Inner Mongolia

Our trip to Inner Mongolia was an interesting adventure. I had thought we were going by train, but somehow I missed the memo that we were taking the bus instead. It was okay though. When you take the bus you still get to see the country (though you are much more susceptible to traffic jams).

We pulled out the south gate of the university on Friday at 12:50pm, only twenty minutes behind schedule—not bad for a group of about 45 people from all over the world. I sat in the middle seat of the back row so that I could take advantage of the leg room in the aisle (Travel tip: while this is a good strategy for short trips, on a long trip it is better to sit by the window. You have a better view for taking pictures, and it is easier to sleep).

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Chinglish of the Day

There were a couple of interesting signs at the breakfast buffet the other day:

A better translation would probably be "crispy sausages". . . .

I couldn't figure out why they would translate the left one as "mushroom rape" until I got home and looked up the characters. The one on the left is referring to rapeseed, the brassica plant similar to collard greens. It was fried mushrooms and greens. I still haven't figured out the one on the right. . . .