Blisters and bathrooms... bowling and bliss

Our first few days in Nanjing were spent walking, walking, walking and literally following Bo's footsteps. He really wanted us to see Nanjing the way he had and to love it the way he had too. He had made many friends at university and we were lucky enough to meet some of them. Some had gone back to their home countries. The local Chinese people that he'd made friends with were the vendors on the street.... restaurant owners on Cheap Street and "Drink lady" at the entrance of the university. 
Unfortunately, Reuben wore the wrong kinds of shoes and ended up with many blisters. Thinking he could help, Tom let Reub wear his runners, Tom used a pair of Bo's runners and then there were two people with sore feet. 

We saw that some people            solved the problem of sore feet for their dogs...crocs! 

In addition to sore feet, Reub was the first to get "ladootza" which rhymes with turistas and is the Chinese version of Montezuma's revenge.

He spent the the day with his blisters, in bed and near a bathroom while we went bowling. Bo got his highest score ever: 215 and maybe I did too... 75. We're both winners! 

His friends were really fun to play with. 

Back at blogging.... First stop: Nanjing

Yep. As I predicted, internet issues prevented me from contributing to a blog. Apparently, in addition to blocking facebook, google has been intermittently blocked since May and the Chinese preferred search engine is Baidu. That doesn't work with blogger so, no blogging for us while we were there. Now, trip's done, jet lag almost subsided and before getting too busy around here, I'm taking time to update. 

First Stop: Nanjing (after flying into Shanghai)

Boaz met us at the airport in Shanghai; we took a bus to the train station, a 2hr train ride to Nanjing and two cabs (because of our luggage) to the Nanjing University. We arrived at our hotel on the university campus after a total of 30hrs travelling. 

Bo had been studying Chinese at Nanjing Normal University for the past year. 

We spent five days having Bo show us around his school: quite a beautiful setting, lots of trees, ponds, parks, outdoor basketball courts and old buildings. 

He took us all around his neighbourhood: very cute, good places to eat (Cheap Street) where we could get a really yummy meal for our whole family for less than $20. 

Because Bo had his regular eating places we met many people with whom he'd formed a friendship, Chinese and others. It appeared to us that he's quite fluent in Chinese, but how would we know if he wasn't? He certainly seemed to be able to make himself understood by the local people there. 

But... if you'd prefer western food, McDonald's even delivers. No thanks to that for me.