BBQ wikipedia

I encounter too many amusing episodes in China to be able to keep up with everything in this blog. Currently, I have a mental queue of 4 or 5 future entries, one of which I am waiting for photos to be sent to me. The subject of this particular entry dates back about a week.

As a result of my piano concert last Saturday, I met the webmaster of dalianxpat.com, an MIT alum who invited us to go to a gathering of foreigners in China the following morning. Thus, on Sunday, Ben and I trekked over to Starbucks (Xingbake) in Olympic Square.

The Starbucks in China have different sizes than their counterparts in America. Instead of the Tall, Grande, and Venti, Chinese Starbucks offer Short and omit Venti, which makes much more
sense to me than the American way. When I mentioned this to the barista, she informed me that the Short is there because China is not used to such large portions. However, soon China will acquire the Venti and will offer four sizes.

At the gathering, we met a variety of pretty cool people, including two college students from Penn State here for an internship. A bunch of us went out to lunch to a restaurant called Noah's Ark, where we shared pizza, and I ordered a BBQ wikipedia. WTF is a BBQ wikipedia? Pictures as follows:

On the menu in all its BBQ'd glory. If you can read Chinese, you'll know what the BBQ wikipedia actually is.

BBQ wikipedia (a.k.a BBQ squid rings) and me in my mock Asian photo pose.

My new friend Phil from Penn State and his new friend the wikipedia mustache.

After lunch, a bunch of us went to a mall, where we strolled through arcades. Our first stop was a small children's arcade. Afterwards, we went to another arcade in the same mall full of high tech simulation-based games most of which involved shooting and killing innocents.

There was a photography shop next to the arcade. One of the advertisements outside involved a small kid dressed up as a member of the red army. Apologies for the crappiness of the picture. I snuck a shot after being told no pictures allowed.

The small children's arcade had these fish tanks full of goldfish where kids can come and fish. The beginner level involved children with nets scooping the fish out.

They also had miniature pottery wheels, or rather glorified mudpits, where small children can get their hands dirty without being yelled at by parents.

A sad plight of the Chinese single child is that it suffers from a paucity of friends. Fortunately, a wide-eyed Donald Duck is always ready to play with children.

At the simulation game arcade, we had fun shooting things.