Summer Trip

I've booked a business class flight to Bangkok and Singapore using points. It's only 30000 for a business class ticket, versus 20000 for economy, so I logically chose to get the best value and fly business. It is better value simply because buying a business class ticket could cost up 10 times the price of an economy one. I've booked the trip for three weeks, with 17 days in Thailand and 4 in Singapore. However, there is a small chance that I may extend the trip (and change my flight) depending on when I actually finish school here (still not sure). But, I've been doing research on the area, and am thinking that based on the time I have and what I want to see, that a trip to Northern Thailand and Laos is in order. Laos is dirt cheap (apparently), and seems to be a bit off the beaten track, which appeals to me. Plus, I can take a boat down the Mekong there. In Singapore, I will probably take a day trip or spend a night in Indonesia's Riau islands. Plus, by doing this I can get a sticker visa, which I really want. Sticker visas look pretty. Unfortunately, by the end of this trip I will have to get a new passport. Canada does not allow pages to be added, and I only have six blank pages remaining. What a drag!

Strange Behavior

Yesterday I was at a Cafe which also serves Western food, and saw some strange behavior from the Chinese people sitting next to me. They were a couple, and ordered two paninis and two pasta dishes for themselves. They didn't eat the paninis at all, and did not finish their pasta. What a waste of food, and what a waste of money. Weirdly enough, Chinese people treat western food the same as Chinese food: sharing is done between dishes. So, if two people order two dishes, they will be both be shared.

Food

Food on campus costs between 1 and 8 yuan at the canteen per person, and about 25 yuan a person at a sit-down restaurant on campus. The food on campus is delicious, even at the canteens. The food at the canteens is safe as well. Since you can seen what you are getting, you can be pretty sure it won't be something bizarre. But, there is no excitement or learning from eating at the canteens. There's nothing better that ordering from a menu that you can't read and being pleasantly surprised with what you get. The downside to this is that the failures can often be spectacular. This is what happened tonight. I went with Martin to one of the restaurants, and he chose a chicken dish based on the picture. It was terrible. Every single piece was cartilage. After reading the name of the dish, we found that it contained the character for 'bone'. I will now know to avoid ordering dishes with this character in the future. To make matters worse, this dish was quite expensive, undoubtedly because they actually had a cut pieces of cartilage from the chicken without a single piece of flesh on them!