Into the Great Unknown

Today represents a huge breakthrough for Diego and me. Huge. There is no way to overestimate the importance of this day. FOR ON THIS DAY, WE VENTURED INTO REALMS WHICH HAVE KNOWN NO MORTAL SOUL! EMPIRES WILL RISE AND FALL, HISTORIES WILL BE REWRITTEN, THE RACE OF MAN SHALL BE SWALLOWED UP INTO THE VERY THROAT OF THE EARTH BUT THIS DAY! [imagine this next part in even larger capital letters] THIS DAY SHALL NOT BE FORGOTTEN BECAUSE ON THIS DAY, DIEGO AND KEVIN EXPLORED ONE BLOCK OF THEIR FAIR NEW CITY!

No joke. For about ten days now, we have eaten dinner at the same two restaurants. We have known two streets in Nanjing. And now we know three! But oh man, is it a good third street. There's a massage parlor approximately three minutes away from our hotel, and it's cheap. There are several restaurants cheap enough for a couple of poor foreigners. Some even have picture menus! Diego and I peeked into about every shop on the street, just curious to see what was going on. Most of the restaurateurs reacted strangely when we popped in just to have a look at the menu, but we had to do our research. At one swanky restaurant, we looked in and met a Chinese woman who spoke no English but refused to give us a menu, albeit sadly. We were about to leave when a whole host of workers came to greet us, led by the owner of the shop. It turns out the restaurant wasn't open for business for another ten days, but the Chinese man invited us inside in fluent English, telling us everything was on the house. They were testing all the food and wanted to know our opinion. We had just eaten dinner at one of our two approved restaurants and weren't hungry, but we came in anyway to have some tea. We chatted for about a half hour. The man moved to Nanjing one year ago on a business hunch, and explained to us the intricate details of his economic reasoning. He was cool. We talked to one of the waitresses for awhile too and she told us about some of the cool places to visit in Nanjing.

I feel good about today. I think it's the beginning of a more comfortable, enjoyable, adventurous time in China.