chapter 2 - snacks.

The arrived at the hostel and Alyssa got checked in. The owners of the hostel spoke a few words of English and that helped the process. Austin helped her carry her stuff up to her room, a room with 6 bunks, a shared bathroom and showers, and a cabinet to lock your stuff in. Well, at least it was cheap she thought. The rest of the hostel was nice with a cafe area, kitchen area, outdoor seating, garden, bar, and koi pond.

Once she got her stuff unpacked and locked away, Austin asked her "are you hungry" to which she replied "yes very, a connection, a long flight, and terrible plane food. I have hardly eaten anything in 24 hours". Austin motioned for her to follow him saying "OK, well let me show you the nearest convenience store then" . Just a block away there was an All Days convenience store, as they walked in together, Austin said "you are going to be amazed at all the crazy snacks here, and it is super cheap by American standards." They went in together and within a few minutes they were both carrying as much junk food as they could carry. Things like: Cucumber Flavored Pringles, Tiramisu Oreos, some kind of yogurt drink, all sorts of Chinese candies, 5 different kinds of dove chocolate bars, and assorted boxes of cookies. They piled them down on the counter in front of the clerk and Austin asked her "Do you like beer? Chinese beer is actually pretty good and it is very cheap. Though often not very cold." Alyssa replied "I love beer, probably a bit too much haha". Austin then grabbed an assortment of different Chinese beers and put them on the counter as well. They paid the clerk and walked out of the store carrying two big plastic grocery bags full of beer and junk food. Total cost, 59 yuan which about 8 dollars American. "That was so cheap!" Alyssa exclaimed. "Well wait until you see all the street food" Austin said.

They walked back to the hostel and sat down together in the cafe area with their junk food. Austin opened them 2 beers and told her "just start trying stuff, see what you think". Alyssa ripped into the Tiramisu Oreos saying "wow these are good", Austin replied "Wait until you try some Peach / Grape Oreos then". Alyssa laughed at think that had to be a crazy flavor. Surprisingly, the Cucumber Pringles were incredible and she ate the whole tube of them. The beer was pretty good too, basically like American style beer. She quickly drank her first, and Austin opened her another. All the candies were good, though in some cases strangely flavored. The Dove Chocolates bars were great, especially the Matcha flavor and the Mango Chocolate flavor.

Before long, the two bags of junk food and beer were just two bags of wrappers and empty bottles. As Austin got up to throw it all in the trash bin he remarked jokingly "I guess you were hungry". Alyssa laughed and said, "yeah I was, but I am crazy full now. I am going to go for a run tomorrow morning and burn this off". Austin replied "I hope that works for you, a lot of people have trouble running here due to the pollution. Some are more sensitive to it than others. I find I can run in it, but a lot of people can't. If you do run though, go up Nanjing towards The Bund. It is a pedestrian street and is easy to run on in the mornings." Alyssa stood up and said "OK, well thank you for showing me around. I am so tired now, jet lag you know. " Austin got up as well "I don't have anything going on tomorrow so I can show you the local food street if you would like me to." The notion of a food street surprised Alyssa and she wondered how a billion Chinese people stayed so thin. She replied "that would be great, thank you so much" and went up to her room.