Yesterday I slept for most of the day because when I was awake I had terrible nausea and a splitting head ache.
I'm not sure exactly what caused it; I think it was just a mixture of being tired and probably a tummy bug of some kind. It's the kind of thing you have to expect when you come to a developing country; you body has to get used to it.
I woke up at about midday and felt awful so I had some food, water, pain killers and anti-nausea tablets and then slept for another three hours. When I woke up, I felt much better and have done ever since. I'm hoping that that will be the only time I get sick during my time here.
We all (Dad, June and June's daughter Lisa) went to lunch today at a restaurant called The Millennium Restaurant. It's basically a mixture of a buffet and yum cha. They have plastic models or real examples of dishes you can pick - you tell the attendant what you want and they write it on their card and on your card, then they cook it up and bring it to your table.
We had all different kinds of food: fresh prawns, baked eggplant with garlic spices and sauce, steamed Chinese veggies, braised chicken, honey and sesame sweet potato, sweet Indian bread, steamed dumplings, Chinese beer and tea.
I even tried spicy pig stomach and chicken feet, something I would never normally do! I wasn't too impressed with the chicken feet, but the spicy pig stomach wasn't too bad. I just thought I'd give it a try - when in Rome (or China)! It's all part of the experience.
We got stared at quite a bit during lunch. Even the chiefs came out of the kitchen and were pointing and waving at me. The most important thing to remember is that they mean no harm and aren't trying to be rude, it's just that they don't get many tourists at all in Zhangzhou; we were quite a novelty. One of the waiters even took a photo of us with his phone camera. Everyone was very friendly and we always had five or six waiters buzzing around our table at any one time.
After lunch we went bicycle shopping. There's a very quiet road just behind the college that stretches for a few kilometers and would be very pleasant to cycle down of an evening. Dad has a bike too, so we though it would be a nice thing to do together once a day, might even lose some weight because of it! I bought a brand new blue mountain bike and it only cost $45! I haven't owned a bike for years, although I won't be able to take this one home with me. I'm going to leave it here for Lisa when I go. June rode the bike home because there is no way in a million years I would ever ride a bike through the busy city traffic of Zhangzhou!
Later this afternoon Dad and I went shopping. There's a HUGE Wall-Mart right in the center of the city and they sell some things there that you can't get in most other places. Dad said he likes it there because of the set prices, you don't have to barter like you do in the smaller shops and markets. It was very interesting walking around and seeing people fishing live crabs and prawns out of tanks and dumping them in plastic bags, just as we would with grapes or apples.
They have huge selections of meat and fish and fruit and veggies. To be one of the most interesting things is learning exactly what you can and can't buy here. For example there is Pepsi everywhere, but you can't get cheese! Cheese is like gold to the westerners that live in Zhangzhou!
When we were in Wall-Mart we were cornered by two young Chinese women, one of whom spoke English quite well. They were very sweet asking us where we were from and what we did. This has happened a few times and everyone I've met so far is very friendly.
