It sounds so ominous, doesn’t it? But before you get too alarmed I should probably clarify that I was not the patient. Neither were any members of our immediate family. (Not to be too self-focused!) Unfortunately, our Norwegian neighbor, oh, let’s just call him Tomas (seems arbritary enough) was not so lucky. I got a…

One evening last week I ventured out to get some takeout (dai zou) for Christa and I.  I wanted to try some Muslim cuisine that I’ve heard so much about.  So I went to one of the numerous sidewalk "stalls" where men with flat white hats sit and barbecue mutton kebabs over little fires. With…

…don’t I get fries and a large Coke with this? (These are sheep heads–I think–don’t ask me how they are served.)

giant roosters..RUN!!!

I’m not really sure I’d want to go to a place slated this way.  Adventures are OK with me, but horrific ones?

Why discriminate against tourists (see rule 3)? I saw another sign that discriminated against people who were having a heart attack and drunken people. That makes a bit more sense to me, but what have tourists ever done to merit such prohibition?

Check out the last part of the intro statement.  "To carry out tanning of the Current Tickets." I haven’t taken my tickets to the tanning bed in so long.  They’re getting quite pale. I like Rule 4, too.  "The ticket will be useless after being punched three times."  I think I may have a career…

Enjoy the frech air.

Here’s your Chinese character (Hanzi) lesson for the day. I found this quite interesting. Maybe you will, too? The character written here is "dangran".  Due to cross-cultural miscommunication, there’s a moderately good chance I misunderstood the teacher’s meaning when she described the history of how this character developed, but I’m fairly certain I got it……