veggies and bike repair

Supplies for the last (at least for a while) batch of spaghetti sauce and salad for students and another salad to take to a friend's house. All bought at the nearby market (total of 37 yuan for evertything, bought from different vendors) where they watch and comment on what I buy.
"Please give me just half a pound of beansprouts."
"You're just cooking for one, huh?"
Well, actually, the beansprouts were to put in this salad, and half a jin (close to a pound) was plenty.

This is my last and smallest group of students to have over for spaghetti and meatballs. They were a fun group.

I had a close to flat tire last week so the bike repairman put a new tube in it for me for a dollar. He was a really nice guy. We had a limited conversation in Chinese about how long I've had the bike, where I bought it, how much I paid, etc. I couldn't remember the word for week at the time, so I told him I'd had it for two... and then I paused. He said "years?". "No." "Months?" and I went ahead and said yes, even though I've had it closer to two weeks. I guess weeks would have been his next choice down the list. Then I told him I bought it at the used market. (Funny how I could remember the name for that and not the word for week.) He told me I paid about 50 yuan (6 or 7 bucks) too much for it, but I figure that's just the foreigner markup and don't feel too bad about it. Now I have an issue with the pedals so I have to go back, but I'm glad I made a friend. This is one good reason to get a used bike - more practice with the language when I need to get it fixed.

I planted a ginger root a few months ago and now there's a long shoot that's grown out of it. Not sure why I planted the thing, but it has grown a pretty impressive shoot.