Kong Pao Chicken and Beef Kebab Dinner

Before my brief hiatus I mentioned that I wanted to show you guys some of the food I eat during my day. After all, food in China is one of the most diverse and unique cuisines of any country.

Here is a what I had for dinner tonight, Kong Pao Chicken and Beef kebabs. In Chinese the characters for Kong Pao chicken is 宫保鸡丁 pronounced "kung pao ji ding". For beef kebabs the Chinese character is 牛肉串, the 牛肉 is beef and 串 means literally stick and it actually looks like a stick or kebab. It is pronounced "niu rou chuan" or if your in Beijing "chuar". Most Beijingers have an “er" accent on many of their words and so if you say "chuan" no one will understand you but if you say "chuar" you will be perfectly understood. Here are the pictures.

Getting Back to Blogging

Hey everyone, sorry for not blogging in almost a month, but for those who don't know the last month, since the flood in my apartment, has been really difficult. I was either unable to live at home because of the flood or locked out from my landlord because he wasn't happy that I was planning to leave at the end of January. In the end, I just didn't feel like writing anything because anything I would have written would have been negative things about China and it would not represent my true feelings of the place.

So, a long story short, to recap what has happened the last month; I have moved out of my old apartment and into a new one. I really like the new one for a few reasons; one its cheaper and from what I found out the average cost of an apartment in Beijing, but also because it is just as good as the old apartment with only a little wear and tear. The thing in my opinion that makes it better is the view, I live on the 19th floor and look south into the center of the city! And the fact that the landlord isn't crazy and I that I now have heat (I actually have to open the window a little because it gets so hot).

Here are a few pictures from my apartment. In the third picture, in the upper, middle-left of the image you can see a large bright light. That is the Dragon Building and the Olympic Green.