed look on his face and then wrote 8 on a piece of paper. That is when I knew it would be a good idea to learn my numbers. It is interesting how necessity increases desire to learn. I don't know if you know, but the Chinese count to ten on one hand. The man tried to sign the number eight to me too. I do know how to count on one hand now. The next task will be learning how to say them.

First experience ordering food.  Notice the nutrition bar wrapper in the back.

The picture above shows how my eating habits have had to change. I brought six nutrition bars with me when I came to China. Since I didn't really know where to go or what to order, I ended up eating one bar and some fruit every day for lunch. Yesterday, I ran out of bars, which meant I needed to get some food. I went to shop on the way home from my little outing to get something to eat. Fortunately, they have pictures on their menu, and I recognized the fried rice. I ordered it and brought it home to eat. It was really quite tasty. It was made up of rice, egg, and bits of ham, onions, carrots and a few other things that I didn't recognize. So the picture shows my first attempt at finding and ordering something to eat. I hope to find a few other dishes to eat so I can have a little variety. I am sure I will end up with some interesting food along the way, but eventually I will have my favorites.