A couple of stories from life here in Changsha...

I bleached it...
So, the very first night I was here in Changsha, I saw a very large roach in my dining area. It ran under the refrigerator, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I was a little freaked, to be honest, and creeped out by the thought of the thing. It was big, brown and, as Levi would say, "yucky". I kept an eye out for it, but it didn't materialize. Even after I moved the refrigerator I didn't see it.
Not too long after I moved its would-be home, the roach re-appeared. It showed up in my bathroom back in the corner where the walls come together under the sink (the sink's pipes are exposed). Looking around frantically for something with which to kill it, all I could find was some bleach... so, I bleached it. I "threw" a bunch of bleach out of the bottle and in the general direction of the roach. Then, I ran to get the mop to kill it, but by the time I got back it was gone. Now I'm keeping my eyes open for a white-speckled roach!

Deep Fried for Free
Here in "the 'Sha" there are lots of places with food on sticks. They're these little shops with tofu, hot dogs, steamed buns, veggies, and other things, all on sticks. When you buy them, they drop them in a vat of hot oil and fry them for you. When they pull them out, they paint them in spicy la jiao and hand them to you to walk an eat. (Incidentally, picture a long toothpick that you're eating off of-- why not walk down the uneven sidewalk, where you could trip and fall, with a toothpick in your mouth? Ouch!)
So the other night my teammate and I stopped at a food-on-a-stick place b/c she hadn't eaten dinner. She grabbed some of the stuff mentioned above, and I asked for a banana that had been breaded with an unknown substance... anything "unknown" is at least worth a try, right?! So we chatted with the sellers of the food on sticks, and the young man mentioned that we speak very standard Chinese. (In the South, people often speak with a heavy accent, but we're learning to speak standard Chinese in class.) Then, the two sellers talked for a bit in Changsha Hua, or Changsha language, which neither of us can understand. When our food was finished, they pulled it out, handed it to us (fortunately skipping the spicy stuff on the banana), and we asked how much it was. "Song gei ni," the boy said. That means, we're giving it to you for free. What?! No... but they wouldn't take a fen (a penny) for the food. They were just happy to help a couple foreigners with good Chinese!

Tutor Time
Today I met with my tutor for about 3 hours of class. We spent most of the time chatting in Chinese, which is something I haven't had many chances to do lately. The words we looked up include: skull, poppy, kidney, slingshot and galbladder. Yep... those all have connection, right?