There’s a cafeteria in my building. Every day at noon it’s jam packed with people, all with chopsticks in hand. The food is incredibly cheap, but the quality can be hit or miss. Here’s a shot of Marshall and his food with mine in the foreground. Each meal is about $1.25.

The Chinese frequently make loud sucking sounds while eating which is the opposite of what most Americans are taught and are used to. (“Don’t make that noise!”) So, the first time I had dinner with a Chinese person (a couple of years before coming to China), I was a somewhat taken aback. OK, now I’m in the country where this is the norm so I’m getting more used to it. I still can’t shake my conciousness of trying to stay quiet when I eat. Actually, I don’t want too. But, I do tend to suck it up from time to time. There’s simply no such thing as cutting noodles with chopsticks (or maybe only for the truly skilled), so pick the long noodles or sprouts up, grasp on with your teeth or lips, pull it in a little further…now the noodle’s on the hook, don’t let this one get away!

By the way, my chopsticks technique is pretty lousy, but getting better quickly. I’ve been watching lots of different techniques. Most people, especially Americans, use at least three fingers and a thumb to eat with chopsticks. I think this is the powerchord (guitar reference) equivalent of chopstick technique. So, I became fascinated with Marshall’s technique which only uses two fingers – the index and middle (check out the picture above). I’m still trying to figure this method out.

When I got home, there was some activity going on in the lobby. Turned out it was the last day of work for one of the employees. She had a “lucky pig” with her. I couldn’t understand much about the significance of it, but I was invited to pose in the going away pictures. I had to take one myself. These are some of the folks that went biking last weekend. Here’s the pic:

Back in my apartment, I finally got a chance to read part of the newspaper again. The front page had a picture of Daniel Craig, the new 007, and proclaimed that Casino Royale was now showing in China! Huh, really? Gosh, I saw it in the Luohu merchandise center on DVD this past weekend.