Couchsurfing

Couchsurfing is a cool concept of finding accommodation in foreign land whereby travelers put up at the homes of their hosts during their stay in a particular country/city. I had the opportunity to try it out when I went to Xuzhou. We received two positive responses before we set off.

Our hosts are friendly Caucasians who are currently teaching English in that city. They kindly lend us a room to sleep in for two nights, one and a half nights to be exact. Arriving in Xuzhou at 3am was no joke. Thank goodness the host, Max, came down from his apartment to bring us up. We were so fatigued that we went to bed without realizing that we did not turn on the heater in the room. The result- 3 shivering females in the morning.

Our hosts stood us up for dinner that night and so we had dinner with our alternative host (also a Caucasian who is teaching English in Xuzhou) and her friends. They treated us to yummy XinJiang food and were all very friendly.

Honestly, couchsurfing has its own risks too. Who can feel completely safe staying in a stranger’s home? And on the other hand, who can feel completely safe letting stranger(s) stay in his/her home? Set aside the fears and insecurities, couchsurfing can be a good way to make friends and save money. =)

We made some friends over dinner!

Fish with leek.

Corn, carrot, cucumber, raisins= crunchy and sweet. Cabbage in spicy gravy in the background.

Orange-flavoured mash potato.
The main item inside this dish is mutton, which I did not eat . But the fried beancurd skin that was also in this dish tasted heavenly.

The above are just half of the dishes we had that night......