Ashley's Visit

First I would like to say I stole all of these pictures from Ashley. I was very lazy during her visit and didn't really take any pictures :) Ashley came to visit from Hangzhou the week between Christmas and New Years. We had a great time. The first thing out of her mouth walking to my apartment was "Wow, this really is China!" Gotta love Nanjing. 

 The first day we went to the lake. Lake Xuanwu. It was cold outside, but such a pretty day otherwise. Ashley and I decided that we have a "thing". That "thing" is boats. It seems like virtually every time we're together, we get on some sort of boat. In college in San Antonio, it was the Riverwalk boat ride. Disney World internships--boat rides galore (It's a Small World, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mexico/Norway rides... you name it). Nanjing was no different. We rented one of the boats and took it out for a spin. It only had two modes--forward and backward. It was a bit rickety, but it was still fun. It just moved very, very slowly.

Then, we saw this guy "painting" Chinese characters on the sidewalk with a water bottle that had a cloth tied to the top to make a brush. Not sure what it said, but it sure attracted a crowd.

After our visit at the lake, we saw this man making cotton candy. They wanted 10 kuai for it, but I told them we'd only pay 3. And they took it :) 45 cents for cotton candy, I think yes!

Sorry for the blurry picture, I'm posting it anyway because I was really excited when I found this. I took Ashley over to Hunan Lu which is where there's a market and lots of shops. We found one of the international food stores there. They're always fun to look at to see what you can find. As we were wandering, I said to Ashley "Man, I wish they had some Frank's Hot Sauce so I can make Buffalo Chicken Sandwiches". When I looked up, it was right in front of me :)

Then, we found this super cute little shop. The big thing here is to buy glasses with no glass and wear them... so we thought what the heck, when in China, be Chinese!

That evening we met up with my coworker Joanne. We decided to go to the Confucius Temple since it is near Joanne's place. We wandered around a bit, and we thought we found the entrance. It looked closed, but then some Chinese people went in so we followed them. Somehow we ended up going through some crazy back entrance. We wandered around a bit, but there weren't that many people there and we weren't even sure we were in the right place. Luckily, we were able to find the exit before it got too dark (and for the record, it was the right place... weird. It was free though, so that's even better!)

After the Temple, Ashley and I went to Wal-mart to get stuff for our sandwiches. Most of the meat in Wal-Mart is served just like this--on a big thing of ice. Pigs feet anyone?

Here's me making dinner in my tiny kitchen with my makeshift stove top. It turned out pretty good :)

The next day we took it pretty easy. That evening we went to go get massages for the first time in China. It is super cheap--about 70 kuai for 60 minutes (that's about $12). This was the massage room. Chinese massages are quite the experience. Let's just say they want to massage you everywhere.

So granted the place we went may not have been the classiest place ever... it was in a dark alleyway. But it was actually pretty decent. Some things are just different in China.

After the massages, we went to Skyway's Bakery right across the street. It is owned by Germans. It was really refreshing to have something other than Chinese food. We got these large sandwiches and cokes for 25 kuai (roughly $4). Yum!

The next morning Ashley went back home and I went to work. It was fun exploring the city with her!