Today I went to the US embassy with Hsing. We just wanted to check the place out, but it turns out that we also registered there. When I go to Chendu and Shanghai (or anywhere else) I will also have to register with the US embassy there. I showed the guards my US passport, and he let us into the embassy. After stepping on American soil again after about 6 weeks and seeing the American flag waving in the wind, I felt a strong sense of security, safeness, and contentment. I don't know why I felt this way, but the feeling just dawned on me. Maybe after seeing how life is like in China and actually living here, I now see things from a different frame of reference than I have before.

I have to say that I am to a certain extent paranoid while living in China. I am always suspicious about the food I eat, the cleanliness of the bowls, dishes, cups, and silverware (or plasticware, for chopsticks sometimes), and I've heard things about thieves and pick-pocketers, so I look behind and around me pretty often when I walk the streets with that in mind. For example, whenever I go to a restaurant, I always clean the bowls, dishes, cups, and chopsticks. I also smell the food and drinks before I taste it, as I know they can do some screwy things to it. (The nose doesn't lie right?) Of course this may not be enough, but it's all I can do. Another example is bargaining. Aside from the big malls, you have to bargain everywhere you go. Also, you don't have a good idea of what the "actual" price of an item is, so you just go with the flow. So first thing you do is ask for the price, and you already know they charge you at least double the price. After bargaining and some tactics, you may or may not get the item you want. I think this is part of the Chinese mentality also - to try and screw you over, with a smile. This just adds to my paranoia. (This may sound extreme, but I just keeps things in the back of my mind...)

Back to the food... The worst part of the food, besides the cleanliness, which I really don't know how bad it is, is how greasy all the Chinese food is. I'm glad that I recently found a restaurant that actually serves a decent amount of grease instead of the usual grease-drenched food with their dishes, so I think I will go there from now on. Even some of the veggies, when you hold them up with chopsticks, just drip-drop grease... I think the grease may also be a reason of why I get LaDuZhe (diarrhea). Although, my LaDuZhe is nowhere near as bad as when I just arrived here, probably due to my body adjusting to the food.

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So I left for dinner and just came back now to continue writing...

So our dinner was spectacular! I should've taken more pictures, but after a few, I just kept eating and forgot about my camera haha. So Ryan's mom and sister just came yesterday from San Francisco, and his mom wanted to treat us (Ryan, his mom, his sister, me, Hsing, Alex, and Ocean) to dinner, so, of course, we let her. Ryan's sister is vegetarian, so we went to a vegetarian restaurant (my first time!). After finding out that the vegetarian place was being renovated (or something) and thus was not open, Ocean suggested that we go to this other vegetarian place. Let me just summarize that the food was amazing, truly delicious, every dish, and the menu had the most interesting names for food. Most of the waitresses (fu2 wu4 yuan2, literally "service person") were really friendly and had smiles on all the time, or were very nice. Also, the place was really clean for a restaurant in China. The food price is comparable to a standard dinner (10-15 USD) in the States, so I guess it's somewhat pricey in China but for the food it was totally worth it. I guess the only thing is that this restaurant is pretty much hidden, as you have to go through a couple of minutes of walking through apartments before you get to the place.

Backtracking... for lunch we ate near the US embassy at this American-style place called Steak and Eggs. The food was impressively American-tasting. So I got scrambled eggs, home fries, and a biscuit (Y19) and Hsing got shrimp linguini (Y50). The eggs and fries actually smelled and tasted the same way they prepare it in the States, but the biscuit still smelled like it came out of a Chinese bakery. The linguini was impressively tasty as well, very American-style and taste. However, Hsing also got a milk shake, which tasted Chinese-y, probably due to the fact that all their dairy products just taste different. Oh and they have American pies (many different kinds) so we have to go back and try those next time.

It's 4am. I'll post more later. Goodnight.