shi bong ding

I'm not really sure what the title above means. It's Chinese for something, and it's pronounced like "sure bong ding". Dr. Robertson used to say it, and it's a lot of fun. Anywho, yesterday I had my one on one session, where we discussed some more pragmatic language issues. For instance, I found out that "zhe ge" means this, not "zhe shi" which is a way of asking what something is. So, for these past three weeks I have been at restaurants saying "Wo yao zhe shi" which has been translating to "I want to know what this is." Which would explain why every time I ordered I would face a barrage of indechipherable Chinese. Ah, the more you know.

Yesterday, my roommate showed me the shady mall where you can buy all of the knock off stuff. I got some sweet Ray Ban knockoffs for about less than 10USD. I also, got a 4GB memory card for 15 USD. The only electronics which our cheaper here are memory cards, oddly enough. Also, we were taking to a shady "cabbage truck" store, where you had to knock on the door to be let in. Kacy, send pictures and money with Dad, and I'm pretty sureI can get you a real prada bag for about 60 USD.

Anyways, I leave for our trip to Xi'an and Urumqi tommorrow. I am stoked! So I probably won't be updating for a little over a week. But not to worry, I'll take plenty of pictures.

I love everyone!