The City of Fuxin

So, after four weeks of living and teaching in Fuxin, I finally have a chance to write about the city this blog was created for! The first thing I noticed was the size of the city and the height of most of the buildings. While the citizens call it a small city (or medium at best), Fuxin is actually about half of the metro area of St. Louis, but with a greater number of tall buildings. After all, the sheer numbers of the Chinese population mean that building upwards in any city is a necessity. Now, the city perhaps isn't quite as modern as the bulk of our major cities in the U.S., but it's a large city and the building look fine all the same. Only the really wealthy areas have the super-modern look. In a few parts of the city there are large roundabouts where several of the main streets intersect. The Latern Festival took place just a few days after we arrived in Fuxin, and one of these areas was decorated with all kinds of lights that night, as you can see below.

Notice the man on the left who is thrilled to be taking a picture of me. I bet he thinks he's sneaky. But he definitely wasn't the only one trying to take pictures of us.

Year of the goat!

This night at the Lantern Festival, dozens of people were practically surrounding us to take pictures. I usually find it more comical than bothersome. While I don't usually mind when people are trying to take pictures of or with us, staring is a different thing entirely. Usually the people wanting pictures are smiling and excited to see us.

This guy at the mall made me a free, fresh-squeezed fruit smoothie.

But in my day to day, there are an awful lot of people that give me passing stares. I understand their curiosity, so it's really nothing to get angry about, but it can be annoying after a long day. (In fact, as I was writing this is my notebook in a café a few days ago, a family was walking by the door and stopped to stare at me for a few moments through the door frame.)

The delicious coffee I had the first time I went to this particular café.

On the other hand, going shopping is something that never ceases to entertain me. Just have a look at the following pictures to get an idea of what I mean.

Now I can buy snail extract instead of having to get it myself!

I do like my brain vessels in good health.

I also like my food to be both fashionable and green. Even when it's a drink, and not food at all.

I haven't purchased any of this yet. I don't have any plans to either. (It's also just sitting in a box on a shelf, not refrigerated.)

The funny signs, labels, and bad translations seem to be endless. The menus in most restaurants, if they have English, are also very funny. The next two pictures are from a Korean barbecue place.

I'd rather have a familiar mix of beef, personally.

They really don't want us knowing how they produced this dish.

So over the weeks I've gradually been learning to get around and have been able to try different kinds of food. At the Korean barbecue we cooked food on a small grill in the middle of the table. The two students I tutor every Sunday took me there for dinner, and even though the menu was awkward the food was very good. I've had western food a few times, and those restaurants are the only places to have real coffee, instead of instant, though I have had some luck finding a few genuine cafés. At the café across the street from the campus where I teach, I made a friend named Rain about two weeks ago who said he was interested in a language exchange, which I had wanted to do since arriving. Now I have someone that I can learn some Chinese from! I haven't learned a lot yet, but we only study English/Chinese a few hours per week. What I have learned is helpful, and he has also introduced me to a few of his favorite Chinese foods.

This is called Kung Fu Fish. It was cooked so that by simply grabbing with the chopsticks, the meat would come right off. No cutting necessary.

My Chinese is extremely limited, but at this point I can finally order a few things without having to just point and hope they understand. Learning Chinese is slow, but it is going well. I can even recognize a few Chinese characters now.

I'll try to update soon with some more pictures of places I've seen in the city. Until then!