June 12

Today in class, I finally broke, and did my best to clarify for the teacher that we cannot read Chinese characters. He seemed to be under the impression we were learning them, and while we do see them daily, and find them somewhat recognizable (as in we’ve seen them before, not that we actually know what they mean on sight) we cannot read entire paragraphs of Chinese characters. We know the pin yin (the somewhat phonetic spelling of the words, that is used as a learning tool, such as “Ni hao” which means “how are you?”) and so he wrote that out over the characters, and voila, now we can read Chinese!



This afternoon’s lesson was supposed to be on Chinese painting, but those of us who applied for visas last week had to go pick them up. We decided to stay in the city afterwards, and just picked a time to meet for dinner. I ended up walking the streets with Julie, stopped in a few shops but only bought a ring and a few more DVDs.



cute dog

new ring


We had chosen an Indian restaurant from out guidebook (lonely planet hasn’t steered us wrong yet). We have all been in the mood for Indian, and what an excellent choice it was. The restaurant, Hazara, was in such a nice little area. We’d shown up a bit early, and had drinks outside. The building is a 1939 mansion, and it houses the Indian restaurant, a Thai restaurant, and a bar called Face (what a great name! There’s also one in Beijing and Bangkok apparently). So a few drinks, and pictures on the opium bed, and we were ready for more worldly cuisine. Chicken tikka, chicken khorma, chicken some-long-b-word, rogan josh, saag paneer, naan, mango chutney, etc. SO GOOD. Once again, food in China reigns supreme.

Grounds outside


Face Sling (a Singapore sling, but served at Face)


Opium bed (Julie, Jenny, Mary)




Pete’s artistic shot through the wine glass


Yummy Indian food


Cab ride home, we got a bit of a drizzle