okay morning

so i woke up early today to ride my bike. i went out with hordes to xi pu. bikes everywhere. it was great. i rode into xi pu, turned around, and stopped for bao-zi on the way back. these are little buns filled with stuff. they look like white balls of uncooked dough, but i assure you they are cooked. i got one--i think i should have gotten two--and it was filled with green beans and beef. delicious. i also got a glass of duo jia (i believe that's what she called it) or soy milk. it's served in a plastic cup with a plastic seal on the top. you take a straw and stab through to drink it, much like capri sun, but easier to open. she asked if i wanted a straw stabbed through or not. at least i thought that's what she said. i think she might have just offered me a straw. anyways, i said no. (she also said in chinese that my chinese was good , and in english she said that she gave me half off) i ate the bao-zi on the way back, passing tons of factory workers going to work in the high tech zone. they all had bao-zi or a fried dough thing (that's on the list for friday's breakfast) in their hands. some were joking, and some trudging in, like they were extras in metropolis.

i also passed many groups of older people doing tai chi. they would do it in little parks on street corners, 30 or 40 people following one at the front. the chinese also have these playground like areas, which are actually communal gyms. they have leg presses, sit up bars, something that i can only think of as a "wax on, wax off" machine (two discs at about head height that you spin in different directions). i also witnessed a group of older people that looked as the were doing aerobics, for it certainly wasn't taichi. to be honest, it looked a lot like the electric slide.

so this sounds like a great morning, not an okay morning, right? well it was. until i came up behind this boy bicycling, passing him on the right. i didn't ring my bell or anything, and just before i got even with him, he spit. remember to always ring your bell when passing someone. i thought i got away scot-free, but when i got back, there was this nice loogie on the lower leg of my jeans. luckily, it was all spit, no snot, which was nice. i wiped it off with a tissue, and now it's only my pride that hurts.

also as i was riding back a boy shouted laowai at me, which means foreigner. i turned around and stared at him to show i understood, and kept riding. it's very nice that it doesn't happen very often.

but the bao-zi was good, and when i finally got back, i tried to open the soy milk. the top wouldn't come off, so i resorted to poking a hole in the top and sucking the milk out, crushing it as i went. i wouldn't recommend it. next time you buy soy milk and the shopkeeper asks, dabuda, answer da. answer da.