First Meal

My first day in Qingdao was great. Surprisingly, my plan to avoid jet lag worked, and I adjusted to the 13 hour time difference with no problems. Bo picked me up from the airport and we took a 30-40 minute cab ride into the city. I was quite impressed as Bo spoke Mandarin with the cab driver, navigating him to our condo. He has really come along way with the language in the past 4 months.

After being in airports or on a plane for 36 hours, pretty much all I cared about was taking a long hot shower. If you know me, you know I am a germ-a-phobe (and I fully expect China to cure me of that), so sitting, sleeping, being in so many public spaces for so many hours in a row was giving me the heebie-jeebies.

Once I felt human again, I was ready for my introduction to downtown Qingdao and my first authentic Asian meal. Bo took me to a Korean place right around the corner from our building, and he showed me the ropes of dining in China. It was fun. They brought us a pot full of stuff I couldn’t identify. Then we stirred in a tasty red sauce. I didn’t ask too many questions, just tried to be brave. mmmm. Luckily, I am pretty good with chopsticks, but drinking hot beverages (usually tea) with every meal is going to take some getting used to.

Okay, I know it is sort of a cliche to post funny Chinese signs where they mess up the English translation, but I couldn’t resist posting this. (Notice the sign behind Bo. The circled part is the text that I magnified). Keep in mind that I had to stare at this “typo” all the while wondering what was actually in my bowl!