Everyone, Stare at the Foreigners!

On Jan 3rd, we wandered around looking for breakfast. We strolled down an alley street full of people cooking food in front of their shops or just on their portable 'stalls' they set up (consisting of whatever they can carry). We had a delicious breakfast of steamed dumplings filled with rice and cabbage, the first we'd seen in China (all the other dumplings we've eaten are filled with pork and cabbage). There was a cute boy of about 6 years old, sitting on the steps of his parents' shop, eating his fried rice. I smiled at him and he smiled and laughed. I took a few photos of him then showed him the outcome on our digital camera. He thought this was hysterical and kept pointing at himself and laughing. We continued walking up the street, and by the time we walked back past the boy, he had gathered a few other kids around to look at us. It was very cute. We've enjoyed having the children approach us and even laugh at us.

We did a few errands and spent some time on the internet, catching up on emails. For lunch, we again ate 'street food.' A lady had set up a stall on the street and was making stir-fried noodles and fried rice. She had all of the ingredients in individual bowls, including a huge bamboo vat full of cooked rice. We just pointed to what we wanted her to add, and she cooked us a tasty lunch. While we were waiting, a girl approached Nigel and started to speak to him in English. He offered for her to sit with us while we had our lunch so she could continue practicing (a lot of people appreciate this, as they're trying to learn English, but do not get many opportunities to practice speaking, as there are not many foreigners around, especially in smaller cities/towns). She and her friend chatted to us while we ate. They are students at the tourism school in Zhangjiajie City. One of the girls said she has 2 older brothers and one younger brother. I asked about this, since I knew families could only have 1 or 2 children (her parents are farmers). She said she and her younger brother were not supposed to be born, but her 'parents just paid the government a lot of money so that it was okay.' Very interesting!

We headed to the train station and boarded the overnight train to Nanning.