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hi! My name is Kathryn. aka. Kat.
19 years old.
UWA Law/Arts student. Majoring in History.
Avid traveller.
I speak Italian and want to learn Mandarin.

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a little more

I buy Spring Valley juices just to get the Liddle Fact.
Number plates interest me.
Books have overtaken my room... Doesn't help that I work in a bookshop either.
Guilty Pleasure: The $3 Crossword scratchies waste away my little spare change.
Me and my over-active imagination will someday rule the world.
Incredibly gullable and naive. But that's just how I roll.

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The Chopsticks Diet

posted on Saturday, July 9, 2011 at 11:45 PM | 0 cmnt/s

Arrived in Beijing this afternoon. Such a culture shock. But a good culture shock. So we were greeted at the airport by a driver who knew no English. Now not to seem ignorant, but the complete lack of English did come as a little shock.

The villa that we are staying in is amazing. So beautiful. So large.

Straight after settling in, we went for a wander around to get acquainted with the area. Carol took us to a shopping center (!!!) where I picked up my first purchase: 4 pendants.

After a quick look around we walked back, going past a real Chinese restaurant (unlike the fake type we get back home). Now that was a real experience. Once again, complete lack of English. Now, it's difficult to describe just how hard it was to order dinner with no language on either side. The thing that you have to do is just point and hope to god that you get what you've attempted to order. However, in the end we did get everything that we ordered and seriously... The food was AMAZING! It was real Chinese food.

The next biggest challenge, however, was using chopsticks. I've had a little experience with chopsticks in the past, but in times of struggle I've always been able to pick up a fork. This time, no dice. Hence the title, the chopsticks diet. Having said that, I did manage to eat all of my food and rice :) yay

Some general remarks about what I've seen of China thus far:

The driving is crazy. Crazy crazy crazy. And what's worse is that they don't give way to pedestrians even when there is a little green man saying that you can walk. You literally need eyes in the back of your head. Scary stuff.

Another thing of notice is the lack of smog. I know it sounds weird, but I was actually expecting there to be a noticeable amount of smog. No such thing, however.

China truly is beautiful. The culture is noticeable different. But good different. I like it. Very different.

Do wish I had a translator sometimes... For example my good friend Nelson. Or at least I should have asked him for some more helpful phrases.


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