Seems like I’ve had a lot of these posts in the past – food related. That’s really not a surprise if you consider the importance of meals in Chinese culture. Well, I decided to invite my driver, Xiao Ji, out for dinner after work one day. He’s the one that introduced me to the really spicy food anyway. Oh, by the way, his English is getting much better. I reckon he’s surpassed my Chinese now. But, having just finished my first lesson with my teacher from a few months back, that will not be the case for long. We ended up going to one of the same restaurants we went to once last time. Excellent spicy food. Oh, and that reminds me: Tiffany told me to lay off the spicy food for a while. Ah well. Too late now. Anyway, Xiao Ji and I ordered some delicious spicy ribs, a spicy pork dish, some Kingway (local Shenzhen brewery) beer, rice, and broccoli to balance it out. Some friends of Xiao Ji’s showed up later on to join us.

Here’s the Chinese/English lesson for the night:

After the meal, we all went out for “Xi jiao”, of course…foot massage. My girl this time was pretty rough. I had to keep telling her to relax a bit; maybe my feet were just sensitive. Anyway, with 5 guys in there along with the massage crew, there was lots of the usual raucous laughs at my attempt at speaking Chinese. Around 9:30 we headed out. I was expecting another 15 minute drive to get back to my place. When we suddenly arrived about two minutes later, I realized I was in short walking distance of the restaurant and foot massage place. Great! The pieces are all falling into place.