Looking for a Diet Coke...

I have had to settle for regular Pepsi and Coke today in my vain attempts at ordering a diet cola of some sort. I can ask for a coke and people understand Pepsi and Coke but when I say diet coke I get blank stares. The first was on the plane from Guangzhou to Hefei (Anna Lin's province). I asked a male airline person for diet Pepsi, since I saw he had Pepsi. Oh, that was a mistake on my part. After several attempts at trying to explain I wanted diet not regular (...and I'm doing this in English to someone who just doesn't really understand me beyond Pepsi and thank you. :-) I finally said I would have a water. I knew he understood water, but I guess I had him so frazzled he just couldn't get passed the Pepsi. So, I took the Pepsi with a smile and a 'xie xie' (thank you).

Jane our absolutely wonderful guide picked us up at the airport, took us to the hotel, checked us in, even haggled over where the room would be due to construction, and had our room switched after feeling it smelled too much like new paint, and then took us across the street to SongYun's minimart to get us some bottled water and diet coke. Yeah Diet Coke! It's the little things that make me happy.

We got in around 10 am and were completely turned around since it was 10 pm by our bodies. We relaxed, unpacked, and got to know our hotel a bit. I did manage to sleep on the night flight to Guangzhou, about 6 hours give or take. I decided to explore the gym and go for a run. Even if it was a small one, I needed to get some nervous energy out and ensure some sleep tonight. I ran for 30 minutes, which ended up being a little over 3 km and about a third of what I normally do. 1 miles equals 1.4 or 1.6 km, I can't remember exactly but I know you will forgive me. :-) I had to ask the young man working to start the machine. It was in English and I knew how to run it, but they apparently turn everything completely off when not in use and I could not find the power button. I'm sure he got a kick out of me, but he was quite helpful especially not being able to verbally communicate with me. I got a hello from him, and that was the last word I heard, but I did get lots of smiles and occasional blank stares. I really could have run longer, but the machine started to get very warm and I was afraid I was pushing it farther than it was used to going. There was only another gentleman in the room with me, so it didn't look like the facility was greatly used. But hey, I achieved my goal, found the pool and play area for kids, then headed back to the room.

After cleaning up, it was around 2 or 3pm and we decided we needed to get something to eat. We had eaten on the plane (or I had). The last plane flight was only 1.5 hours but had the best service and food. Beef and noodles, along with some fruit that I'll have to find the name out and post later. It was big like a muscadine grape with a harder skin and bigger seed. But it was good, not overly sweet. I asked the man next to me on the plane how to eat it and he told me. He spoke a little English and we chatted for a bit. He was a fireman in Guangzhou heading to Hefei for classes in Technology for a graduate degree. Nice guy and very nice to talk to the chatty American who can only speak three or four words in Mandarin. Anyway, I've digressed. We decided we wanted to eat noodles for our dinner. The hotel has a restaurant called Noodles and Chopsticks. So we being adventurous went and tried it. The girl who was our server was very helpful but didn't speak much English. I tried again to order a diet coke but received coke instead. ;-) Oh, well I'll keep trying. The noodles were great. It was served in a big bowl with broth. Zak, Spencer, and Noah imagine Goku on Dragon BallZ eating noodles. That is how it's to be done. We did use chopsticks and I tried to ask the girl to show us how to use them. She acted like she understood and left. I thought she went to get another pair of sticks. However, she came back with two forks instead. I smiled and said thanks, then went back to manuvering the chopsticks as best as I could. Ric had a better grip on getting the small items, passing his mushrooms to me. (Which were quite good, along with all of the food.) The meat I received, chicken, was clear your sinuses out spicy. It also had bones in it and I wasn't sure what to think about that, so I used my fork with the meat. Ric had noodles and pork meatballs. We have yet to finish a whole meal because the noodles are so filling. Then we waited for our bill, and waited, and waited. We never saw our girl again, and wondered if we had scared her off. Ric finally went to the desk and asked. They got the idea and brought the check.

Now I started on this post the day we came into Hefei and have tried three times to finish it. However, sleep would take me over as my eyes begged to shut instead of typing. We went to bed around 8pm. Just couldn't stay awake any longer, slept until midnight, then finally went back to sleep until 5:55 am. Then decided hey it's 5:55pm at home lets call the boys. Plus we knew we had to brave the buffet for breakfast, get ready, then meet Jane at 9:15am to go to Civil Affairs to be united with Anna Lin and do paperwork. I will post on that in a minute. It was quite eventful.

-Angi