A date with Julianna at Flavorful Noodle Village

While I mentioned in previous post that I was rapidly improving in my ability to communicate, I will admit that I did not translate the sign below.  Matt did the translation of the sign above the restaurant and even he acknowledged that it was a bit of a rough translation but we could "go with it" since it did sound good.  And it does sound like a good Chinese restaurant name -- and the ambiance fits too.  

Oldest granddaughter and I had a date.  We went for a ride on Matt and Laura's motor scooter and then toured the offerings of street food vendors and "fast food" shops along the various restaurant rows in front of the University where Matt teaches.  This one won out - in part because I had tried it before on my own one morning and we could not find a place serving the local version of meat and vegetables on a stick or shau caou.  

We had rice noodles with tomato and fried egg.  I got it by accident one day and really liked it.   The drinks are mango and a fruit mix.

 There you see one of the restaurant rows behind Julianna as we select our table prior to ordering.  Our dates are quite the big deal and we enjoy them very much.  This was not a cloth napkin type place --note the Sichuan Airlines baggage handler in the background with his pants legs rolled up.  We were fortunate that no young, or old, man had his shirt rolled up barring midriff.

On our dates we take photos of each other so below is the one Julianna took of me.  We are a bit of a curiosity and get more than a few passing stares despite the fact that this is an University community and an international airport community where many of the people work with the airlines in various capacities.  It is quite common to see pilots or flight attendants in uniform.  Fortunately though no one speaks to us or makes a big deal over us as has been done on more than one occasion.

As is obvious from the store to my left, it is not all restaurant row.  That is a plumbing / building supply retail store with squatie toilets right there to be picked up should you be in the market.  Other building supply materials are available including sinks and orange hard hats.

Earlier in the day, I regaled the kids with photos from the last time the kids were in the USA and a special treat was seeing a photo stream of Raleigh that Jen has sent and seeing a series of old photos of Laura and Stephen that I had scanned and were in one of the files on the computer.

And of course I spent some time helping them with life skills, here we are doing refresher work with the girls on rummy.   Please note, if they win, they win, if I win, I win.  We play cards with winning as an objective.      

Now Isaac is a year or so away so he and I were playing Buzz LIght Year car cards.  Isaac presorts so he gets Buzz and I insist on the tow truck character - I forget his name. (I had it this afternoon, but it is gone now -- you get my age and you will know what I am talking about)