Jianbing Guozi

I didn't take this picture of jianbing guozi, I got it from here.

A few years ago, I went on a Gospel choir trip to Beijing and Shanghai. It was pretty much an all-inclusive (i.e., irritating) type of deal, but me and a couple friends ditched the rest of the group whenever we could. That way, we could really experience the place.

Ditching the Americans is a common theme in my travels. When I travel to a place where I can speak the language (or when I'm learning to speak the language) I go solo. When I go somewhere like China where my language skills don't work, I try to hang out with the most experienced travelers and leave the tourists at the damn hotel.

Anyway, on my last morning in Beijing, I ate bought one of these jianbing guozi from a street vendor. It was much prettier than the one in the picture. The tourists I was with were shocked and appalled, but by that time, I was shocking and appaling them regularly by such feats as ordering breakfast.

One time, in el Salvador, I ate a slice of tomato. Seriously.

Anyway, I learned the "ditch the Americans" strategy from experience when I was studying in Avignon. After class got out, we'd stand outside the school saying "What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?" And a half hour later, were's still waiting there for the queen of the world, who went inside to sharpen her pencil, and when she finally comes out, it's, "What do you want to do? I don't know, what do you want to do?" And in the end, we end up following the queen to drop off her pictures at the photomat.

Just ditch. You'll see what you want to see, speak less English, and not spend less time with Americans you never really cared about in the first place.

I was supposed to post some stuff for bitchphd, and I still have a lot of catch-up blogging to do, but I have to take a shower and get to school right now.