Recycle

During the last weeks of being in China, my previous sitemate was packing, throwing stuff away, and filling boxes to donate; however, in my city, we did not know of any donation drop off sites where we could give away re-usable nice clothes.  There were no Goodwills or used clothing stores we could sell our clothes to.  So what did my sitemate do?  She filled a cardboard box full of her good clothes that she didn't want to take back to the states and left it on the first floor in front of the trash chute hoping someone would come by and recycle her good clothes.  She left for the supermarket.  When she returned, all the clothes had been dumped on the ground and the cardboard box had disappeared.  In China, people do not wear used clothing. In America, I was so happy to be eating refried beans for breakfast covered with cheese and was super happy when my friend made a refried bean yummy soup.  In China, there are dried beans, but it takes like four hours to cook them.  Often I can't wait and am eating crunchy beans.  I don't often cook beans because it is a waste of gas when I can just get my protein from meat dishes.  In Africa I would often use up the gas to cook beans.  I needed a variety in my diet, but in China this is not necessary.   My new favorite drink is blended beans.  The cafeteria has bowls of black eyed peas and white beans.  The drink maker takes a spoonful of beans, dumps it in a blender, and adds some hot soy milk then whirls away making a delicious hot bean drink.  It is almost as good as refried beans; although, you can't really eat refried beans through a straw.  Beans through a straw, Yum.