Searching For Solitude

I have been sick. Some of you may ask, what else is new? Well to that, my response is, I'm battling several elements. I face lots and lots of sick little children on a daily basis coughing on me and things of that nature, I have Beijing's poor air quality to deal with, and the heat was turned off in Beijing about a month ago. Even though it's been much warmer, my apartment (particularly my room) is quite cold. I've been sleeping in sweatpants and a t-shirt every night despite the weather being 50-70 degrees outside recently. It started with a fever last Friday, followed by some throat issues, stuffy nose, weakness, etc. I guess it sums up to a common cold for the most part, though I'd say it's a little worse than that. Today is the third day I've missed of work (4/5). Well, things happen. I don't miss many days of school, so they can deal. I'll go back tomorrow (4/6) and finish the week out.

Top: Crazy eyes right?
Bottom: Pond of Good Ideas - Frog Eggs

Next up, we'll discuss my little tadpole experiment. I was with a friend in a neighboring park, Chaoyang, that I've been to many times. Later in the evening, we were by the river and I had noticed some frogs on the water's edge. We were checking them out, and then I noticed something kind of strange. I saw these weird looking strands that kind of caught my eye. I dismissed them at first as just another nasty development in the dirty water. Although, upon further inspection, I realized they were in fact frog eggs. Being from the country, I've dealt with frog eggs before so I know what they look like. These were a little different, but I could tell that's what they were. Upon realizing that the frogs nearby weren't moving much, I decided to reach in grab one for inspection. Needless to say, they were pretty strange. They had these flaps of skin on the sides of their bodies, which really made them look odd. Pretty cool, though.

Amongst my shelf of good ideas, I decided to snatch some of the eggs to raise some tadpoles.

I didn't think it was a big deal, my brothers and sister and I did it plenty of times when we were kids and it was easy enough. So, I returned home with my babies and waited. I did some research in the mean time to prepare for the tadpoles. On day 2, the small little black dots were noticeably larger black dots, so I estimated that within a week I would have tadpoles. I was right. 6 days later, they were tadpoles or close to. For a couple days, they were fine, they were still eating from the embryonic sac, if that's what it's referred to for frogs. After that, problems arose. I moved them into a big clear bucket I had purchased for just this cause. They were visibly hungry, so I provided the pre-boiled and then frozen lettuce I had made for them. I guess they weren't eating that. Soon after, I lost most of the tadpoles. I managed to pull out 11 and relocate them to another container and remove them from the stench of death lurking in the old water. They seemed well enough. They were swimming around and were quite vigorous. I added flakey fish food I had purchased earlier in the day.

Let me tell you about this flakey fish food. It was not easy to obtain. I read that tadpoles should eat it readily enough, so I did some searching online and asked a few friends about pet stores in Beijing. After finally securing a location, I set off. I had been there before as it turned out, so it was a little far, but easy to find once I got in the general region. It did require a bit of walking, and it wasn't the pet store I was trying to go to, but I found what I needed and headed home. Well, that was a mistake.

And presto, baby tadpoles

Now, this was just a few days ago, so I was even more sickly than I am right now. The bus stop was the problem. Typically, the same bus stop with the bus going the opposite way will be located on the opposite side of street, either directly or visibly noticeable and not too far away. This was not the case. When I was looking for the bus stop to go home, I couldn't see the bus stop on either side of me. They were quite frequent on the way there, or so I had thought, so I decided I could just walk forward and eventually I would get to the next bus stop. Dumb. Big mistake. I should have gone backwards. I walked…and walked…and walked. Then, I walked some more. I was weak, tired, and felt like death. I could feel a fever trying to get ahold of me again, but somehow my body kept it at bay. I finally got to a bus stop after walking on the side of a major highway for quite a ways, crossing a bridge, etc. I saw the stretch of highway before starting my trek and had decided I could do it. Well, I did, but in my state, it was not fun. And all for some flakey fish food. I got home, dropped some in for the tadpoles, curled up in my bed, and fell asleep for a couple hours.

Well, the next day, a lot of tadpoles had died. I don't know what the problem was. I fished out the survivors and relocated them to a new location. They seemed ok and were quite active. Actually, I temporarily put them in a jelly jar that was cleaned out. There was possibly a little bit of sugar on the sides of the jar, though. Or maybe just traces. Anyways, they still didn't appear to be eating. I tried bread because I read that they ate dog food. Guess that didn't work. I even threw in a little bit of jelly because they appeared to be hanging around the sides of the jars. Possibly eating the traces of jelly residue? Well, the next morning was a sad sight. They all died. Save for one. The survivor. Maybe 'the one'? At the very least, he was 'the only one'. Ha ha ha…..Bad joke. I put him in a paper cup with some plastic wrap over the top, headed to Tuanjiehu Park and released him. He deserved that after the trials he had faced. He probably got eaten by one of the goldfish there. At least, he died with honor. If you have a glass, you can raise it to the little guy. Here's to you, buddy.

As you often see me state, 'it's possible I've mentioned this next thing before'. I don't know. How do I feel about not owning a car? I love it. Honestly, I really love it. No car insurance. No gas bills with the cost constantly going up. No maintenance. No parking. None of that. The one thing I do miss, however, is the music. Driving to and from work was my music time. And I loved it. Windows down, one arm hanging out in the summer, music turned up. It's great. Now, my music time is few and far in between. You can't really study Chinese and listen to music unless it's classical, which I do from time to time. I'm going to put some on right now. That will lead right into my next topic of discussion.

My studying has picked up even more, though I do slack from time to time. I've come to the realization that one, even two hours, is not enough time in my opinion. I'm now trying to utilize the majority of my free time and apply it towards my language study. It can get boring, so I'm constantly changing studying methods and using different programs and things. Doing everything and anything to keep it interesting. It can be a challenge at times. I even started using Rosetta Stone again. I think it sucks if you don't have any knowledge of the language you are studying. Now that I'm much farther along with my Chinese, I've found I can understand it better and learn quickly with it. Much more so than before. Why is that? Because. RS gives you pictures and captions in various forms. The problem is, if you want to have a solid understanding of what you're saying, you'll spend a lot of time looking up individual words within those captions. Otherwise, you'll be able to associate the caption with the picture, but that's about it. That's not very helpful. If you're farther along, however, you probably know a lot of those words, and will need to look things up less frequently, or at the very least, look up less things within the caption. Savvy? Anyways, I want to reemphasize the importance of mixing it up. This technique is even more significant when you're studying by yourself.

You know what I've learned about myself? I love distractions. I've got a tons of little tricks up my sleeves, I like to watch shows, and all kinds of garbage. But ultimately, what purpose do they serve? I suppose they're fun at times, and amusing, but they are distractions. That's a truth I have come to realize and cannot deny. I've been trying to cut down my distractions as well. Need to focus. Need to focus. Need to focus. Like a robot – just stay on the task at hand. And my task and my number one goal above all else is learning Chinese. Why? I have no idea in all honesty. I feel like I have a future with a fluency in the Chinese. Without it, where will I be? Back to square one, lost with a wide range of job experiences under my belt. That's not often a job trait employers are looking for, though it can be helpful at least for you personally. I want to give up sometimes. I want to quit. I even thinking about leaving China and leaving it all behind. Something keeps me going, though. Something deeper than just the prospect of finding a better job. But don't' get me wrong, that's extremely helpful and motivational as well. I try to remember past jobs and I would rather study Chinese all day every day, than go back to some of those horrific jobs. I'll do whatever I can to not go back there. It may take me years, but I will be fluent in Chinese. Maturity. Sucks.

"Lots O' Pills"

I told you I was sick. Here's some more info on that fun time period. I was sick for a couple weeks and bought pills on two separate occasions.

Fortunately, I only ended up missing 3 days of school as mentioned. After the pills didn't seem to fix the problem, I then decided it was time for the Chinese favorite – yup, injections. I will do my best to avoid ever having to do that again, especially since I really have no idea what's going in me. I went to a clinic right near my home, same one I used for tonsillitis, got a brief diagnosis and paid for the suggested meds. The problem was that all I did with this doctor was list some of my symptoms (a friend was there to help me translate). After sitting and waiting for a few minutes, I decided to hell with them. I was all for getting my money back and finding some real doctors or reverting back to more pills. The 'doctor' had determined that I had some kind of viral infection. No idea what. The problem with that was, I wasn't given any tests. I suggested to him that he look in my throat, and I got kind of like a 'oh, sure' response. What the hell is that? The 'nurses' felt bad or were losing some face, so they offered a blood test. I had to pay more of course. It wasn't much, though. Well, it still came back as a viral infection so that guy was either a genius or they didn't feel like changing the meds. Whatever, had 3 days of that. Sometimes I still feel like something is lingering within, but I suppose that is just a lovely reminder of the great air I get to breathe in every time I step outside. On the plus side, I am green snot free and didn't even have a stuffy nose today. Score. I know, paints a pretty picture for you. Moving on.

Solitude...kind of

You want to know what one of the hardest things to deal with in living with a city? Bear in mind, some people may actually love this, but I'm a lone wolf at times. I need my alone time, and it's impossible to be alone virtually no matter where you go here. There's just so many *insert swear word* people. Too many. I manage to find some solitude here and there, but it never lasts too long. I recently found a train track near my home. Can't believe I never knew of its existence before, but whatever. Now, I do. I visited it twice. It was kind of peaceful nearby at times.

This is one of my few meals that I've cooked worth mentioning. I threw in the daily rice regiment, chicken, grated cheddar cheese, tomatoes, and lettuce. I then drizzled lemon on top of it all. Yet, I still felt like something was missing. What to do, what to do….As it turns out, I had bought a bag of spicy chips that I was considering using to make a taco-like salad, but went with the rice instead. Well, my next move was to throw the chips on top of it all and mix 'em in. NICE. A stroke of genius, if I do say so myself. If you are familiar with the various uses of chips and the like, you might even know that they go great on sandwiches. That is where I drew my inspiration. I've made it a few times since then, and it hasn't been disappointed yet. It's my failsafe meal plan. PIC

Hope you enjoyed, I know it's been a while.

-Jeff

You want strawberry ice-cream? NO ICE-CREAM FOR YOU

Ah, school. Good ol' school. Been back for 2 weeks now after tomorrow (3/2). I was a little worried/nervous about it to be honest prior to starting up again. I even did some prep work which isn't really my style. I should say, I did more preparation than usual. Believe it or not, I do well when I wing it. In some ways, I find it better. While it can be a little nerve racking without the preparation, it also gives you even more freedom. I start most weeks with a lesson of cards, maybe with just an idea of what I might say and ask, depending on ages, and that's that. From there, I just see how it goes and see what works most of the time. This is not fail proof by any means, so I wouldn't recommend it to the average person. You have to able to improvise a little bit. The way I see it is, this is how I started in China. I had a little bit of direction in the beginning, but not really. I don't think you can really be prepared for being in the classroom with kids or anyone for that matter. The best knowledge you're going to get is from what you learn during your own personal experience in the classroom. Upon starting, I didn't speak any Chinese, and I was teaching English to foreign kids. You walk in the room and the kids are all looking at you like you're an alien. You basically are. Now, I'm still an alien, but at least they're familiar with me. Instead of, 'AHHH, IT'S AN ALIEN!' – it's 'Oh, it's just Jeff, the alien.' Haha. Anyways, once I started speaking to the first class during my first day back, any fears or doubts I had vanished. It was like I had never been gone, and it's been like that since. I'm playing a lot less games this semester. Sometimes, maybe I forget they're just kids. I have it in my head to push them harder and I expect more out of them because I know what they're capable of. That's all well and good, but I still need to remember how young they are. It's almost like the 5 (some 6) year olds are 13 in my eyes at times, strangely enough. I see their personalities, and how they interact. I know who the brilliant students are and I know who the duds are. Don't think that stops me from expecting any less from these so called 'duds'. Everyone learns different. If someone isn't learning, then I need to find what works for them or get them motivated. Now, I can't say I always follow that, but I'm still learning and growing too. My latest disciplinary act is to take children's shoes one at a time. It started as a joke last semester. I only did it with certain kids here and there, and I didn't do it too often. If a kid was really bad, maybe I'd take off a shoe. I found it as amusing as the rest of the kids. Sometimes tears followed, but what can you do? This semester, I brought that action into full effect. I think it's hilarious, but I've had a lot of kids cry due to it. It's amazing how a missing shoe will affect a kid. It's a simple enough policy – you're bad, you lose a shoe, if you're worse, I'll take the other, if you're good, you'll get it back. Easy. Most understand this concept, some haven't grasped it yet. I ignore the screams and tears and keep right on teaching. Sometimes, I'll look down and find myself with close to 10 shoes or more. It's amazing what a lost shoe will do for their motivation as well. I get some of the best responses to my questions once a shoe is in my possession. Besides, I think it livens up class a bit. I also take a kid with me now and again to another class as well if he's really misbehaving. Yeah, no need to use 'she'. It's always a boy. Don't be fooled though, I've got plenty of goofy and outrageous little girls in classes as well. Although, a couple 2 weeks later, I got bored of that tactic.

Perhaps you remember little Bonnie, precious little creature that she is. This is the same girl in one of my baby classes that used to say 'Negga, what's your name?' Well, she's still super funny. I'm basically just her pet monkey. Yep. We'll be reviewing flash cards and learning new ones, and she'll be off to the side saying 'Jeff lao shi (teacher)' followed by her jumping or patting her head or doing both simultaneously or some other funny little action and telling me to do the same thing. The sad part is….I do it. Haha. It's too funny to ignore and she loves it and laughs even more. Then she'll go on and do that again and again. Sometimes she gives me new ones for every card, sometimes she uses the same one over and over. If I finally manage to ignore her, she'll do it anyways. For example, today she was jumping up and down and raising her arms up and down for every syllable of a word. 'Cucumber' is a great one for her since she can get more jumps in. Love little Bonnie.

School is going fairly well over all. Every morning is a struggle to wake up and get myself up, but I tell myself it's going to be a good day before heading to school. I find it helps, if only a little. And getting out of bed may be a struggle, but I've learned from past experiences. If I don't get up within 2 minutes, sometimes even that is risky, I run the chance of waking up late. I've had a few close calls last year. So far, so good.

Next topic. Arm wrestling. Now, you may or may not be aware of this, but being a Powell, I happen to have a competitive side to me. Having two brothers, I have an even bigger competitive side. My favorite kind of competition is anything that requires physical strength, but I also do enjoy matching wits. Well, it's been a while since I've really had a chance to compete in anything, besides the games we had in my school last year and the occasional chess match. So, I got a little ballsy the other day. I was in the gym and there's this guy I'm friends with there. He works there, big strong brute. I'd say he's the second biggest guy there. As for height, he might be a little taller than the other big guy. My guess is he's in his mid 30's. I really like him, and even though we can't really communicate a whole lot, I feel like there's an understanding between us. I think there's even a mutual respect somewhere there as well. I definitely respect him. He has a humble way about him. His name is Yong Zi. His English name is Young, but he speaks very little English, mostly just a word or so here and there. He's given me some advice through demonstration and gave me an exercise before. At the very least, we'll give each other a friendly nod and a smile when we're see each other. Well, I like to bust balls and I'm jokey, so I told Yong Zi that I wanted to arm wrestle him. In truth, I really didn't expect to come out victorious with this thing. I feel pretty small when standing beside him. I was laughing about it, and told him he would win. He agreed with me and said, 'must win', while also being good natured about it. I told him I couldn't that day because I was already like 30 or 40 minutes in to my workout. I was getting tired. We figured out a day and decided that Friday would work since we would both be in the gym. After getting the day set up, I continued with my workout. Well, it wasn't long before I got approached by one of the other gym employees encouraging me to arm wrestle on that day. I protested and told him I was too tired, but he insisted. He asked me to flex and said I was fine. (I feel the urge to remind you that all of these conversations are taking place in Chinese, and where I might not understand all of what is said, I can understand most by words here and there, gestures, and the situation at hand.) Reluctantly, I agreed to. What the hell, right? It became an even bigger ordeal when all of the male gym employees and most of the other males in the gym figured out what was going on and gathered around. We had to get down on our knees and use one of the weight lifting benches, but we made due. We set forth some rules, got ourselves adjusted, locked hands, and started. Yong Zi had me pulled down a good quarter of the way to his winning end, but I held on, fighting back, and a few moments later, he pulled off calling it quits. I was baffled. We were in a lock position where he had me, but I'm not sure why he gave up. We had a second match, and I stated that there should be no bending of the wrist. The same thing happened again, though he might have had me a little less this time. He abruptly gave it up the second time as well. I was laughing, got pats on the back, some praise, and stood around for a few minutes. I was trying to ask Yong Zi what happened and why he quit, but couldn't really figure it out. Chinese are competitive though, and he wasn't too happy about it. He wasn't mad or anything, but you could tell he was a little upset about it. Remember, it's all about face. I told him not to worry, that he was still much bigger than me and that it didn't matter. He later accused me of bending my wrist, I accused him of the same thing, but we laughed it off. So when all was said and done, I think I just earned little more respect in the gym. Maybe someone will tell their friend when they see me and say 'Hey, that's the white guy that beat Yong Zi.' Haha. It was nice to win, but I didn't like the way it was won. I would have rather had one of us go down fighting till the end instead of just pulling away and quitting.

I really have no idea if I've mentioned this or not, but it won't hurt to mention it again. While I was not too psyched about teaching for another year, I ultimately decided to stay in Beijing at the same job (with a pay increase, naturally), despite numerous offers throughout China. It has its benefits. Although, I should mention I strongly considered the position offered to me in Sichuan. Its south which means year round warmth most of the time, and it's known for its food (some really good and some really fricken hot), and beautiful girls. It was tempting. But for one, I know this job, and I know what's required. It's not too demanding, the pay is good, the location is super convenient, and this job offers me lots of free time. With that free time, I've been focusing on one thing in particular – studying Chinese. That is my ultimate goal above all else. I try to study every day for at least an hour, sometimes more. I usually utilize about an hour's worth of my break, which usually lasts for close to 3 hours, and then review the information and maybe do a little more later in the evening. I really want to learn Chinese so I'm pushing myself and making it a top priority. I usually do a pretty good job of it. I've been getting back into guitar as well and try to play once a day for about an hour as well. I actually feel like I have some direction in the learning process as well. I wish I had been this serious about it last year, but I guess that was my warm-up year, ya know? I studied on and off for 9 months, but it wasn't a top priority. I'm really going for it now. I'm hoping to have a lot more opportunities after this year with a better fluency in the language. I've even considered taking some kind of online course to fulfill my Associate's Degree, perhaps something business specific that could aid me after the year. We'll see. I've got a decent amount on my plate at the moment. I've got something going on every day of the week after school. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'm going to the gym. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays I'm tutoring. You read that correctly. Monday is a long day. I go right from tutoring to the gym and I usually end up cooking afterwards. I'm really getting tired of the low cost restaurant food nearby. The amount of oil used is just so ridiculous. I feel like I'm swimming in it afterwards. Just seeing it kills the desire for me. I still order it occasionally, but not nearly as often as I used to. Cooking is just time consuming, well not really the cooking itself. I should say the preparation and the clean-up is what's time consuming. Like anything. I need like little elves doing both of those things for me; the prep and the clean-up. Now that would be sweet, and would save me a bundle of time. One day, perhaps. Even so, at least I know what's going into the meal when I cook it. I'm a terrible cook and most of my meals are bland at best, but I dare say they're a great deal healthier. Once in a while a good meal will make an appearance. Ha. Tonight…..was not one of those nights. I've got eggs down, so once a week or once every two weeks I'll make scrambled eggs with bacon. Well I've had many potato attempts that never turned out great with just a stove top oven. This time, I took advice from my Madre and boiled them prior to cooking them and then saved them. I ended up using them 2 or 3 days later, but it didn't work quite as I had planned. The eggs were fine, except being cold by the time I ate them. The bacon got thrown out. Bacon is thicker here, so I usually end up putting too much oil and they come out a little blackish here and there by the time they're finished. No microwave by the way. This is all stove top. Well, in my haste, I threw in the pre-boiled potatoes with the partially cooked bacon hoping to speed up the process. That was a mistake. The potatoes turned into mush, and the bacon didn't cook all the way through and ended up with bits of burnt potatoes all over it. Ah, so disappointing. I wanted to redeem the meal with some cereal until I realized I had no milk. I went out and bought one just before cooking, (they come in little bags) but only purchased one. Didn't feel like walking downstairs for another. Yeah, it's a minute walk. Still. Instead, I used a single piece of bread to make a half a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. That just didn't do it. I'm hungry just thinking about the disaster. I'll post some pics soon of my meals on facebook, so be on the lookout for those.

Gary is also worth mentioning. He's one of the brighter students in one of my younger classes, but lately he's found it more amusing to just say something other than what he's supposed to repeat. I'll admit, sometimes it's amusing. It's nothing major. With vegetables, for green and red peppers, he thought it was funny to say green and yellow peppers instead. Made himself laugh every time. Corn was another issue. He had a hard time pronouncing it and would end up saying, 'porn'. With a shocked face and a hidden laugh that he could detect and sometimes it showed, I would tell him how to properly say it. When he puts thought into it before just shouting it out, he can say corn. But most of the time, he doesn't care and just laughs at himself saying porn. He even asked me what porn meant. I had to laugh and just tell him that it meant nothing…..kids.

During this same vegetable week for the younger guys/girls, I had another class that I was forced to feed every time. One little Cherry started that crazy. She's really bright and super cute, naturally. I end up pretending to grab a vegetable from the card and throwing it at the kids shouting at 'gei wo!' – means give me. That pretty much meant the whole class. Just to move along sometimes, I'd have to shout back in Chinese that it was mine and that I wasn't giving any away. Obviously, I'm throwing nothing, but the kids all think it's hilarious.

The weather appears to be changing course. Sooner than later, that's for sure. On Tuesday…I think it was Tuesday…I woke up and just felt completely amazing. I went to bed earlier the previous night and I just woke up feeling so freaking good. I don't know what it was. It was like my body sensed the change in weather that would soon arrive. The day after that proved to be absolutely gorgeous out. It got up to 46 that day, maybe 48. That's the warmest it's been all winter. It was so nice. The next day was freezing, but that's beside the point. Spring is on the way. The days are longer as well. It doesn't even get dark until 6-6:30. Needless to say, I'm excited. I've been over this cold since it started.

I'll wrap this up with 2 more events that took place last weekend. (3/3, I believe.) I was with a friend and we were on our way to a mall in the middle of the city. The subway ride there was interesting to say the least. I'm on the first stop of this particular subway line, so it's easy enough to get seats. So, we were sitting and this guy was standing in front of me a couple stops later. My legs were spread apart, so his leg was bumping into the inside of my leg, kind of uncomfortably to the point where I had to push his leg gently away with my hand. I took it for just an accident, so whatever. I adjusted my position and closed my legs shortly after that because it kept occurring. Now, since I was with a Chinese girl; stares come like no tomorrow. The farther away someone lives outside of a city, the longer and more obvious their stares will be at a foreigner and a Chinese girl. Completely non-discreet. This is not my first time witnessing this. So, this guy had taken an interest in us early on. We ignored and just talked amongst ourselves. The girl then told me that the guy was talking about me, but we still ignored it at that point. I was starting to get a little irritated, though. He then later had asked me if I could speak Chinese, though I wasn't sure if the question was directed at me or if I had heard him right so I ignored the question. After that, he ended up calling me a bastard or something similar. The girl had informed me of that, and she looked up to him and told him not to say that again. I'll admit, I was pretty mad at that point. This guy was just messed up in the head apparently and just trying to start something or I don't even know. Just being dumb. I looked up at him and said an obscenity of my own. He made no reply. I had grown tired of the situation, was getting mad, and we were getting off soon, so I got up with the girl and I pushed pasted that idiot. Right before we got off, he stood up and blew me like one of those Italian kisses. I'm not sure if you understand that reference or if it's even Italian, but it's a kiss blown like up and away, not directed at me. He then said goodbye in Chinese a few times and I'm pretty sure I heard an English swear from him, though I can't be sure. Such a strange situation. Such a strange guy. I lost my cool, I know. I'm glad it didn't escalate beyond that, but I was more than prepared to crack some skulls if it had. I know, I shouldn't let stupidity like that get to me. I'll work on it.

Situation number 2. The ice cream. This occurred on the same day. We were at the mall, and I had decided I wanted ice cream after dinner long before we even had dinner. So ice cream time came around and we made our way to the Dairy Queen. I still get mad talking about this. Talk about stupidity. This will haunt me for the rest of my life. Haha. Alright, so we ordered strawberry ice cream with brownies. We paid, picked up our ice cream and walked off. We sat down not too far away, took a scoop without really paying attention, and that's when I realized it. That was not strawberry ice cream. No, no, no. Back to DQ, I declared! We went back, and spent some time going back and forth with one of the girls working there. She would have defended this ice cream to the death. Now, this ice cream was some kind of vanilla with pieces of butter toffee or something like that in it and little chocolate bits. I know what strawberry is. I'm 25 years old, I'd like to think at this point in my life that I can tell the difference between strawberry ice cream and other flavors. Nope. I was wrong. The arguing raged on, not that dramatic, but nonetheless. I think the questioned was asked why there was no red or pink within? Why were there butter toffee bits or whatever they were? WHY, WHY, WHY? Nope. She stated again and again that the ice cream she had given us was strawberry. All you had to do was look at it and you could clearly see that it was not strawberry. The girl I was with did most of the arguing, though I threw in some Chinese where I could. This is another reason I need to get my Chinese better, for arguing about ice cream. I would have taken a poll amongst the people in line if need be. Instead, I just looked like the arguing idiot that wasn't happy about the ice cream I got. This girl said she had made it herself, as if that is a winning argument. I eventually snatched the ice cream off the counter, beckoned the girl with me and told the employees they were both crazy. Another situation that I did not handle well. I know. Besides that, the girl told me afterwards that right before I grabbed the ice cream and walked off, they had said I could exchange it for something else. Here's the thing, though. One – we had Dairy Queen again this weekend, ate real strawberry ice cream, and she realized that I was 100% correct. Secondly, I learned through my roommate that employees need to pay for the ice cream themselves if they screw up. No wonder she was defending it so strongly. Remember this, while in the U.S., the customer always comes first - that is not the case in the China. Beware.

Until next time, enjoy.

-Jeff