2002-11-13 - 11:50 a.m.

Life In Nanjing

I'm sitting in an Internet Cafe off the lobby of Lily's hotel in Nanjing, China. The connection seems to be especially slow, which makes me feel that this is an entry that is goinng to get eaten, so I will keep it short (for me)

Much of yesterday was spent in blissful slumber as not only was I recovering from jetlag, I was recovering from missing almost an entire dys' sleep since I couldn't sleep at all on the plane. Then there were those stomach problems which I probably shouldn't talk about.

Im trying to avoid taking my diabetes medication, which was probably the source of my stomach problems, so I am trying to stick to my low-carb diet, which is tough to do in China where everything comes with rice, even rice itself.

I've discovered that it's actually kind of hard to find Diet Coke in China, and totally impossible to find Diet Pepsi. This puzzled me for a second until I took a look around me - why would anyone want a diet drink in China? There are no fat Chinese! As opposed to the U.S.A. where half the country is obese. Just looking at the street life in Nanjing it's easy to see why this is so - foot traffic and bicycle traffic far outnumbers car traffic. Almost everyone uses their legs to get where they're going instead of sitting on their asses 100% of the time. And of the car traffic, I would say that taxis and buses outnumber private cars five to one.

So, are teh Chinese more healthy than Americans? Could be. However, they don't look terribly happy.

Wandering around Nanjing we saw all sort of familiar American names most notably McDonalds and KFC. The Colonel seems to be very popular in China, and a couple of the KFCs have a lifesize statue of him out front, which is kind of creepy. I saw a Chinese parent trying to show the statue to his obviously terrified child. Maybe if they don't eat their vegetables, they say the Colonel will come fry them in batter.

We managed to track down what was wrong with our ATM card, at some expense, by calling my bank long distance. Apparently the bank is updating their computer system, and nothing much is working over here. I tried to get money from my credit card from the same bank this morning and struck out. It's a little scary that there is only one credit card between us and absolute poverty. Let's hope nothing goes wrong that that!

I finally met Lily's classmates, who just returned from Beijing this morning. They are a wild and crazy bunch. Of course I mean that in the nicest way possible. Pleae don't fill my suitcase with shaving cream while I am gone.

Tonight we are leaving for Beijing, so I don't know when I'll be updating again. You haven't lived, people, until you've taken a 14 hour trainride in China.