Chinese Applebee's

At one of the subway stops there is an Asian Raman, which is the chain restaurant we went to almost everyday when we were in Chengdu. They have a great selection of Asian dishes from rice and noodle dishes to sushi and pork meals. One of my favorite parts is the miso soup. Their miso soup is some of the best I have ever had.

Here is my number one dish that i always get. It is fried pork chop and sauteed onions over a bed of white rice with pickled cucumber and miso soup. I love this dish, i get it almost every time I come back.

And the best part of the restaurant are there fruit drinks and cold tea. I love some grapefruit iced tea!!! And we usually order them in 2's cause it takes about 20 mins for them to come out.

Here is another good dish, the potato and beef Indian curry. It is nice to be in a foreign country and find some "regular" dishes that you can get excited about eating.

Laundry Day

As i said we bought a washing machine when we were first in China. A group of the crew decided to go in on it and split up the cost. Total cost for the machine was about 50 bucks. To be technical, it isn't a full washing machine. It is an agitator and that takes most of the work out of washing clothes.

It has a 15 min wash cycle on it and a hose on the side to drain the water out of it. I like to run the cycle about 4 times per load of laundry (2 with soap and 2 without). Once you have done all that i ring out the extra water and hang up my clothes to dry. Here is a full load of socks and underwear.

As you can imagine, it takes about 4 or 5 loads to do all my laundry (you can fit about half the amount of clothes you would into a normal machine). Once i have finished all my laundry, my room is filled up with wet clothes . Since it is so humid in China, it then takes another 2 or 3 days for the clothes to dry. Here is the rest of my laundry (yet to be cleaned).

Considering the two alternatives, i think this is a pretty good way to do laundry. Those being, washing all clothes one by one in the sink or on a washing board or sending out your laundry for about 75 bucks.

Heading to the Theatre

We are taken to and from the theatre each day by a cast bus. But if you are feeling adventurous, about a 10 min walk and you are at the Shenzhen subway system. Unfortunately no part of the subway is in English, but lucky for Jake and I, April is back with us. So here are a few photo's of the subway, it costs about 2 yuan or 30 cents to ride.

After a while you get to where you feel comfortable taking the subway, and you can venture out and find more shopping, new restaurants, and different streets to explore.

And yes everyone feels the need to touch me or point out how white i am on the subway! I am a Chinese idol now!

Opening Night In Shenzhen

One of the most amazing things associated with the show is the outpouring of support we receive at the venue. As i have said we have had multiple "Opening" parties held on our behalf. And almost regularly the cast receives flowers from the presenters during bows. In Shenzhen every night little boys and girls dressed very traditionally go onstage and present the cast with large boutiques of flowers.

On this evening, the group of 10 or so boys and girls went onstage dressed in some of the most beautiful clothing. We found out later that one of the mother's of the girls had made the dress for them just for this one night. As the flower bearers came on stage, they saluted the cast and presented their flowers to them.

First Night Out in Shenzhen

We arrived at our hotel in Shenzhen and checked in.

From the outside of the hotel you would think this place is amazing, when in fact it isn’t as nice inside the hotel as it is from the outside. But at least there is a cool 50’ sculpture built out of lots of hands. AND there is a 7/11 in the hotel lobby. You can only imagine the excitement when all the cast found out they could get a slurpee in China.

First check on the “to do list” for Shenzhen was Mexican. Unfortunately the taco bell had closed in china. The ex-pat’s(those people that refuse to live in there own country and claim no citizen- ship) in Shenzhen loved it from what I read, but it just didn’t fare while for all the China folk. Lucky for us there was another place called Amigo’s. We went there and I have to say there was no one in the restaurant. But we ate like kings. We were served garlic bread and that made us a little concerned.

I had 3 margarita’s that were amazing, lots of chips and salsa, and the steak fajitas.

I swear it felt like I was in NYC or something. It was awesome. No one was screaming, no bones or grissel was found anywhere, and it had sour cream. SOUR CREAM FOLKS!!!! We were in heaven.

You wouldn’t believe it, but right around the corner from the Mexican restaurant was what? A cold stone!!! There is a god!!!!!!!!!!!

Trust me, I shall return to this street corner soon.

Where's Waldo?

How many Chinese does it take to find a lost ticket?

The China way. Today we had a flight from Nanning to Shenzhen. When we got to Shenzhen we took a bus ride to get to the hotel we are staying at. Most Chinese airport’s are about an hour outside the city.

So we are heading into the downtown and just like in the states. you stop at one toll booth to get a ticket and at the next one you pay the toll depending on how long you drove on the expressway.

We’ll supposedly the driver lost the ticket. Instead of paying a fee, the driver and 3 people at the toll start arguing. It takes them about 10 mins. The highway has to check the camera/computer from the toll booth we said we went through and then it gets verified.