Jenny Lou's

I began today by watching a small Chinese man trying to use his body weight to gleefully shove more people onto the subway train! He wasn't a member of the "subway police" but just a guy in line enjoying shoving people into packed subway trains until it was his turn to get on. It cracked me up in an otherwise stressful commute to my Chinese class. I'm so grateful my "commute" is a five minute walk to work! People can be vicious when they are late to work!

I missed so much during the two weeks I was off for my holiday! Apparently, there was even homework! We had to say what we like to eat! I swear I just started making stuff up as I rambled along since my food vocabulary bank consists of: water, tofu, apples, mangoes, beer, coffee, rice, lotus and tea! We practiced a dialogue about exchanging money at the bank. I sure could have used that a few months ago!

After class, I walked over to a Starbucks with Miles and James and had a coffee with them before heading over to Starfish. One of the women had her friend buy two iphones in the United States for her, and the friend sent them over to my Mom's while I was home so I could shuttle them back to her. She was so happy and we spent too much of the class figuring out how to get the iphone working and setting it into Chinese.

After tutoring, I met up with my friend Jennifer. Her parents had given me some things to give her while I was in Portland. Jennifer took me to a little French coffee shop that is a short walk from the shelter. The owner was there working and he is really from France. It is a very cute coffee shop and I could imagine myself spending time there in the future with a good book. Then, Jennifer told me about this special International grocery store next door called Jenny Lou's. I walked in and I felt like I was (almost) transported back to the states. The store carries lots of American products. Many of the soup jars were Safeway's "O" Organics brand. A few things are a bit out of my grocery budget, but most of the stock is well priced and many of the items that are carried at my local grocery stores are even cheaper at Jenny Lou's. I had a lot of chili waiting for me at home, so I didn't get too much, just some flaxseed to add to my oatmeal and two avocados! At the grocery stores in my neighborhood, it costs between 60-70 RMB for an avocado, and there it was only 10 RMB! Not too shabby, even though the one that I bought had already started to turn when I opened it up this evening. Sadness. They have all the fixings for a Mexican feast, so I think I might do that next week. Jenny Lou's is an exciting place!