new food finding strategy

Food. It's the most stressful thing about being on my own here. Getting around is no problem. I can ask someone to write addresses in Chinese that I can show a cab driver. There isn't much that I can't reach on foot anyway. And I have my hotel key card with the name and address so that I can always get to my temporary home again. But eating is stressful. I think about my next meal all day long - can I find someone willing to eat with me? Will I actually be able to suck it up and point at a stranger's plate to say "I'll have that" if I get that needy? Can I be patient enough to find that goldmine restaurant with an english menu or at least pictures of the food at which I can become a repeat customer? Besides the foreigner bar on the other side of town, which I do love but would feel strange frequenting every night of the week. And I have to plan in advance so that I don't get too hungry which always turns me very moody and emotional. So far I'm doing okay, but I keep getting lucky.

This evening I decided "okay, I'm getting brave. Time to get out there and just look for a place on my own." So I wandered down the street looking in the windows of all of the restaurants. Most are too small and local and look a little dark and intimidating. But the big restaurants are full of people who will stare at me - also too intimidating. I had finally settled on a place I'd been to with friends before that has outside seating, so it seemed a little more comfortable. I turned around to go back in that direction when a young man walked up next to me and said "do you have time to talk with me?" English practice. This happens all of the time. Multiple times a day I get approached by young college students wanting the opportunity to practice their English. 99% of the time, they're Ughyur. The Chinese are too shy, but the Ughyurs seem to have much more outgoing personalities. Perhaps because they know their pronunciation is very good. The pronunciation of the Ughyur language is more similar to English than is Chinese, so they do have a much easier time communicating with me. I have had a few women come up to me, but most of them are men - again, more bold and confident. The hairs on the back of my neck are very well tuned, so most of the time when someone comes up to me, I make pleasant chitchat with them for just a moment and then quickly extract myself. I just get a weird vibe sometimes that the first question they want to ask is "are you married?" This guy, Enwar, is the first man I've met lately who didn't give me that feeling. So we spoke for a few minutes, and I told him that I was looking for a place to eat but that I do not read Chinese or Ughyur, so the menus are challenging. He offered his suggestions, and then I just decided to ask if he had already eaten dinner. I clearly surprised him, but we agreed it would be a nice favor to me as well as an opportunity to practice his english, so we settled in a very crowded, very public, and very well-lit restaurant (that's for all of you who are going to worry that I take too many chances :) Over dinner, he gave me a lecture about safety, and then he walked me to the gates of the university but not all of the way to the hotel. He seemed to have a good sense of what was appropriate. It was a nice conversation, a good dinner, and now I have a new friend. Everyone here asks for my phone number, so it's kind of nice that I don't have a chinese number. I give them my email address instead. I've given my email address to half a dozen people already, and none of them have written to me. But it would be nice to keep in touch with a few people.

And tomorrow night I am meeting a woman who approached me yesterday in the same way. She is a law student here at Xinjiang University and wants to go to dinner with me. Score another meal. It's my treat for anyone who wants to come eat with me, since they're doing me such a huge favor. I can't afford to become the Incredible Shrinking Woman in my last two weeks here. And it's far nicer than eating alone anyway.

On the short walk from the university gate to the hotel, I encountered a woman carrying a basket of flowers that was half her height and a third of her weight. Poor thing. She was taking 10 steps and stopping, again and again. So I felt sorry for her and decided to take the handle of the basket to share the weight and get her where she was going. Little did I realize that was going to be clear to the *other* side of campus. At least a half mile walk. I didn't mind, and I'm glad I did. She'd probably be struggling with that basket until tomorrow morning at the rate she was going. But she kept trying to talk to me in Chinese. Not much point to that. I just kept smiling and trudging on with her gianormous floral arrangement, chuckling to myself at all of the strange looks we were getting.