圣诞节和星巴克 Christmas and Starbucks...

Christmas Tree My Mom Sent Me!!!!
Originally uploaded by Alexandra Lord

Today I did not do much. Sort of hung out at the apartment, washed dishes, watched some Chinese dramas and some game shows. Then headed over to Roberts, our computer room at the Foreign Student Dorms, and checked my email. Plus, as an extra surprise I received my second package from my Mom!!!! In the first package she had actually included a tree and other gifts so I was excited to see what was in this package. This one was just as fun as the last and had 2 sets of thick sock, 2 books, Snickers(!!!) more Christmas gifts, and lots of Good Earth Tea! I'm really excited to use the socks since it is cold here and my apartment only has the one space heater I bought and the one air conditioning unit in my bedroom. It is really expensive to heat my room with the AC so I generally only heat it up before I want to go to bed and then turn it off once I’m under the covers. Anyway, I ate 3 Snickers right away (snack size, mind you) . They have Snickers here but they are lacking in peanuts! So, the ones my Mom sent are AMAZING!!!

Starbucks in Downtown Chengdu
Originally uploaded by Alexandra Lord

Then I called Daniel to see what he was up to and he invited me to go downtown, Cheng Qi Lu. We went and he took me to a super expensive grocery store in the basement of a department store called Setan. Daniel thinks the name sounds like Satan so he thinks it’s funny we were is “Satan’s Basement”. They have a good selection of pastries; I bought 2 doughnuts. Plus, I also got a REALLY good ham and cheese sandwich for 8Y ($1.15). (Which I later realized they did not charge me for). Plus, they had some other good imports like cheap butter. Funny thing though, the salted butter was more expensive than the unsalted. Isn’t the opposite true in the States? Anyway, it was fun and I also got some fruit tea and ground pepper.

Then we headed over to one of the 4 Starbucks in the area (there are like 16 in Chengdu) and we played dominos and I had my first coffee in China. I got a Nut Toffee Latte. It was very good although a bit pricy at 32Y ($4.6) for their medium size. If you’re planning to set in the store with your coffee, it is served in a porcelain mug. Very fun! This was not my first visit to a Starbuck here or even my first purchase in one. However, I hadn’t bought coffee in China until then. We got comfy chairs because I forced us to move when a woman using 3 sofa seats left… they were nicer than the hard wooden seats ^_^
Also talked to Eddie and he said we could set up my internet tomorrow (Saturday) after I return from going to a garden with a Sichuan Grad student, Zhao Nan, who I’m working with on my research project.