What am I doing?

Last night, my dad and I went through the steps for making kipfles wraps on the phone. I’ve made similar to the filling, and I’ve folded thousands and thousands of kipfels, but I never made the dough. While talking to my dad, he mentioned one of the ingredients was cream cheese.

Me: What can substitute for cream cheese?
Dad: They don’t have cream cheese there?
Me: Do I live in Philidelphia?
Dad: Well … I don’t know, maybe sour cream, or use something like Cool Whip?
Me: Do they have Cool Whip in China? Anyway, forget the cream cheese, I remember there’s some Jewish lady who makes bagels that are sold in a couple stores in this city, so maybe I can somehow reach her. What about Pet Milk?
Dad: They don’t have Pet Milk?
Me: Not that I’ve ever seen.
Dad: It’s milk that comes in cans.
Me: I know. We have milk that comes in bags.
Dad: Dried?
Me: No …

When I came to work today lamenting the lack of ingredients, my boss suggested I check his Insider’s Guide to Beijing book. I did.

Wow.

Is this how foreigners live in China? I’m kind of in shock. This book makes it sound like your life in China should be similar to an episode of Friends: go to the theater, go to a wine tasting, go to a club, go hiking, watch Joey do something stupid, go to a club, rent a flat above Starbucks.

Thinking back, the only time I ever went around town with foreigners even while working at my last job was when I was being dragged to a bar or out to eat somewhere beyond my budget.

Do people actually do this most days of the week? If so, how in the f——k can they afford it? I make a pretty reasonable salary of 5,000元 per month (that’s about $714 US with how the criminals running the USA are ruining that country’s economy–used to be $615) and I could never afford it.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.