Sidewalk Dentist in China – Working on the window sill, II

Sidewalk Dentist in China – Working on the window sill, II, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

While walking to get dinner tonight Julianne and I saw this dentist using the window sill as a work station . . .

I love that the patient is looking over his shoulder at him as he works, lol, and, of course, anyone else outside on the sidewalk walking by too, LOL!

J

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Chinese Children Crossing The Street – At least the little one has someone to help him!

Chinese Children Crossing The Street – At least the little one has someone to help him!, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

Julianne and I saw these two children standing in the middle of a four-lane street during early evening rush hour traffic waiting to finish their crossing . . . alone.

This was just after I had nearly been hit by a bus crossing while the pedestrian signal was green (not that means anything here!). If I had been a tenth of a second slower and moved an inch less I would probably be writing about this after a hospital visit for X-rays, scrapes, and bruising . . .

Anyways, I just hope China works harder at modernizing its vehicle/street safety . . . though the sheer magnitude of things that would have to change, in my mind, pretty much precludes a paradigm shift.

J

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Shabu-shabu Style Lamb, BBQ George Foreman Grill, Korean Soy Bean Paste Sauce – Yum!

Lamb Shabu-shabu BBQ George Foreman Grill with Korean Bean Paste Sauce, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

Julianne and I decided to stay in tonight for a quiet dinner after dealing with a student who has “Little Empress Syndrome.” Let’s just say the drama-queen-shenanigans-lies-and-little-temper-tantrum-nonsense we had to deal with had us in a mood where we wouldn’t be good company for the weekly Thursday night dinner with our colleagues.

Anyways, we went to Metro (it’s like COSTCO) and picked up some food. Julianne has been wanting to pick up some Korean soy bean paste sauce and pork to do a Korean style BBQ on our George Foreman Grill. Unfortunately we couldn’t find any strips of pork in a pack so we ended up going with lamb.

We got home and set up our grill, and washed the romaine lettuce. The grill heated up fast and I began trying to unfold and unwrap the rolls of lamb meat–and suddenly remembered how fast the meat cooks when it’s sliced so thinly!

We regrouped and took a few minutes to unroll all the meat and then began barbecuing it.

If you do this Korean BBQ style you pick up a piece of lettuce, put a piece of meat on it, then some sauce, and . . . yum.

Sitting in the peace and quiet of our air-conditioned apartment with good food and a sitcom playing on my laptop–definitely a nice night in.

Now if only there was as simple a solution to neutralizing our little empress aka calm-nemesis . . .

J

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Chinese English Signs – “HOTWINDLIFE,” It’s a lifestyle choice, lol

Chinese English Signs – “HOTWINDLIFE,” It’s a lifestyle choice, lol, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

“HOTWINDLIFE” . . . it’s a lifestyle choice, lol.

Or at least that’s what I imagine the slogan for this store/company is.

A lot of the time the translated English from Chinese is really cool. For example, “Tower of Morning Sunlight” comes from a tower in Martry’s Park (argh, need to check if I’m remembering that right).

Anyways, other times the English evokes sexual innuendo or toilet humour . . . and it’s hard for native speakers of English not to laugh.

I imagine things in English that are translated into Chinese must have something similar take place for Chinese people.

J

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Chinese Food – Eggplant in Oil and Spices

Chinese Food – Eggplant in Oil and Spices, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

Went out for dinner tonight and the girls ordered this eggplant dish.

There is one eggplant dish that I’ve tried that I actually liked (I usually don’t like it at all), but tonight a different style dish was ordered.

I took one look at it and decided it looked like mushy dill pickle slices . . . the girls said it was not bad, even pretty good, but I didn’t have the energy to push myself to try it (still fighting a cold bug).

I still stand by my insane foreign and exotic food willingness to try any new food at least once as an excuse for not trying the eggplant tonight. I’ll have to find the pics I have of me eating ‘skate’ (a Korean style preparation of sting-ray).

Go to youtube.com to see Hans Zimmerman’s “Bizarre Foods” Korean Food episode (I think it’s in part 2) where he tries eating skate and you’ll see a great example of what kind of face and reactions you have when eating it.

Now to go find that pic of me eating it . . .

J

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Chinese Food – Lotus Flower Root in Oil with Peppers and Spices

Chinese Food – Lotus Flower Root in Oil with Peppers and Spices, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

Went out for dinner tonight with Julianne and two of our friends from work. I’ve been fighting a cold virus that has been makings its rounds through students in my classes and while dinner was good my energy levels were not.

This dish helped nuke my sinuses and get them working overtime with the peppers. The funny thing is that it wasn’t truly “Hunan province” level spicy cause if it had been I’d be writing about how I got another chemical burn in my mouth from eating a traditionally prepared Hunan dish–seriously, the heat level is that of a chemical burn in your mouth!

Anyways, the lotus roots in oil with peppers didn’t have too much heat in it as the guy that takes our order knows not to bring out our dishes with nuclear-spicy levels of insanity, lol. Sometimes the cook probably forgets he’s not supposed to make the dishes the normal way and begins throwing in the chunks of peppers and then stops mid-way . . . which is fine as I like spicy foods–I just don’t like chemic-burn-level spicy foods.

Gee, have I said how spicy Hunan traditional food is enough in this post? Lol.

J

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Chinese Dog Portrait I – What’s your name?

Chinese Dog Portrait I – What’s your name?, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

This little guy is Julianne’s favorite dog to say hello to whenever we go for a walk in our area.

Tonight I knelt down to take his picture and was a little alarmed when he gave a little growl and became a little agitated, lol.

Julianne commented that he’s probably never heard the sounds a DSLR makes when it takes a picture . . . so he put on his ‘I’m-watching-you-closely-face’ and I backed off a little as I don’t want to have to fly home to get rabies shots–yikes.

Still, he’s a cutie.

J

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English on Cars in China – Transformers Autobot SUV

English on Cars in China – Transformers Autobot SUV, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

One thing I love about walking around in China with my camera is the English on cars.

J

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Nighttime in China – Ice Cream Shop

Nighttime in China – Ice Cream Shop, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

While it wasn’t very hot tonight there was still a crowd at the ice cream shop.

With news articles about food contamination and other safety problems with dairy products Julianne and I pretty much avoid these places.

I hope the ice cream tasted good–and was safe!

J

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Homophobic Car in China – Ignorant English

Homophobic Car in China – Ignorant English, originally uploaded by Serenity in China.

All I have to say about this is . . .

NOT COOL.

J

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