Street food breakfast, some kind of Asian style breakfast burrito! Had egg, scallions, chili sauce, and something crunchy hah. Very tasty and very cheap! Cost $0.50 and Keith and I split it!
We started the day going to the date matching market in People's Square. This was SO WILD!! So, Chinese parents who are wanting their kid to get married writes up a short description about their son or daughter (usually in their 20s) so that other parents can come by and set their own son or daughter up. The description usually contains the son or daughter's education level, current job, whether they own property, their height, and the height requirement, education requirement, and age requirement for the person who is inquiring! Even if the kid has gone abroad for school or work, some parents will still put the kid's stats out to try and get them a match! This isn't just a handful of parents, this is an enormous network of matchmakers!! Completely blew my mind! I later asked a Chinese friend about this and if they are ever successful, and he told me that people get matched up, but he doesn't personally know anyone who has gotten together this way. He says it's like parents are "selling" their kids and thinks it's crazy too, so it's definitely not the norm hah. I just couldn't get over that this was even a thing! Really makes me appreciate that my parents aren't THAT involved in my dating life :-P
Kept walking around and tried some Korean treats. One with red bean paste and one with pork floss. We weren't big fan of these treats hah, the ratios of filling and outside weren't quite right, but that's the fun of street food! Went over to The Bund, which is the area along the river between the east and west sides of the city. The clouds made the skyline difficult to see, but was still a neat area.
We then went to Yu Yuan Gardens and saw a huuuge line for Nanxiang steamed buns. We hopped in line to get in on some yummy grubbin! The little dumplings were "steamed buns with crab and pork stuffing" and the big dumpling was a "steamed bun with crab roe soup stuffing". These were very delicious, definitely worthy of the long line it constantly has! We walked around and then headed to the French Concession area to meet up with my former neighbor, Amy. Hadn't seen her in over 10 years (it scares me that I can talk in terms of decades hah) so it was wonderful to catch up and hear about her experiences living and teaching in China! It tickles me that I can go to the other side of the world and see people I know! Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture >:-(
We went back to the apartment where I met some of Keith's friends who were hanging out, but I was old and boring and went to bed :-P
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