Week 9: I

INCENSE:

Incense outside a Buddhist temple. (Well, kind of a Buddhist temple. Another miscommunication on our part, but we still liked the park.)

ITLIAT: Of all of the counterfeit goods I've seen here (Louis Buitton, Ducci, Real Stars [Converse All-Stars]), my favorites are the Kappa (at times, Lappa) jackets that say ITLIAT on them. Viva Itliat! I'm not exaggerating when I say that one in 10 people on the streets wears some sort of Italia jacket or t-shirt. Ma mi trovo in Cina o in Italia? Forza Azzurri!

INNER-MONGOLIAN: I can't begin to tell you how cool I think it is that I share my office with not one but two Inner-Mongolians. (The other one didn't want to have her picture taken because she was having a bad-hair day, and as part of the international sisterhood, I had to respect that.) This is Nancy.

INDIGESTION: Last night we went to the wedding dinner for one of my fellow teachers. This was the spread that met us at our table. Since we are in a coastal town, much of the dinner was fish-based. We had been at the restaurant for about two minutes when the waitresses ran up with forks and knives for the foreigners. That still didn't help me figure out how to eat the crab or sea urchins.

Here are the bride and groom. (Guess if I was on the bride's side or the groom's.)

A tradition at Chinese weddings is that the bride has to light cigarettes for the male guests and she has to unwrap candies and feed them to female guests. Because, you know, nothing says everlasting love like cancer sticks and decaying teeth.