An alien like face appeared on my tortilla. 

I have never seen roses sold as snacks before, so I had to buy them and try it out.  One word sums up my experience rather well.  HORRIBLE! Unless you have a fondness for munching on flowers, pass it up when it shows up in your local grocery store.

After class, we had a small lunch together, celebrating the news that I would soon be living very close to them. 

Strawberries on a stick.  Yum.  Yum.  Yum.

We went to a Japanese restaurant and ordered a random dish of noodles. It came with vegetables and some strange, dancing meat, which we think is fish. It’s sorta mesmerizing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5l9_yWCDM8&list=UUPU3ktd28Anwfxbp5eEpdow&index=1&feature=plcp[/youtube]

It was a dreary day in Linyi, and because we didn’t have anything else better to do, we decided to go to an Art Expo being held down the street that we were invited to.  It was supposedly a big deal because a lot of high officials were going to be there.  And of course, they wanted some foreign faces to dress up the crowd a bit.  They promised us fun and food,  so we really couldn’t say no.

A caravan of cars showed up at the school expecting more than three willing participants.  Needless to say, they were a bit disappointed  that no one else wanted to brave the rain. They had me knocking on doors to see if there were any other last minute tag alongs, but there were no takers.

When we got there we were taken to a VIP room where two pretty Chinese women pinned roses on us.  Apparently, it indicated we were VIP’s.  When we started taking pictures of the exhibits, there were people taking pictures of us like we were on display.  It was humorous.

VIP Phil

VIP Gabe

If it hadn’t have been for the chair and the umbrella, I think this would have been an awesome picture.

I don’t know if you can tell, but that isn’t food.  It is jade and other stones made to look like dishes of food.  Neat.

One of the many pieces of artwork we saw.

Another piece.

I think this section of the expo was stone that had been naturally shaped and just happened to look like something we could recognize.

A naturally formed stone that looks like it is painted.  Looks like a Chinese village.

One creepy ass looking spider-dog.

Nice presentation, but I still couldn’t bring myself to eat the entire thing.  I made my host happy by eating the tail, and that was enough to almost make me hurl.

Hrm.  Nothing all that exciting has been happening lately, at least nothing I have felt was really blog worthy.  I take my camera every where I go, though, and occasionally I will snap a picture of something neat.  The weather has gotten a lot better here in the last few weeks.  It is now umbrella and belly weather.  By that I mean, all the girls have umbrellas with them where ever they go.  They don’t like to get any sun.  The whiter you are the better.  And the men roll up their shirts and show off their big beer bellies for all the world to see.  It’s pretty funny.  I’ll try to get a picture of that soon.

In about a month and some change, Phil and I will get to enjoy a two month vacation.  I know we intend to travel, but I don’t know where yet.  I keep flipping through my guide books, but I haven’t decided on a place or an area.  There are so many interesting places I want to see.  I wish we had a little more money so we could do more, but so is life.  We really want to take a trip to Japan, but the plane tickets are pricey.  And I don’t even want to know how much it would cost to eat, sleep there, and sight see.  I am sure we could afford to go, but there wouldn’t be a lot of money left over to really do anything.  Walking around would be fun, I guess.  We’ll see.

And now for some random pictures.

Cheaper than Pizza Hut.  Not as good, but not bad.

Almost too cute to eat.  Those are red beans for his eyes and nose.

It is strange.  We have a lot of water ways in Linyi, but I never see anyone fishing.  This was the first time I have seen Cormorants here.  I have no idea how they fit four boats into that little truck.

I see a lot of strange things in China, but this just about had me rolling in the streets.

I love lamb.  It is by far my favorite meat, but only when it is prepared Chinese style.  It typically comes in one of two forms: thinly sliced and put on top of your vegetables and rice  or placed in front of you and six of your closest friends who are waiting to devour it whole.    And I am not exaggerating at all when I say whole.  See for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Our dinner was a going away party for two expats that we’ve come to know in our short time in Linyi.  I am sad to see them go, but they are moving on to bigger and better things, as do most expats.  The meal was fantastic.  I have only ever had a leg of lamb or the slices of lamb that I mentioned earlier, but never have I been given the opportunity to pick meat off the entire animal before.   Lamb may be awesome, but every time I eat it, especially this particular time, I always think about how cute and fluffy white they are.  It makes it hard when I picture them being slaughtered and prepared just for my pleasure.  It is images like this that make me want to become a vegetarian sometimes.

And here is what our little lamb looked like after we picked his bones clean.

I think we could have picked more meat off, but at this point we were all pretty stuffed and ready for bed.  I believe that between the entire lamb, 12 beers, two plates of bread, and some vegetables for dipping, the total came to 536 yuan.  That is approximately 78 USD, and between 7 people that cost each of us 11 dollars.  In America, I can’t imagine how much all that would have cost.

I know that it is really hard to see, but this is the area where they cook the lamb. Looks pretty medieval, eh?

I know one thing for certain, I will be coming back to place soon.  It was just that good.

A few Saturdays ago, Phil and I were invited to go to a strawberry farm with a lady who works in my office.  This may come as a surprise, but I cannot remember ever going strawberry picking in South Carolina, even though we have many farms in the area.  I’ve only just bought them at roadside stands.  Phil said that his elementary school took him on a few field trips.   I guess my school wasn’t as cool as his.

There were six of us all together – all couples.  I guess it was supposed to be a relationship building activity or something.  🙂 The farm was just outside of the city, maybe twenty or so minutes.   Once you leave the city area of Linyi, the tall buildings fall away, and the landscape turns into farms.  There are vegetable farms and tree farms as far your eyes can see.  They all sorta just blend together after awhile.  This is why I never would have known the strawberry farm was there had the car not pulled over.  There were no visible sign or anything, at least not that I could tell.  I am not sure what sort of farm I imagined in my head before we got there, but I can tell you that I had no idea just how big the farm was going to be.  It was like Strawberry Heaven.  I have never seen so many strawberry plants in all my life.

One of the greenhouses.

One of the Strawberry Heavens.

Phil picking some strawberries.

Walking through the paths were hard.  I kept stepping on strawberries.

Some pretty strawberries.  Tasted pretty, too.

My hair is sorta the color of strawberries.

After we picked several boxes, we were driven to a restaurant in the country where we were going to have lunch. We had told the friend we went with what some of our favorite dishes were, but we didn’t get any of those.  Instead, we were severed traditional country foods or at least what I imagine to be traditional country foods.  We were served a plate of cicadas, testicles, cold chicken with a strange gooey sauce, and cold pigs feet.  I somehow was able to eat a cicada, but I said absolutely no to the testicles.  I really don’t know why Phil ate one.  Maybe he was feeling a little adventurous or something.  I’m not sure what made us sick as dogs, but the entire next day was spent throwing up and sitting on the pot.  We are no longer taking part in exotic country foods.  Our stomachs will not allow to ever happen again.   When we went to leave, I told my friend I had to stop in the bathroom for a second.  When she told me to be careful, all sorts of images flooded my mind.  I was like, “What is there to be careful of in a bathroom.”  I soon found out what she meant.  Thankfully, I had experienced something like it before, so I wasn’t too terribly bothered by what I saw.  There is no such thing as a western toilet in the middle of no where.  I was lucky to have a trough.  Scroll down to see, but I warn you, it isn’t a pretty sight.  I took a picture only because I wanted you all to understand, not because I have some weird fetish for dirty bathrooms.

Pretty picture on the wall where we ate lunch.

99 bottles of beer on the wall . . .

Cicadas = protein. I hope I never have to eat these when the Apocalypse begins.

Baijiu tree.

Probably the last picture of a toilet I will ever take.

This morning I was treated to a wonderful breakfast that consisted of three scrambled eggs and a dozen mini corn bread muffins, compliments of Chef Phil.  It may be a strange combination to some, but I must say, it was mighty tasty.  I thought about putting some syrup on the corn bread muffins, as my dad has suggested before, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it.  I stuck with the old fashion butter. On the pack of the Jiffy box, though, I did notice that the mix could be used to make corn pancakes, so I imagine my dad isn’t the only one who likes some syrup on his corn bread.  Maybe one of these days I’ll try it.  Heck, maybe I’ll even like it.  🙂  Oh, and for those of you who don’t know.  Jiffy makes the best corn bread ever!