Nancy’s Big Adventure

Thanks for visiting my blog and for all the great comments!  I’ll take a few minutes to answer questions.

Do I miss milk and cheese?  Yes, definitely.  There is milk (whole milk, goat milk, oat (oat, no g) milk, soy milk, and the aforementioned water buffalo milk) and there is cheese (yak (yucky) cheese, goat cheese, deep fried cheese balls), and other dairy products but there doesn’t seem to be any such thing as skim or 2% – picky, picky, picky … Actually, I have found quite a lot of milk and other dairy products here (in China) the past couple days.

Did I have a warm chocolate chip cookie with my milk?  Um, the answer to that would be no.  I think that is an American thing.

Is there anything I will not eat?  If I can peel it or watch it being freshly cooked, I will eat it.  I generally will not eat things that have been cooking all day or things that are moving … but I am likely to try almost anything, even if I have to spit it out (durian, yak butter, fried crickets ).  There are so many things here that I am not able to identify, so I have to be a bit brave – but I draw the line at chicken feet and bull penis.

Am I traveling alone or with others?  I have been traveling solo since I left Kathmandu on June 28.  I arrived in Shanghai July 6 and have joined up with a group of teachers for the month of July. There are definitely advantages to traveling by myself – I can go where I want, when I want, and I have to motivate myself to explore and socialize.  Certainly, there are lonely moments, but I have not had any scary times, and I think I am probably more alert and more receptive on my own. But, I definitely am excited to be back with a group – especially in China, where so few people speak English.

Have I logged the number of miles traveled?  No, unfortunately … I would guess that I walk at least 5 miles on an average day in addition to all the public transport.  Plus air miles.  I have no idea what it all adds up to – lots!! 🙂  Some mornings I wake up and don’t know where I am, much less what day it is or the time.  All good.

Have I been sick?  Yup, you bet.  The reality is that everyone gets sick for at least a few days while traveling here – blame it on the water, the food, the altitude, the heat, the bugs – trust me, everyone gets sick and nobody is shy about swapping a good ol’ diarrhea story in the land of squat toilets (no tp).  Enough said.

Thanks again for all the great messages!  I should have a bit more time to write now that I am staying in one spot for more than a couple days.   I’m having a great time and I look forward to sharing more details of my fabulous adventure.  Cheers!  N

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 6:33 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.