Caolaoji

The school that I am at is on a little country road between the large Bengbu city and a small town named Caolaoji. The first week here we mostly explored this little, impoverished town and we’ve gone there quite a few times since and even made a few friends. Here’s one of the days we went to town:

The streets are filled with all these little shops (everything is so cheap!) that we spent the day looking through. I bought a backpack and a much needed watch (each under $5).

For some reason everyone likes to show us to their babies. Everywhere we go, people will just bring up their babies to say hi.

We went into a wedding dress shop (just to see what their dresses look like—don’t get any ideas!) and the owner started filming us. He was just following us around, filming us…it was actually kind of awkward.

Then the next day my friends were walking past his shop, he motioned them in, and showed them a commercial for his shop—with us it! I’m in a Chinese commercial! How funny is that!? Sadly the commercial isn’t that great, but I still think it’s hilarious. My friend filmed it on her camera while they were watching it (so just ignore the voices in the background haha).

We found a restaurant along one of the streets with the most delicious noodles. Every time we visit this town—we stop and see the noodle man (plus a huge plate of noodles cost less than a US dollar). The plate below is some beef, some peppers, some bamboo, and one giant noodle—which he makes in less than a minute! I included a video on how he makes the noodle, because it is seriously cool!

To get back to school, we decided to take a ricochet with a sweet, old man instead of going on the bus. Driving in China is crazy! There doesn’t seem like there’s any defined rules and it’s perfectly normal to drive into head-on traffic (just make sure to honk first). Needless to say…we were a little nervous driving home—but it was really fun!

I love that little town!