cranberries cost $20 a pound

Quick entry before bed:
But bubble tea costs $1. In other words, it's really interesting to see how prices of different things vary here. I can get an extremely filling and carefully made meal for under $5 (and most of the time under $3) but cranberries, those usually neglected fruits that only really grace the table at Thanksgiving, fetch an exorbitant $20 a pound. That's like the price of truffles, the fungus and the chocolate. Madness.
In other news, I'm starting to recognize characters, but I always make a fool of myself by being too excited about it. Probably should tone that down.
We watched Anchorman with Chinese subtitles, and it's really funny to see the slight differences in language that yield such a different experience. I think that maybe, the movie isn't even very funny in Chinese. But I also might just not understand the cultural standards of humor.

Good night.

the silver lining of the struggle cloud

So I'm 2 weeks in, and I've had a bit more time for introspection and/or talking to friends about my experience. The conclusion that I've come to is that I'm so grateful and happy to be in Taipei, not least because of the various obstacles that I've overcome (along with the help of a few wonderful friends). Being at Yale is of course wonderful, but sometimes, it is a bit more sheltered than the real world. After Freshman year, there were fewer challenges and everything became comfortable. And I became complacent. I also became less sure of my own opinions and needs.
I was at first really annoyed that ICLP was not like Duke or PIB or HBA in that they did not provide housing and the students didn't live together. But not living together on campus, eating always in the cafeteria, and basically doing Yale life in China has been a boon. With all of the extra freedom of living somewhere in Taipei, I have been able to explore the city, eat more interesting things, have some strange adventures, and make a great roommate friend - all things that I would have missed out on had ICLP's structure been different. I also just feel so accomplished for having done some basic things, like getting a cell phone, or finding a place to live. These were challenges, because of the language barrier.
Being away from America in a foreign land, having to make my own decisions and living on my own have all helped me to regain the belief that I can do things. And that I am a capable human being. And that is sweeter than any mango. (even though the mangoes here are just freaking awesome)
So yea. I'm loving Taipei.

First speech

So we had a yan3jiang3 today. It was super hard to speak in like smart people Chinese for 3 minutes, but my single class teacher helped me to fix my speech some. I talked about women and the quandary that their freedom creates. Yea. In Chinese. That's right.
And I couldn't even look up once, just read straight from the page. Sweet.
We ended up having lunch with one of the teachers, who helped us read the menu. This was probably the first time that I've known exactly what my options were since I've been here. It's mildly frustrating to learn so much Chinese every day but still be confounded by simple every day signs. But hey. I guess if I really spent all of my time memorizing characters, I could probs know how to get around better. But then I wouldn't have time to go places! Oh the dilemmas. I could also not sleep, but that might not be the best option.
And then I had more mango ice. Which was so delicious.
And then I took a nap. I think the post meal nap must be the best thing ever invented.
Overall, a pretty uneventful day, but a good one.
Man I love that mango ice. It's called mango snow. And it looks like the abominable snow man!
Mmm if he were made of mango, I would totally find him and devour him. That sounds weird. It's getting late, so I should probably just go to sleep.
When will I fill in those holes? Perhaps this weekend (! fastest week ever!)

mrr

I have SO MUCH HOMEWORK. So yea. That's cool though - I can only learn if I do my homework? Ann makes fun of me for being a dork - I wanted to carry around a notebook and write down words I didn't know in it so that I could look them up later. I'm still deciding just how dorky I want to look in front of the good people of Taipei.
So today, we had this excellent meal at a vegetarian restaurant, which was exciting. I had this like hot and sour soup but it had those little dumplings in it, like American style dumplings that are just lumps of dough, not filled ones. They were so good, like hot soupy bubble tea. Or something. That actually sounds unappetizing, but it's not, I promise.
The cafeteria might not be open again this summer :(
And my whole life revolves around meals? And class. And homework. And occasionally, fun.
Yay.
Oh wait,
I saw Cathy yesterday - yay for JE in Taiwan! We ate some of those street waffles (cooked on carts on the street, not the pavement itself) and also at this one restaurant with lots of locals, which was delicious. And I saw these shoes that I must have, but they weren't in my size, so now the hunt begins.
And today, I have to go study for a test. Boos.
And I also eat at the same place for breakfast every day, and get the same order so that the people know now to make it for me when I go there, which is really comforting because I've never had a place like that before. It's nice to be halfway across the world but still have someone who feeds me like they know me. And also funny is that they call me "mei mei" but I think with a 3rd tone on the first, like a little pun - mei mei is little sister, but mei3 mei4 might be little sister from America. I hope that I'm not just misinterpreting what they're saying because I really like the idea of being mei3 mei4.
Sweet.

I'll go back and fill in the holes later

but for now, I wanted to blog what I'm feeling.
Which is sort of overwhelmed by the number of Chinese characters that I don't know, all the time. There are some that I see everywhere and I can just never remember which they are. If I could have a talking machine to follow me around and read me signs, I'd learn Chinese much faster. I wonder if I could con some unsuspecting Taiwanese person to do that for me...
But on the bright side, I do learn more every day. And I can read more and more signs, which is super exciting.
There was the whole vegetarian debacle...though:
So my friend is vegetarian, so I'm always on the look out to find places that can feed her, so that she will not starve. The character for vegetarian is 素 (or a swastika, but that's a different story). And I'm used to simple characters in Chinese 118, so I basically and wrongly assume that characters with the same shape are the same. So I saw a place that looked vegetarian and I was like Oh we should totally eat there. So we walked up to the menu, and there was an awful lot of categories of food that said meat (a character I actually know). Hmm...interesting.
And then I saw the other vegetarian place near it, called Vegetarian good eats. And realized that the 2 characters were in fact not the same. I had mistaken 泰 for 素. The former happens to mean Thai. Oh good. So I accidentally took us to a Thai restaurant instead of a vegetarian one.
The struggles of a remedial Chinese student...
And in other news, I bought a lot of stuff again. Oops.

First weekend

Omg my roommate is just too nice. She brought me some pineapple and it was the sweetest pineapple ever. Looked/tasted like it was candied. Seriously crazy good fruit that this here island grows.
She also took me along to this dinner that she had with two of her students. We had Beijing Kao Ya (Roast Duck) which was such a fun experience with all the different things that you do with the duck and stuff. My roommate also took me to this mall near us, which was super cool and I saw that Japanese Ikea like store. Except it had just like really boring colors. Not as interesting as Ikea, I guess. They have some very bizarre baths and creams here - to make you whiter and also that supposedly sucks the fat out of your body. Except it has pepper, which makes me think that it must not be very comfortable. And there was this little fountain for cats that had water that circulates. Cute.
And then I turned in early for the night to get some sleep.
Woke up and went to the market with my roommate. I got all this fruit and some tomatoes.
And liang2mian4, which is like cold noodles with this sesame sauce on top. Delicious.
Then I went running with Ann, which was fun times. Also sweaty sweaty times. Taipei is the sweatiest city I've ever been in, by far. And I put on sunblock every day because the sun is just too intense. And I bought a dictionary! Yay for knowing what words mean!
Ann and I wanted to go to a movie.
But then fate intervened.
We were starving from having exercised and whatnot, so she got a bun and I passed by this place that sold eggs. And I was like mm I could totally use some protein right now. So I went in and bought an egg but called it a pi2dan4 by mistake (thanks Ann) and the owner was (very joyfully) like Oh are you not from around here? And we told him that we were American students learning Chinese. Which led to about 2 hours of tea, smoked swan, duck intestines,
pork and beef, and lots of Chinglish conversation with the owner, his friend, one of their sons (we couldn't figure out which one was the real owner, because both modestly deferred to the other) named Audi. (By the way, his sister's names are Benz and Jag. That's right.) He spoke great English - almost accentless. It was a really interesting way to practice Chinese.

And then we saw Prince Caspian. Which was really good, even though I haven't seen the first movie or read the books.
In the last post, I forgot to mention the epic search for a purse at Shilin that ended in fail. I wanted a bag big enough to hold my books, but had none with me. So after the movie, Ann and I went in search of one. I got goggles, too, for swimming.
And a huge, orange bag.

ok just one picture, because this is too good to miss.
So yea that was Sunday. Classes on Monday! Oh no! Scary scary.

2 More Days - I find yet more struggles

So this whole uploading pictures thing is really cutting into my blog motivation. So the pictures may or may not come eventually, but for now, the blog posts are more important.
I had to get my schedule and books from Taida on Friday. And also had to move all of my stuff from my hostel to the apartment. I have a place to live now. YAY! But first I had to drag my huge pink suitcase all around Taipei and on the MRT. Oh boy. I left it at ICLP while I went to do errands. We got our schedules and books. My books are strangely all in Chinese...questionable. And all words that I've never seen before...
Hmm...
We did then photocopy our student IDs so that we could get real gym cards. Yay exercise!
And then we went to lunch all together at this place in the alley near Shida. It was so delicious. And cheap! And smelled good. And had a vegetarian option for our vegetarian friend. And of course, I couldn't decide what to get, so I confused the heck out of our poor waiter. Oh miscommunication, how you pop your head into all of my affairs here in Taiwan.
And we got Qing1wa1zhuang4nai3 which is milk with bubbles that are caramelized. So so so so so good. But it started pouring. Oh no! Our books!
We all parted ways and decided maybe to meet up later at night. Then I went back to AmEx to get money for rent. Bah it's so difficult transferring so many lines. I felt strangely unsettled all day since I had no place to call home, temporarily. Only the ICLP office, I suppose, but that seemed odd. And I really just wanted a nap. And it rained. Boo hoo for me, I know.
But my roommate was so nice. We got takeout from this little curry place that was soo good - spicy and flavorful, with great rice and veggies all laid out in an orderly fashion.
I got somewhat settled in and the landlord came over and gave me keys and the contract and helped paint my wall a bit. And then it was time to meet Genevieve for Shilin!
I went to my first night market! Kind of. I guess I had been to Shida Night market without realizing it. But Shilin was planned!
It was definitely overwhelming, the amount of stuff that they were selling. And of course, the smell of stinky tofu. I had smelled it in China and found it not too bad, but I think that maybe the Taiwanese kind is a different kind of stinky because this was a stench intense like none other. Just like rotting things that were probably putrid to begin with. Ugh.
But there were so many cool little things - I wanted to buy it all.
I did not buy this. Although I really thought that it might be appropriate for Safety Dance.
These are bunnies. All crammed into this small space. Not real bunnies. Little stuffed toy bunnies. But still - kind of weird.
We went to just about every clothing store. And after a while, they all started blending together, esp since they were all selling about the same things.
And we were hungry so when I saw what I thought was the character for "su4" or vegetarian, we inquired. Turns out, my rudimentary reading skills were right. So we were rewarded with these delicious buns with a golden crust on one side. And the woman complimented Genevieve on her sweet sneakers.


So we bought things and went home very satisfied.
Saturday morning, I woke up to find my roommate had left me lychees. She's so sweet. Like the lychees, which were just super delicious and juicy. The pits were smaller than ones that I've had before.

I also bought the fattest banana that I've ever seen and also a golden kiwi. Both good, but the banana was a bit underripe and thus sour. The kiwi, though, was pretty much perfect.

This soyjoy was actually really good, despite the awful reviews I've read about them. It was hawthorne flavor, which I love from my childhood.


I made my own milk tea and felt super special.
mm the official drink of my childhood.
Kiwi! So sweet it was like candy.
Until the next.

Day 1 - Confusion ensues. Day 2 - Buckle my shoe.

And now you're probably confused too. As am I.
What?
Onto the post.
Ann came to get me bright and early in the morning, which was so nice because I was freaking out, a little bit. This guy at the hostel let me use his phone to call her, which was super nice of him.

Yay Ann saves the day!
I rode the MRT for the first time. Ann helped me get a you you ka - Easy Card. You can just swipe like at school through a purse. It's oddly comforting to have such small consistencies here. So we went to ximen to try and find a cell phone for me but everything was closed because it was so early (9:30 am).
So we went back to Taida.
Palm trees!!!!!!!! I thought it was a myth that there were palm trees in Taipei. Although that would be kind of a boring myth.
I was also mad hungry so we went to family mart (where I wanted to buy everything) and I got this peach tea

and pineapple, which was so sweet it seemed candied. But wasn't. Now that's sweet. (har. har.)
And then Ann took me to the ICLP office so that I could take my written test. I was planning on sitting and waiting for my luggage, too but then it turns out that it had already been delivered! YAY! SO MUCH YAY!
So I took the placement exam (very difficult, of course) and did my forms and whatnot.
Then we went to lunch at the can ting. And I had... wait for it... beef noodle soup! OMG!
And it was all the beefy goodness that I expected. The noodles weren't my favorite, but the broth! It was like they stuffed a whole cow into this bowl. And made him delicious.

After lunch, we went to get me a cell phone. Ann had seen stores on a street near school so we went to check that out.
And we succeeded in that too!

Look at happy Ann
Then we had to get a SIM card and that was more difficult. They wanted me to have 2 forms of ID from the same country, but I did not, being a Chinese citizen but Permanent Resident of the US. Boos. But it was ok. So I had a functioning phone!!!
And proceeded to call people about apartments. One guy told us that the apartment was "mins" from the center. LIES. It took us at least 40, with me dragging my large pink suitcase down the road.
Then we saw another but it was a little far from the MRT station slash down a sketchy little alley.
And then I dropped off my stuff at the hostel, and we went to meet up with Genevieve.
Little did we know, that would be the biggest struggle yet.
We wanted to go to a vegetarian buffet near Taipei Main Station since G is a vegetarian. We said exit 1, because every MRT station has like a few to make it easier for people to get where they're going.
So we get off our MRT and we're like following the signs. But it's pretty small and complex to find and says 1 south. Hmm...
We get there and we just cannot find her. We ask someone and they tell us that in fact, there are 4 exit 1's - north south east and west. Oh goodie. So we ask G which she's at, and she says West, so we go over there. No sign of our little red headed friend.
Hmm...more struggles.
So then, she tells us that she's at the exit 1 at the entrance of the Zhongshan mall. Hmm...
And it takes us about 20 more minutes to find her there. Reunited at last, approx 1.75 hours after we were supposed to meet.
So we walk down the street in search of this elusive vegetarian restaurant but have little luck so we decide to try Taipei Main Station instead.
There are like a bajillion restaurants on the top floor of Taipei Main Station.
And we looked at all of them.
This one dim sum place had some vegetarian noodles for G but then after we sat down, I realized that I did not really want anything there. Shoot. Social awkwardness ensues. So much.
So the woman starts passive aggressively taking like a year to prepare our dish. And sternly looks at us and then at her watch. Cool
But we leave her a tip of 60 NT and suddenly she's all smiles. Well I guess that's pretty easy, then.
I get xianr bing instead, or filled little pancakes, one with veggies and one with pork. The pork was juicy. And the veggies were very refreshing.
And then we got bubble tea but got these odd sweet bubble like squares. Very weird. Still delicious, though. Tea here is so good.
So we said our goodbyes and went home.

Day 2
We had orientation at 9, so I got up pretty darn early to go. But still ended up being way late. But I did get a tea egg and a bottle of milk tea on the way. Delicious.

Orientation was great because I finally got to meet the other people in the program. They were really fun and I'm excited for a summer with them.
Lunch was so good. It was in another can ting and it was like buffet style, pay by weight. All this cost only 83 NT or about $2.50. And it was delicious. Eggplant is so soft and xiang.

After lunch, we went to get our gym cards. Sweet. And then Nancy took us to the Amex office to change our traveler's checks.

When I got home to Shandao Temple MRT stop, I decided to explore a bit. And I found a pharmacy where I bought bug spray and cream for bug bites! YAY! My legs are right now one throbbing mass of pain and itch. But no more.


And I found a supermarket! I spent so long looking at everything inside before deciding on tea, milk and tomatoes.
I have no clue what's going on with this cheese. I see no burger, with it.



What do you get when you put those 2 things together??

Milk tea!

So after resting a bit, I went to see the apartment that my mom had called about before I came.
And it was perfect. And now I have a home! No more wandering around sadly.
And there's a cat. Which is great for stress. His name is Mitch, and he's super cute and furry.

After seeing the apartment and such, I went to dinner with Momo, who helped me get my entry permit.
We went to a place near Shida Night Market.
I had herbal tea with orange peel and pomelo. It was pretty good.

Pretty fudge cake - presentations are so nice here.
And I went a little nuts buying things. Including the dress below. But I loved it. And it loved me. And true love cannot be parted.
So yea. End of day 2. And I got a student MRT card. Which I dunno if it makes a difference, but it might.

Across the Atlantic, the struggles continue (part 2 of my never ending journey)

So the internet is kind of in and out in my room, slash it takes FOREVER to load pictures. And I take a LOT of pictures. So blogging is going much more slowly than I thought it would. It's already Thursday and I'm only now getting around to finishing this post. And the last 2 days have been like the most eventful ever. Or rather just last 4 days all together. But first things first, because Amsterdam was a dam good story (haha? I hope so.)
And I hope you're ready for a MARATHON of a blog post - I'm not sure I'm even ready to write such a thing. But here goes:

So when I left you, faithful reader, I had just arrived at the place that I would call home for the next day.

My first steps into Europe, although maybe technically not or something. I dunno. I'll count them, and now I'll be able to put Europe on that "where have you been map" and whatnot on facebook. Minus the fact that I don't have one of those maps, but I'd almost get one just to be able to put this on. Is that sad?

Breakfast! (as in it's actually roughly 1 pm in amsterdam, so not so much)
1 pm - I begin to wander around. The first store has samples. Score. Eat Gouda, those waffles, and a weird spice cake. All good. All about twice as expensive as makes sense for any of those things. Oh Euro why must you spite me so...

1:05 PM - so you think that that's just a regular Chupa Chups stand with some dinky little lollies
LITTLE DO YOU KNOW:


These are actually the mother of all Chupa Chups. Literally - you crack it open and it gives birth to tens of tiny Chupa Chups (I was wondering how many licks it would take to get through it, but turns out, it's not solid)
1:07 PM - Saw both the national flower and a Penthouse in plain view. Oh Amsterdam

1:15 PM - Why does Dutch Fanta look like real orange juice instead of toxic waste bright orange?
I really want a bottle. But resist. Go me.

America would never allow this. But it was on every pack of cigarettes - even the single packs.

Egg liquor... ... ...
1:30 PM - Continue to wander around to all stores. OMG so many stores. Of the same kinds.
But why is there a WHOLE FREEZER for Herring? ??? ??? ???
I think I get a lot more confused when I'm sleepy.
I really want to buy one of those huge candy bars, but I don't. So much self control.

1:45 PM - No no, Dank U Netherlands McDonald's for the fanciest cheese found in a mickey d salad ever. Shaved slices of cheese. Who does that?

2:15 PM - Continue my vagabond lifestyle.

A nice little shop with more pastries


and the ubiquitous sausage rolls


And then I discovered that for the same price as the mediocre salad, I could have gotten one of these beauties - mozzarella tomato ciabatta

Or serrano ciabatta
WHAT? Well I'll be hungry again, before long

And then I wandered around the airport more, and found copies of all the stores that I'd already been in. Yay?
And everything is bigger in Holland, like these mentos. Note the altoid tin sized box in front. That's a lotta Mentos.

Chocolate money!
Udderly beautifulAnd her friend
3:00 PM - try to sleep. It's still only 9 in the morning?!

3:45 PM - hunger keeps me awake. So I eat. This sandwich. The best sandwich ever. The mozzarella was fresh and milky and slightly salty. Arugula and pesto and tomatoes made it complete. And the ciabatta was chewy on the inside.
4:00 PM - And now I've seen 3 of every store.

Look at it lean. Lean. Get it? Because I didn't. Sadly.

Spicy. Mmm.
Best vending machine ever.
I caved to consumerism. After seeing these things so many times, I just had to have them. Traditional Dutch candy. Licorice is not as bad as I remember. But still not great.

Fanta - so orangey and real tasting. Why can't America do this? And so gently carbonated. It's like the champagne of sodas.

The set of the Mummy. Or an assortment of candy from my bag.

Halloween!
Aren't I clever?
Kinder Bueno (SO DELICIOUS and gooey)


Are we there yet?
No.
Last leg.
7:50 PM - Finally board the plane.
Woot.
Notice that the bag lied to me. LIES (below)

8:30 PM - I sit down in my seat and find myself next to a Taida (National Taiwan University) grad student. He's really nice. And we discuss what we're doing in Taiwan (for him it's pretty obvious). And then I tell him about my ability to delay any airplane, any time. But apparently, he has great travel luck and can ensure the timeliness of most planes. So it'll be a cosmic battle between me and him.
8:45 PM - Our plane actually lifts off, at the time that it's supposed to. Yay for Taida grad student!
9:00 PM - We start thinking in Taiwan time, which is 3 am. But we're going to have dinner soon?
This whole constantly shifting time zones thing isn't as fun as I thought it'd be. Which was actually not fun at all. So it's even less fun than that. Negative fun. Black hole of fun.
10:00 PM - Eat my own hand starving. Movies haven't started either. But am talking to the grad student. So practicing Chinese and whatnot. Yay for practicing Chinese!
10:30 PM - Dinner time! I get the beef, which is Asian style and he gets chicken, which is French style. How they decided to pick those two is beyond me. Dinner was really quite good for airplane food - curried beef, string beans and rice; weird salad with sprouts, and a strange lemon mousse thing. All good.

Oh and the best airplane roll ever. Soft ciabatta like roll. How is that possible on an airplane??


After dinner, it's of course nap time. I love nap time. And or only time to sleep on the plane during a 12 hour ride time. Both good.

??? AM - I am woken up by ice cream. Sweet. Except I also had the choice of noodle soup. Which was Cup O Noodles. Which I also really wanted, and would continue to think about throughout the rest of the ride. The Cup O Noodles that got away. Sigh. Then, I read Cosmo. Sweet. But not so much when they talked about women getting killed when running/biking outside. No no no.
And then I sleep some more. So exciting.


6 AM - 11 AM Bangkok time (we'll switch over now) - Breakfast! They're called breakfast tapas and some are hot and some are cold and all were pretty good. The scrambled eggs were a little questionable but what can you expect from microwaved frozen eggs? The dutch pancakes in pineapple sauce were amazingly good. Like really.

And so was this yogurt, which had a strange whipped consistency.
There were also these table crackers that were the same flavor as the crackers of my childhood. Oh the crackers of my childhood, how I missed them so.
12:20 PM - arrive at Bangkok airport with a 30 min layover. I am DETERMINED to find drunken noodles.
12:30 PM - wander my way up to the food concourse. Hastily exchange $10 for 371 Baht. Look at the menu at Dragon Jade

But realize that I am severely vitamin deficient and delicious noodles would do little to rectify the situation. So I get a mango instead. But I don't speak Thai (except for Sawat Dee Ka... and Kopruh Kun) so it was pretty difficult to explain that I might miss my plane for this mango. And also to understand what they were saying about various planes taking off or boarding. And at one point, I almost ran away because I thought I heard Taipei. Yea. So good.
Another store nearby that I saw while waiting for my mango to be cut.
The man was being so thorough and I wanted to be like I don't care if it looks good in its styrofoam box! But I didn't. And I got my mango and took it through security.

Pagoda right past customs
The mango that almost made me miss the plane. And totally worth every bite! It was so so so so so so x infinity ^infinity good. Sweet and silky and none of those fibers. And near the skin it had a slightly different mango aroma. Omg. Unbelievably good.
Back on the plane, I had lunch pretty much right away.

Vegetarian curry - good but could use some hot sauce

Noodle salad and fruit salad with the best papaya I've ever had. So many good things to eat! Or I've just been eating unappetizing food my whole life and never realized it...oh no.
I saw The Bucket List. And cried. And tried to pretend that I wasn't crying by wearing my sunglasses. Yea I don't think that worked.

Beautiful view from outside of plane - it's the ocean.

6:10 PM Taiwan time - arrive at airport and get off plane. Go through the first gate - man just looked at my entry permit, stamped it, and let me go. Weirdly easy.
6:15 PM - get to baggage claim. Joke that my bag will not arrive.
6:30 PM - joke becomes all too real. Me and my big mouth.
7:00 PM - condescended to by man at luggage counter, who should pretend to be more apologetic that NW failed to deliver my bag on time, and also variously screwed me in other ways. He tells me that I have to sit in one place and wait for my bags tomorrow for 2 hours. I have a million other things to take care of. Why why why. And I don't want this to turn into the American Oh I'll be there some time between now and next year, so just sit in your house till I come. Which invariably would be 11:59 PM on the last day.
W/e.
Taida grad student was nice enough to wait for me and have his parents drive me to my hostel.
9:00 PM - I arrive at the hostel but can't figure out that it's on the 6th floor so I was just mad confused. But then asked someone passing by and it was all ok.
9:30 PM - move in, let my parents know that I've arrived, and talk to other hostel-ites, who are mostly American and very interesting.

My little room
10:50 PM - shower for the first time, but realize that I have no towel. Have to use clothes instead - gross, I know. But luckily, due to my penchant to prepare for the worst, I packed a 30 pound carry on. So I had most things that were essential.

11:30 PM - pass out and sleep like a baby in the horizontal position for the first time in 3 days. Now that's even sweeter than the mango.

Still no niu rou mian, yet.