"Insectual"

I took a nice cool shower to strip myself clean of the elements of this new city, feeling both lonely and content. I spent the evening in the company of a few of my classmates, three other friendly students with whom I shared a meal of soup dumplings that exploded with every bite in spite of the warning signs put up on the walls of the establishment. Then I drank another Snowflake (雪花) lite beer and ate lamb skewers (羊肉串); I sat on a stool at a small roadside table with my fellow cohorts, soaking in the muggy night. I was very warmly invited to sit outside the little kiosk where I bought the beer by the woman shopkeeper, but decided I needed skewers to accent this beer. Thought about Nanjing, my impressions after two days here. I was never met at the airport by CIEE program staff when I arrived so I hopped on a shuttle bus that took me to some place in the city center unbeknownst to me and from there I hailed a taxi to take me to Nanjing University. The taxis here are mostly an emerald green color, with the hard plastic guard wall separating driver from passenger. A few other cabs are a sleek marlin blue, but I chanced upon a green one. The driver swept through the hectic streets, heavily congested with bikers, mopeds, pedestrians, buses and the like. We pulled onto a large avenue called 北京西路 and passed down through it smoothly like a blood cell through a major vessel. It was by far the most beautiful street I have ever been on; lined uniformly on either side with towering planetrees whose thick overhanging branches with the scaly bark created a canopy tunnel over the road. My jaw must have dropped, taking in all of the scene at once, the imagery so overpowering. Nanjing is a good city. Dirty, pretty, and raw just the way I like them.