Chickity China the Chinese Chicken

An old journal entry:

4-8-10

Sitting here freezing my booty off in Shanghai. We flew out of Nepal yesterday around 2 pm and after a layover in Bangkok we arrived this morning at six. In Bangkok there was some miscommunication. We did not follow the proper procedures to get our connecting boarding passes. In a last minute scramble we were able to get our tickets and make the plane. Our bags did not. We did not make this unfortunate discovery until today as we hopelessly waited by the baggage claim in Shanghai…

A Thai airline provides bright purple blankets on flights and by fortuitous foresight we took a couple. ALL of our jackets and warm clothes are in our bags lost somewhere between Bangkok and Shanghai. For now we are left to roam the streets of frigid Shanghai looking like royal gypsies, possession less, wrapped in our purple blankets.

From the airport we made our way to the apartment where we are staying. Terry, my old soccer coach who is now a teacher in Shanghai, is out of town but left the keys at the front office for us. After 2 hours of charades, phone calls and a cameo appearance by the English teacher summoned from the school next door, the keys were still not found. Exhausted and freezing, having not slept in more than 24 hrs, we dragged ourselves to the nearest restaurant. If our charades incident is any indication, few people in China speak English. Fair enough. If you came to the US how many Chinese speakers would you run into on the street? We have just been spoiled everywhere else on our trip with English-speakers…

In the restaurant the menu was in Chinese and there were no pictures, so we were left to google images of chicken,rice and vegetables. It was quite comical as we soon had the entire restaurant staff gathered around our table in a huge guessing game as we wrote, drew and googled what we wanted. Finally, to our horror, one of the boys left the room and came back with a huge grin and a live chicken in his hand. He left and a few minutes later our chicken reappeared, not so alive, chopped up in a giant stew, feet popping out. We later learned this was called “hot pot”. Talk about fresh! What an introduction to Chinese cuisine.

We finally got into the apartment! Everything is great. Terry left us notes, maps, bikes, movies, a cell phone, food. Fantastic! We are set on hibernating, eating popcorn and cereal, drinking hot chocolate and watching movies for a few days!