The first thing is that, thanks to the "old hands" I've been meeting, I've finally seen some "Chinese stuff." You might argue that ALL what I see is Chinese stuff, what was I expecting, men with queues? But I've been to the old town of Gin Tonic, which is not enormous but has its share of wooden doors, narrow alleys, slanted roofs and vendors selling assorted Three Kingdoms and Mao memorabilia. Very cool.
I've also been exploring more of the market. It's a slow learning process. Apart from all vegetables known to man, you can find a stall with lots of different varieties of tofu, and eggs sold by weight. The perks of being in a backwater of sort is that you can get fresh stuff from the local farmers, basically everything is a "locovore" plan. Meat, also sold in stalls, is primarily chicken and pork. The chicken looks weird, pork slightly less so but I never buy pork at home, so buying it at the butcher's, with the language barrier, is definitely daunting. As far as cooking at home is concerned, I have thus resolved to be a vegetarian, getting proteins from tofu and eggs. I've also made an expedition to Walmart (a ubiquitous Chinese institution) and gotten pasta. At least it's something I can cook. Still can't use the friggin' wok. Not sure what I do wrong, but I always end up having to scrape the food off... Trouble is, imported pasta costs a fortune, especially in comparison to the ridiculous price of the local food. Therefore, Barilla has to be, well, a little luxury of sorts, I kid you not.
My flat is still chilly, but I've applied some TLC. I discovered large wall stickers, so I don't have to stare at boring old whit(ish) walls all the time, but at little flowers and birds. So purty!
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