Exploring a little

Reese came over to my place in the early afternoon and helped me with my Chinese for a few hours. Afterwards we went to JinLi Street. This is sort of like an old market area, with the shops and restaurants made up to look like it did centuries ago. Of course, all of the products are new but some are made like they were made ages ago. The silk store was very interesting... lots of silk products, and they had displays to show the different stages of how silk is made. Other interesting places sold calligraphy, some sold clothes, fans, jewelry, toys, tea, etc... I wish I had taken my camera!

There are also a lot of little shops selling Chinese snacks, tea gardens, and little bars. There's even a Starbucks, although it seemed a little out of place. We went to one little place that sold some rice noodle soup. The weather was a little chilly on Saturday, so the noodles were very good. Reese was surprised I could eat such spicy food, but a lot of Chinese people (especially here in Sichuan) believe that foreigners don't like spicy food. After that we bought some tofu on a stick from another place and shared that as we walked among the shops. I really need to remember to take my camera with me more often.

Sunday was another relaxing day and I spent most of the day un-installing, installing, updating, and playing Medieval II Total War on my computer. In the evening I met up with my friends Cynthia and Tony and we went to a Thai restaurant called Fiesta Thai. I was very surprised at how good it was... It was very Thai! We had some spring rolls, some Thai-style noodles (pad thai), some seafood with chili's and basil (gra prow ta-leh?), some chicken with vegetables (gai pad prik), and some beef curry (gang neau). Yum! I'll definitely be going back there.