Day 4

I wake up and spend some time in the bathroom. Yeah I am still sick. Bummer. I take a Pepto and the Chinese Medicine

I decided to eat that pastry with peaches that I bought the day before. The pastry tastes like something a Dane would make. As I am finding out, the Chinese invented everything first. Maybe they invented the Danish before the Danes? While I am enjoying the pastry I look out my hotel window and I see men learning to jump the pommel horse.

They are not that good and I watch several of them rack themselves. I am laughing pretty hard, and for awhile I forget that I am sick. My friend arrives and we watch together, both laughing pretty hard. These guys hurt themselves pretty bad and they double over in pain, and then they get right back in line to do it again. This tenacity is a cultural trait that I think makes the Chinese very strong as a culture.

Off to work, we take the taxi, nothing to eventful because we are heading in to work later to miss traffic. I am not feeling all that well and the trip goes by in a blur.

Lunch comes faster then I want it to. I am not all that hungry, but I do not want to offend my gracious hosts. We head out to another of their favorite restaurants. They order vegetable dishes so that I will not get any sicker. The food is great and I try everything but I do not eat too much. The tea is beautiful, I believe it is full of chrysanthemums. We are given sugar crystals to put in our tea, it becomes humorous how much sugar one of us puts in her tea. Most of us just put one crystal, and she puts in spoon fulls.


Lunch over with we walk back to work and notice that the gray sky seems like it may have clouds in it. In fact it does and it rains a little while later.

We work late, trying to catch up on lost time because of my illness. While working I notice how close the women are. They will touch each other affectionately. Not in a sexual manner, more like hanging over the shoulder, or holding hands when walking close. I am reminded of my cultural anthropology class where I learned that in some cultures the individual can feel a loss of identity if there are too many people. The people regain their identity through the touch of others, they don't feel so alone. Anyways just an observation I had as I watched these women interact with each other. I also noticed it as I watched women walk beside the roads, many of them held hands or interlocked their arms.

When I leave the office I notice all of the nicely dusted cars are dirty. The rain has all evaporated but left everything dirty. The dirt kind of feels sticky, I think I now understand why I see so many people dusting the exterior of their cars.

On my way home to my hotel, we hit traffic and I finally get a picture of these bicyclists that haul huge loads around town. It is not a great picture, maybe I can get a better one later. But these guys have to be tough. They have what looks to be a solid steel framed bike, with two rear wheels. On the back is stacked tons of stuff. I have seen bricks, wood, sheet metal, garbage, you name it and these guys haul it. I have also seen a bunch of horses pulling this type of stuff also. Although this is much rarer.


Back at my hotel we debate over what to eat. I break down, I am hungry but I just do not want to risk anymore Chinese food right now. I decide that we are going to go have Pizza at Mr. Pizza - Made for Women. I, uhmmm did not see the "Made for Women" tag line until I received the bill. I still have no idea why this pizza is "Made for Women" but if I find out I probably won't tell you because of the embarrassment. It is interesting to note that this place seemed to be a haven for non-Asians. Seeing so few people that look like me I said hi to a couple of them, forgetting that there are a lot of people that look like me and do not speak English. Man I can be pretty dense at times.

The day ends with me still not feeling that well. I am sweaty and just overall miserable. Thanks god for the baby wipes that someone made me put in my suitcase.