In the swing of things

Our confidence is definitely increasing.  We are starting to very much enjoy some of the benefits of living in China.  One of our favorite things is the delicious fruit.  I hit KFC last night for dinner.  They didn’t really have the buckets of chicken that we’re used to… so I just pointed at the only picture of a bucket that looked like there was chicken in it.  It was kind of a chicken wing combo… and it came with fried fish…  It was pretty good, but Tenille noted that the fish still had the skin on it which grossed her out… oh well… more for me…  The only problem I had was that apparently this deal came with some soda, and since I don’t normally drink soda, I wanted diet coke for Tenille… I could not convey the term diet to the people that were working there…   So, I just came home with a bottle of Pepsi. 

We attended church today with no real problems.  Hopped in a cab.  I pointed at a map, and the taxi driver looked skeptical.  He asked me if I knew where I was going.  My wife picked up on this quicker than I did… and finally I answered in Chinese, "Wo zhi dao" (I know)… and we were off… I used more of my mad hand-signalling skills, and got to church in 5 minutes.  Actually, I don’t think we’re really communicating that much better.. but I think we’re just getting more used to the idea that we’re pretty incompetent and becoming less ashamed of it… I’m not too proud to pantomime, sir…  that’s just the way I roll…

Two things of note:  1.  I’m sure we’ll be eating some strange foods out here… I thought it was worth noting that last week, I shared a duck tongue with Caleb.  Tasted a bit weird, but it was just meat…  Caleb started gnawing on the duck head, but it was pretty much all bone, and I had to call him off… that’s my boy… 2.  Karlin, my neighbor, gave me an assignment to find anything in China that is actually made in the US.  I assume pirated copies of Windows (or any other software for that matter, doesn’t count….)  I saw a Harley Davidson Store with a Harley in it.  You don’t make those in China… Well… you probably don’t assemble them in China… (I’m sure a lot of components are actually made in China.)  But as far as I’m concerned – Mission Accomplished.