The Magic of China

 In English 'Dan' is a nickname, usually short for Daniel if a man or Daniella if a lady. But in Chinese 'dan' or 蛋 means 'Egg'. A ginger, bearded, overweight man from Nevada Las Vegas, but apparently he was from the 'countryside' area. He was also the most popular teacher in the centre, as he seemed to 'wear' his weight well, combined with a certain American charm and humour for the students. It was easy to see how students were 'drawn' into his personality.  Our birthdays were only two days apart, his was on February 25th and mine was on the 27th. It would be my first birthday in China, but for him, it was his third and he would turn 34 and me, 27. Since his birthday was close to the Chinese main holiday, Spring Festival, he decided to plan a two week trip to Japan and South Korea, as he said that he liked to visit at least one new country for every year of his birthday. The new country would be South Korea for him this year, bringing t...

 YoYo was downstairs in the hotel waiting for me, and she kindly bought me breakfast, though I really wasn't sure what it was and whether I liked it, but she made me eat all of it. It included two tea eggs, that is, eggs marinated in soy sauce and bay leaves for around two days, again with another vegetable baozi, and soy milk, a very traditional Chinese breakfast. I was beginning to understand that Chinese cuisine didn't really have 'breakfast' in the same sense as the West where we generally have different types of food according to the type of day, for example, cereal or eggs on toast in the morning, while fish and chips, lasagne or pies would be served for dinner. From my limited experience in China, they would eat the same food for breakfast as what they would during the rest of the day.  She walked me over to a 'secret' passage in the shopping mall underground, and got the lift to floor 4F on the way to the centre. She introduced me to Andy, who was a rath...