J+6 Life in Nanjing city...

I am officially in love with Nanjing city...
It has just the right mix of everything! Not too many cars, I hardly feel the pollution, not too many motorcycles, a lot of bicycles, some great shops, some HUGE luxurious (and air conditioned) shopping malls, thousands of restaurants, food markets, a GIGANTESQUE library, very big supermarkets, a beautiful lake, a lot of trees, small and interesting back streets, a wonderful underground system...
I could continue for a long time! It's cosmopolitan, but still very authentic!
And I am blessed: my chinese family owns a flat as downtown as you can possibly get!
Not only do they live downtown, they also have a very good restaurant...
I eat there everyday.
The first cultural change that hits you when you are a foreigner here is the food:
It is extremely tasty. The meal starts, and a lot of different dishes are brought to the table, they keep coming for about an hour and you never know when it's going to end!
Chinese people are very generous with guests and show a lot of hospitality.
They keep filling my plate with vegetables, rice, fried and spicy chicken feet (yes, they eat them), pork belly, tofu, spicy potato, Beijing duck, dumplings, soup, grilled fish, coriander stir fry, ginger sauce....
There are implicit rules I discover every day, such as :
- you can not touch your chopsticks if the person providing the food has not started
- you must not hold your glass if you are not drinking, it's rude.
- you must not say "thank you" every time you are offered something, it makes them uncomfortable.

Here, we have a different breakfast every single day. So far, I have tried spicy beef noodles with corn, rice "purée" with fish and vinegar cucumber with egg...

My host parents are trying their best to make me taste everything.

We walked around the city today, and they bought me a bicycle so that I can cycle to school. It was very difficult finding one my size, it seemed to amuse all the salespeople in Carrefour.