4 months in China

The start of a new life has gone hiccup free *touches wood*.   It's been great and the first term is almost done.  Christmas beckons in England and I look forward to home comforts of sliced bread, Ribena and a good curry.  My adventures since my last post have been minor but include a return trip to the Great Wall at fall and Beijing's famous DongHuaMen night market.  As my girlfriend visited from England I took her to the same spot on the wall that I went and it felt like a different place all together.  The dilapidated walls look so much more at home snaking through the gold and crimson Autumnal trees.

The night market is an interesting, fun evening.  There's a whole load of different insects on sale but you can never be quite sure whether these are to entertain the bus load of tourists or actual local delicacies.  As the deep fried tarantula was £8 just for one I figured it wasn't the latter.  I did, however, fall for the deep fried scorpion even though I am 90% sure it's not a local dish.  And of course, it didn't taste of anything other than crispy chip fat oil.  But hey, how many people can say that they have eaten a scorpion?!  It feels great walking through a market now with a (very) basic understanding of Mandarin.  Prices instantly halve simply from my Chinese responses.

I find myself missing English foods that I didn't even eat in England;  Branston pickle and cheese! Vimto! Piccalilli!?  I am certainly looking forward to going home for Christmas but I know that it will not be long before I start longing for my China life again!