This was another lazy day. I did some more wandering down a different direction. Truth be told, I've not gone terribly far from my apartment, but I have been exploring different areas around me. Some areas are nicer, others are a bit rougher, but nowhere feels unsafe. The only place that feels mildly creepy is when I have to go up the five flights of stairs to my apartment in the dark...there is no lighting in the stairwell so it's a tad bit creepy.
Orientation is tomorrow. I'll get to find out my schedule, which I'm excited about!
Food Stuffs:
I also went and ate today by myself. Say what?! Up until this point I've either lived off of stuff I could get at the bakery right near me or eaten with someone else. Even in the states I have an aversion to eating by myself. Now, compound that with the language barrier and my anxiety spikes hard core. Still though, I realized that egg tarts and hot dogs in amazing fresh bread were not doing it, so while wandering I grabbed lunch and tea.
I went to the noodle place for lunch and got the beef noodle soup. Thank goodness they had a picture menu so I was able to point. Granted, everywhere I've been has had a picture menu. It was similar in Japan. I find this immensely useful. Again that meal was something like 5 dollars which included the bottle of water. xD
I went to this adorable tea house. Clark had mentioned it the other day, and when walking by it the place looked super calm and lovely. The seats were plush and the atmosphere was nice. They had a lot of options. Sadly they had no mango tea, and I ended up ordering a rose tea. It was not what I expected. It arrived in a class and atop the hot water were a bunch of small roses. As the roses seeped the hot water was flavored very mildly and it was surprisingly good! Not super flavorful, but the small amount of flavor was lovely.
Dinner was the Italian place called Annie's. It was a slightly more comfortable experience if for no other reason then the waiters and waitresses spoke English. It wasn't always strong English, but I felt better about not having to point. It was also comforting food. I ended up with lasagne and a coke. The coke cans here have great writing on them. I really should not have ordered the coke, but I had fallen asleep my apartment for about three hours earlier in the day and figured I needed a pick me up. I maybe got through half of my meal, coke included.
And, because I can...the entire meal came to 61RMB. That is 8.97 cents. $8.97! Awesome deal. xD
Budgets
I thought about setting a food budget, but even if I ate out every single day for three meals a day, I maybe spend 15 dollars a day? Times 30 equals $459 dollars. And, because I have like no other expenses, that isn't the end of the world. I don't really want to spend that much in food a month, and it is generally cheaper (I just went for a more expensive meal today), but I might get myself a pan and stuff to do a little bit of cooking. We shall see. We shall see.
I do want to sent myself a budge because I want to travel a bit and I want to save. Food is going to be my biggest expense in general purely because that is one of my only expenses.Two other reoccurring expenses will end up being my metro card and phone. I'll probably do a breakdown of expenses here after my first month (after I get paid) especially because this month has had some startup costs so far, and there are still 20more days until I get paid. Hmmm.
Dumpling Update:
Again, no dumplings. Laura and I will have to make up for it!
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