My Birthday Noodles

Oh my god – I am XX years old! We arrived today in Zhongning （中宁）, Ningxia Province. We are closer to Yanchuan, putting us seemingly closer to civilization! The town is smaller but seems better off, cleaner, not as removed as Zhongwei, there is a real bar next door to the hotel called 4:55, which I WOULD love to try out, but having to sneak out like a teen-ager for every non-group activity is becoming somewhat demeaning! As I sit here typing, I am sipping on a Tsingdao beer surreptitiously sneaked in while the team was in a group meeting. We didn’t visit any villages today. LJ hosted a very nice lunch for me where I ate some special noodles, with an egg on top. From configuration of the egg one is supposed to be able to divine the fate of one's upcoming year, I had no such ability to translate my egg. (see photo!); and the group sang me Happy Birthday. Very sweet.

After lunch we headed out for an afternoon adventure, shopping for Gouqi (枸杞)。 The market was huge yet only a few marketers were there to sell the gouqi. I love watching the Chinese bargaining in full effect. We browsed, inquired, bargained, walked away, returned, tasted, continued to bargain, up to the very last moment as we were transferring the money into the shop-woman’s hands. I really couldn’t tell one farmer’s berries from another, yet at least a dozen wolfberry sellers were present to separately sell their wares. And within each seller, there were at least 3 different varieties of wolfberries. In the end, I think we got the best berries for the best price, for sure! It was a lot of fun!