Typhoon!

Big news today about the storm hitting the coast. I'm glad we left Shanghai a few days ago! We're close enough to the center of it to have lots of rain, wind and adventure, but not nearly the drama that Shanghai has seen.

My group ended up missing our clinic shift this morning due to the rain. We got stuck in traffic for an hour in a taxi just to go about 10 blocks. To make up for the inconvenience, 3 of us decided to the shop next door to our hotel where we each received a 2-hour long foot massage, which ended up costing the equivalent of $7.71. My favorite part was getting a poultice of fresh ginger on our knees, which were then wrapped in warm towels, and then wrapped in heavy plastic. What a way to warm up from the cold!

We've been having endless excellent Chinese food, and have discovered some delicacies like coconut juice and fresh watermelon juice, and have found many new and familiar tastes. We've been to many types of restaurants (we don't have cooking facilities in our accomodations) including a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant, a small home-style place, and to restaurants where each group gets it's own private room. My favourite dish so far is the "Tastes like fish eggplant" which doesn't actually taste like fish! I'm also getting hooked on the traditional breakfast food, which is watery rice ("congee") into which you put a variety of pickled vegetables. Yum!