Food No Food

It’s Monday morning, and it’s sunny with sparse clouds. Oh, and it’s probably pretty hot, too. The humidity and heat are lower than at home, and so at first my lips chapped a bit. Not fun at all. And I realized that it wouldn’t be good to drink Dr Pepper here. Most of the water I drink goes to sweat from walking around campus and the town. I need the hydration! Sadly, they have no cold water in the hostel. Also, many people seem stunned that Burger King sells bottles of water instead of putting it in a cup. (By the way, McDonald’s DOESN’T sell you bottles of water. Instead they put some warm water in a little cup for you, with no ice.) I even went to a restaurant yesterday evening, and they gave me a cup of water that was about steaming.

Speaking of the restaurant, I tried chicken and rice (with some sort of sauce). It didn’t taste bad, but for some reason I just couldn’t stomach it. I could hardly swallow. I can tell I’m going to have to learn how to eat some of these things here, quickly, I mean. I got some clothes washing detergent, some M&M’s, and some Dove chocolate as well. They didn’t have any Hershey’s chocolate except every kind that I disliked. No Hershey’s milk chocolate! So sad. So very sad. The Dove chocolate tastes really good, though! Kind of creamy.

In case you did not see my post on Facebook, I would like to say that I have found pizza, and it is acceptable. Doesn’t mean I’ll eat it all the time, mind you. It’s not good enough to eat one after another, but it does taste good compared to other things. May I remind you that though this is pizza, it is made it Hong Kong and therefore will have a different taste, just like everything else, including McDonald’s and Burger King. You can’t get upset with me because I’m trying new things! I just don’t like the majority of them. I watched some other students cook their own food at the restaurant and then eat out of the little pot thingermajig. That was interesting, but I wasn’t gonna eat it!

And now to tell you about the rest of my day, which was actually filled with quite a many things. We had orientation for exchange students, in which we met others like ourselves, from Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, Mexico, the UK, Korea, Taiwan, the US, and of course, from mainland China. We also had a scavenger hunt of sorts around campus and off. Then we went to the mall and completed some tasks there related to the scavenger hunt. It was supposed to help us learn the places. I still don’t really know how to get everywhere yet.

But, I’m getting too far ahead of myself. I’m sure y’all would just love to know what Chinese food I have tried on this day. Firstly, there were these beef barbecue bun things. The outer bun thing tasted interesting, not bad, but not exactly delicious. Altogether, I could only take a few bites of it. It amused me, though, that if you didn’t bite into it, it looked exactly like that stuff in King Fu Panda, you know, that white roll thing he and Master Shifu (Sp??) are tossing around in the first film.

The next thing was actually a dumpling, or at least, that’s what I remember them telling me. It had crab meat in it. And it was not yummy. Then there was the spring roll. I actually ate the whole thing. It was edible. Not really something I would want to go buy though. There was also tofu, which was squishy and so was not going anywhere near my mouth, and then soup, which was also okay, like the spring rolls. It was . . . really soupy? Now, the other thing I tried was something I will never try again. Ever. Chicken with that sweet and sour sauce. Not to be offensive, but it tastes like barf, and it almost made me do so. I had to force myself to chew and swallow, and I had the throw-up feeling for the next hour.

After my little trials of food, when we went to the mall, I couldn’t go into any Chinese restaurant without wanting to throw up, because every time I smelled it I got the taste of the other food in my mouth. Luckily, however, I did get to go to Pizza Hut. (Yes, I was also surprised that it was here.) Apparently, they do not normally do cheese pizzas, so I had to special order one, along with a glass of water WITH ICE. It tasted different, but it was still the best food I’ve had here. Is that sad? Probably. I think there are just some foods that people will never like. . . .