Chengdu Week 5 - Midweek update (Pictures of Raffles City)

So many friends!!

Sept. 28, 2014

    Today I didn't get up until 10 am, which as some of you may know is fairly strange. But I have been so tired I made today a lazy catch up on sleep day. I essentially did very little today other than homework and reading. There was also a nap involved at some point. At night though there was a plan to go to Raffles City, a large shopping complex near by. It’s right next to computer City which is an electronics complex. The interns Chiyi and Lin took us there, they are being very helpful in continuing to orient us with our area. I have a lot of fun with the both of them. It’s hard to explain but they are super comfortable with us so it makes switching between English and Chinese not so bad, I learned a few Chinese songs tonight. Over all it was pretty much a hanging out quiet day. My batteries are recharged and ready to go for the National Holiday! Only two days of school this week then we have break for the rest of the week! Let the adventures begin.

Sept. 29, 2014

    Class was interesting today. For some reason our Loashi was using way more English than normal. I think she is worried that we aren’t understanding some of the new grammars. It was all a little bit strange. After class I holed up and did the last bit of homework before the exam. After tomorrow we are officially on holiday from school until next Monday. October 1st is the founding of the People’s Republic of China. This is a holiday everyone gets off, so many people save up and travel. Beijing infamously becomes a ghost town because all the migrant factory workers go back to their home towns. We have a few tentative plans for the holiday it should be interesting. I wonder what it will be like.
    After homework Dee and I were in the room chatting about cultures and experience with travel abroad. People who travel often have similar life experiences and that’s how we all end up in the same country. At the same time those people have different perspectives and come from all walks of life; it’s an interesting balance. After a while I got a call from Jose to walk to Raffles City, the shopping complex, for dinner. He, Cassidy, and Brennan had snuck out while I was doing homework and had ended up there. We ended up in a little Japanese restaurant that was actually quite tasty. We wandered back t the dorms and then it was homework and studying. I am going to sign off early, and catch up on sleep. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

Sept. 30, 2014

    Finally got a good long rest! I crashed at about 10pm last night a slept through until my alarm. Class still takes a lot out of me though. I think it’s just the fact it is a foreign language 9 in the morning. My classmates and I are preparing for our first examination which will occur on Monday. Most of our holiday is going to be spent studying, I think. Which is fine while we are here to explore we are also here to learn. I am hoping for a balanced holiday. After class Cassidy and I solo missioned out into the restaurants. Unfortunately, a bunch of the usual shops are closing own for what looks like renovations, but it is unclear. Who knows, businesses pop up and disappear all the time in China; I’ll keep you updated on our wayward noodle and Baozi shop.
    After lunch I went off to go meet Mabel, due to the holiday She and Cindy are in town, which is good for me. I can work extra and get more cash, I feel a little bit bad for Cindy though. Her mom expects her to speak English for two hours after a three hour car ride back to Chengdu. Needless to say Cindy was incredibly distracted, it was still fun. I was actually kind of glad that I got to see them, it makes Cindy more comfortable around me. When I got back to the dorm I immediately was ferreted away by my Chinese friend. I am not going to say her name just because she and I had an interesting discussion and I don’t want her linked back to it. She is helping me with my Chinese and I with her English. We ended up talking about China and things that have happened. She then proceeded to tell that the Chinese government was ‘bad’, and that they lie to their citizens. She has a foreign teacher from whom she learned the events of Tiananmen Square in the 1980s. It was interesting to listen to her view because she loves China, but the government frustrates her. I thought it was very interesting.
    We headed off back to the dorm after walking around the campus. The dorm kitchen as per usual was filled with people and cooking. Kong as always was frying us up some grub, we all went in for some dinner for the next couple of days considering how busy Chengdu will be. It’s always fun to eat at home and not spend  bunch of money (and by bunch I mean 1.33 USD). But yeah, so we ate and laughed and generally had a good time. Life is good as we head into the holiday, tomorrow should hopefully be interesting.

Chengdu Week 4 - Saturday Adventures! (Most pictures at the end)

Study book for English

Pizza Hut Menu

Sept. 27, 2014

    My day began earlier than I wanted it to, but it is technically my first day of work. I went to the Starbucks on Jingli road at 9:30. Quickly after I arrived, my new tutee appeared ready to learn. I quickly found out that Cindy actually speaks very good English and could easily describe and play games in English. This makes my life so much easier. Now all she really needs to do is practice speaking, I am essentially her english language partner. It was quite fun for both of us though I think at the end she started getting a little bit bored. Two hours is a long time for a four year old to try to learn. It was funny the looks that the other Chinese people would give because we were both speaking English. After the tutoring session Mabel, Cindy’s mom, took me out to lunch. We went to Pizza Hut, which is so very different than Pizza Hut in the USA. This restaurant is more like a Chili’s in terms of variety and food quality. It was actually quite tasty, though this is the first time I have even had corn on a pizza.
    After lunch Mabel wanted to go shopping for some things and I think she wanted Cindy to continue practicing her English. So we first went to Ito Yokado, which is a high end import store, waaaaaay to expensive for my taste. After that though I got to go to Metro. What is Metro you may be asking, I will tell you: Chinese CostCo. This one is geared towards businesses so here were lots of things that I have seen in shops, like the large red welcome rugs. We wandered around for a long time. Cindy likes to sing so we did about 100 rounds of “Head, Shoulder, knees and Toes” it was quite fun. The only issue I have in big shopping areas is there are always way too many people. So I was actually happy to leave. Cindy has really warmed up to me so I think tutoring her will be an easy task. I arrived back in the dorms around 4pm and headed into my room to relax a bit.
    I started chatting with Meiling on WeChat and I was extremely thrilled I was able to not only hold a conversation but respond with appropriate interjections. It was super exciting for me!! Now I just need to get simplified characters onto my iPad keyboard, I am not sure exactly how to do that but I shall figure it out. I really feel like my vocabulary is improving, now to just get better at speaking… After the chat I then got to use my Chinese to help a student who was looking for her Japanese friend, which was somewhat interesting. She didn’t know where her friend lived except in our building, she started with the top floor and was working her way down. It was a good day to learn and speak Chinese!
    I chilled in Dee’s room for a while and eventually people started trickling back to the dorms. There were even some interns running around our dorms visiting all of us (Specifically Jiajing, Lin and Chiyi). Brennan is thinking about buying a projector for movies, which would actually pretty awesome for movie nights(he purchased nice speakers today so we had some Karaoke in Cassidy’s room for giggles). Pretty much I have realized that in the dorms even though we have our own rooms everyone jus kinda mills about moving between rooms as they feel is necessary. I really like this style of living and even the Chinese people were commenting on how our dorms had a really good feel. We are also planning a few trips just because we want to go exploring. Tomorrow will be a slow day, I think I am going to try to upload some videos I have taken while I am here. Hopefully the internet will allow such a thing.

PIZZA!

Everyone, meet Cindy

So cute :3

We are very serious in the dorms!

Chengdu Week 4 - End of Week update

Sept. 25, 2014

    Today was my first day back to Chinese class. I actually didn’t feel to far behind and Laoshi was able o catch me up on everything I had missed, including the quiz. Our first final is coming up on the sixth of october. We are essentially doing three semesters of Chinese in one, so the class is incredibly fast pace. After class I went to Cassidy who was getting her second to last IV infusion. She had a new friend with her an old intern named Lin. He is quite fun, Chiyi kept telling about how gullible he was. Cassidy was finished pretty quickly so we went out to lunch at a new restaurant. The restaurant would let you pick what you wanted then put everything over fried rice. It was super delicious and a better water to pile up on the vegetables. I think I will use this place to get a large infusion of veggies. We had to leave rather fast though because our history class has changed from Wednesdays to Thursdays.
    History class is always interesting Xiao Laoshi is interesting but her understanding of English sometimes hinders her understanding of what I am trying to say. She’ll often repeat what I say with mildly different words implying that it’s a new idea. It’s ok because I think that it helps the students understand the historical ideas we are talking about. We watched a movie that was meant to be biographical of Confucius’  life, but I feel they may have exaggerated in the Sage of Ages’ ninja skills. After class, it was back to the dorms for socializing and relaxation. Cassidy, Brennan, and I looked into extending into the summer. It actually looks pretty doable if I can get a job that I can rely on. That was most of the evening. We actually got to meet some new Chinese guys who were just wandering the halls looking for foreigners to speak english with. After a couple of hours of chatting we finally said good night. We holed up in Zack’s room for a movie night.

Sept. 26, 2014

Free from the hospital!!

    Today began with another trip the hospital. Cassidy was given a few tests and in an hour was cleared from needing another IV treatment. She is officially on the mend and is feeling better little by little. Since we didn’t have to be in the hospital all morning I went back to my room and skyped a few people who happened to be around. It was good to chat with some people even if my emails completely failed to send. If you have been communicating with me via email, please have patience with my response, it doesn’t always go through or I have a lot of trouble sending. I also completed my homework in the space of the morning, so I am homework free save for studying characters. At two in the afternoon I headed over to Calligraphy, which I have discovered I am terrible at but really enjoy. There is something very relaxing about the professor and just getting to attempt an ancient art.
    After class I headed out to JingLi road. I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but Wentao found me a job interview. The lady’s name is Mabel (English name, I don’t know her Chinese name), she wants me to tutor her 4 year old daughter in English. It actually a pretty steady job and will help supplement my living expenses. It’s a little bit strange how much the mother wants her child to speak English but I guess someday she hopes her child will go to University in America. Mabel teaches English to Chinese high school students but it’s mostly how to read, she has a lot of trouble getting them to speak. We ended up talking for a very long time. Cindy (the little girl) is very quiet and can speak a little English, I think she may be shy. I hope that I can make learning English fun for her. I have a few games that I think she will like that will help improve her speaking ability.

Starbucks looks the same everywhere

    After the interview I went out to dinner with my friend Meiling (or Molly). She took me to the student cafeteria which was quite tasty for how cheap it was.  After we ate dinner we walked around the track. on the track in the evening the Uygur population of the school dance. I really want to get my camera out there and do some filming, but life seems to get in the way. On our way around the track I heard this strange popping sound, I asked Meiling what it was. She explained to me it was a game, and then took me to go see it. Elderly men and women were spinning a top by hitting it with a whip. The she asked one of the Ayi if I could try the game. It turns out I am pretty terrible, but a lot of people were watching and encouraging me to try harder.  It was awesome because for a moment, I was able to connect ad have fun with these elderly people. We played for maybe ten minutes, and we headed back. But I have a standing invitation to come play, which I hope to do more regularly.  Meiling is going to try to find a place where I can buy my own top to practice and hopefully get somewhat good at it.
    After coming back to the dorms I found many people in kitchen having our USAC weekly grill night. Cory, one of the residents has bought a grill from which he makes hamburgers, steaks and grilled cheese. I have a standing order for a grilled cheese sandwich. It is just a nice break from the usual flavors of Chengdu. Lin, one of the interns, came to see what we were doing and got to taste real American style fries.  I think he liked it a lot. After that is was just hanging out and socialization. I work first thing in the morning for several hours, and then I shall be running around Chengdu.

Too expensive!!!

Chengdu Week 4 - Midweek Update

Sept. 24, 2014

Homework!!

    Cassidy spent the night in my room on Jose’s bed (we’ll get there). We had to get up early in the morning to meet Chiyi for what we thought was a routine check-up post kidney stone pain. As it turned out out we spoke with the doctor did a few tests and Cassidy was hooked up to another 5 hour IV. We also figured out that not only does she still need to pass the kidney stone, but she has a mild infection in her kidneys. So she will be receiving her five hour IV treatment until Friday. During Cassidy’s IV Chiyi helped me with my homework. I actually really like Chiyi she is very funny and also very studious. We read a passage about Australia together so she could study for her english exam. Over all it was a lovely time, I spent most of it sitting on the end of Cassidy’s bed chatting. Cassidy is kinda of doing better, the trips to the hospital and medicine is kinda draining her batteries. As it says in the hospital: Hope you have a good recovery!

Ahhh... hospital selfie

    So we make it back to the dorms around 1:30pm, and just take some time to ourselves. I essentially did characters for a couple of hours and studied the grammar I had missed. Then I decided to make a venture into the kitchen and attempt some dinner for myself. I had eggs and prates tucked away so harsh browns and scrambled eggs! I think it turned out really well, I am rather pleased with myself. Then it was back to wandering around in-between dorms and talking with people. I also went out and got some Pizza with Brennan. It was actually kind of fun to go as we haven’t had any missions together yet. He’s an interesting dude, had some similar experiences in life. It’s nice because I think he and I are in China for the same reasons. The pizza was truly terrible but it was more comfort food or Cassidy so I didn’t mind to much.

Looks yummy!

    So to explain why Jose and his bed have currently taken up residence in my room. His room is down in another hallway, so he sometimes gets left out of study groups and spontaneous trips because we can’t reach him. There was also the small matter of a broken bed frame, so when we rearranged my room he moved into it, at least for sleeping. So that’s been fun, having a roommate Chinese style. It works for now, we shall see how this develops in terms of space. Otherwise all is well, we had a lovely sunset in Chengdu. Tomorrow is going to be long day, hopefully I will survive.

Chengdu Week 4 - Special Update

Sept. 23, 2014

    So today began normally and quickly became the most intense day of my stay in China. I had just gone down to class when I get a strange call from Jose. He tells me that Cassidy needed me for something (This may get mildly graphic). So I go up to the room to find Cassidy, who is in extreme pain. She was unable to cope with the pain, and ended up throwing up, quite a bit. She continued to complain of extreme pain in her back, only on her left side. She was extremely scared. Wentao then called me, telling me she was trying to get over to the school but with the traffic in the morning, it was incredibly difficult to get a taxi to take her over to the University. So Wentao attempted to call the ambulance to bring us to the hospital, but the problem was the same, they couldn’t get through the morning traffic with any form of efficiency. Now about a half an hour has gone by, Cassidy is still in extreme pain, and getting more scared as no one comes to help us. Wentao, as a last resort, called the on campus clinic who sent over a doctor. I went to Cassidy’s room at 8 am and the doctor arrived with a nurse at 9:30 am.
    Once the doctor was there we quickly discovered that neither of us could speak each other’s language. The doctor however, with the help of Cassidy and I (hand signs and broken Chinese), managed to figure out that there was pain, vomiting and GI problems. She almost immediately started pressing on Cassidy’s back and then we were suddenly off to the clinic on campus. We arrive and were immediately ushered to the third floor where there was an ultrasound machine. At this point Wentao had finally managed to arrive, which meant we were able to understand what was going on. Cassidy had kidney stones. So they get her into a bed and hook up her IV, but it doesn’t stop there. She also had to use the restroom but in the hospital there were only squatting toilet. So she had to squat in pain with an IV in her hand. This would later affect her but I will get there.
     In China they give you the bare minimum of what you need. So Cassidy had no pain medication and was suffering a kidney stone. It took almost an hour to get her pain medication as it require official approval to administer. When they finally gave her the shot, she was literally screaming and writhing in pain. After the drugs she passed out, it was 11 am. At this point Tong, our favorite USAC intern, had appeared along with Wentao, who had been in and out helping with translation. Tong had brought water, and moral support for me. We chatted while Cassidy rested, he was extremely concerned for her. Cassidy had also managed to pull out her IV causing her hand to swell, this happened because she had been attempting to balance herself while using the squatting toilets. So they switched hands (they did this three times, until they taped her hand to box to stop it from moving). By this point it was 12pm and she was finally feeling better. They were pumping fluids into her and continued to do so until 3:30pm.
    Tong was switched out for Chiyi, who is absolutely lovely. She stayed and chatted with us, until the IVs were done. We did manage to get some food brought to us, via Wentao sending Tong out. It was good to finally get out of the hospital and back to the dorms. Cassidy has not passed the stone yet so we have to go back to the hospital tomorrow morning for an ultrasound and another round of IV treatment. That was my day, but in the end Cassidy is alright, which is the important part of this whole experience.

Necessary sign for Chengdu hospital

A very drugged Cassidy

Chengdu - Sanxingdui Museum

Sanxingdui Museum

Handles carved into bird heads

3000 year old pot

Jade Claws, likely used for decoration or ceremony

Sept. 20, 2014

    The morning began promptly at 7:30, so that I could get showered and have time to get food. At 9 am the USAC group met up at the east gate to go to Sanxingdui museum, which is about an hour outside of Chengdu. The ride out of chengdu was rough, our bus essentially bounced us up and down. It was bad enough I had to go sit up front with Wentao to try to keep my breakfast in my stomach. I had never been more happy to see countryside in my life, our arrival couldn’t have come fast enough. The area, Sanxing, is famous for artifacts that date back 3000 years to a civilization that was established around the same time as the Yellow River civilization. What’s really interesting about this area is most excavation occurred in the 1980s, long past the Cultural Revolution, thus all the artifacts remain untouched by this particular period of history.

    The museum was situated in a park, and the different exhibit halls had themes salting from the oldest earthen wear, to basic jewelry. There is also evidence that this culture had contact with the other cultures in China, due to similarities and the occasional discovery of shells and other northern style items. The most impressive part was the intricately carved Jade swords. They weren’t used for fighting but for animal sacrifice and rituals. There is also a significant amount of bronze pottery from this area that reflects contact with the Shang dynasty. The pictures I took do better in describing what I saw, but over all it was a fascinating museum. Things in it were thousands of years old, well crafted, and carefully detailed.

    After the museum wandering, we essentially ate lunch and ran around the museum grounds for a while. At one point Jose and Brennan got up on a statue of a Rooster together, why we may never know. It was fun we took some USAC themed pictures and were just kinda of goofballs. Wentao, our program director, is hilarious. She very witty and incredibly sassy. I think she has fun leading us around her country. The ride back home was nearly two hours and involved mostly attempting to create a sleeping chain, where everyone was leaning on someone. I am pretty sure that at one point everyone was asleep. We arrived back on the campus and went on an adventure to find a bakery. Everyone was craving something a little bit sweet and western. It was a good hike over the bakery that Raphi knew. I managed to get sweet Taro bread, and also a little cream puff. We ate and chatted for a while inside the cafe, before walking back. The weather her is beginning to cool down, but the humidity is about the same which makes traveling around easier.

USAC!!

 

Chengdu Week 3 - End of the Week Update (Pictures at the start)

Shirtless and open flame, the food here is delicious

Friendly neighborhood immigration officer

China....

Red is for luck, you go there as a couple a tie the string to the tree for you relationship

Sept 18, 2014

    Three hours of Chinese is rough at nine in the morning. You certainly figure out if you actually know what’s going on. I’m not to worried about the situation though, we’ve just been sating up late to study and write characters. I usually slip off to bed at 10pm but last night we were up until 1am. I did however, manage to consume coffee without burning some part of my body. The infusion of caffeine helped me survive the day. After class a bunch of us managed to pass out for a few hours to catch up on sleep. After that I cracked down with Cassidy and got my homework done. We have a mildly busy weekend so I don’t want to end up in the situation I was in Sunday, where I was scrambling to finish. The rest of the day was spent wandering around outside attempting to speak Mandarin to people. Sometimes it would work and other times not so much. It was fun though. I ended up at a tibetan restaurant for dinner and ate Yak meat. A little chewy but it was tasty. A pretty normal day all in all.

Sept 19, 2014

    I got to sleep in today which considering our poor sleeping habits it was a nice change. I then milled around studying and looking over some potential options for our winter break. Raphi came and sat in my room to study for a bit. Dee and myself spent a good while explain Chinese grammar which actually helped me understand it better. Then Cassidy came into the room and we just chilled for little bit. The University required that we attend a orientation about Chinese law and University policies. all in all it was useless for the USAC students. We are on a different schedule from the University and we have different trips that we go on. So all in all it was an hour and a half of enjoying the ode to Chinese English. Everyone spoke well but they needed a native speaker to edit some of the translation. I am now in the process of getting my resident permit, which will allow me to travel more freely in China.
    After our required orientation, I heard out with my friend Meiling to go get some good jaozi (dumplings). She and I chatted over food and then she took around the university area, showing me some places that she nows. We also spent the three hours together actually exchanging our language. She made me say everything over and over again. It was super great, I feel like I am doing really well, when she spoke I felt that I could really understand her. We wandered around and eventually made it back to the dorms. In the dorms a bunch of people were grilling burgers, I managed to snag me some grilled cheese. It was really delicious, I am missing American food a little bit, or at least something that isn’t Chinese food. The issue is Chinese American food is generally very expensive and not worth the money you pay. Tomorrow I will head to the museum outside the city, hopefully I will have lots of pictures.

Chengdu Week 3 - Midweek update

Sept 16, 2014

    Today I woke up tired, and when I say woke up I mean at 2 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. This is actually a fairly normal sleeping pattern for me, which is good as it means I am really comfortable in my new space, and terrible because coffee is incredibly expensive here. Back in the homeland I would drink copious amounts of coffee to keep myself alert for the day. (I am aware of the health risks in doing this, but I have to survive my twenties somehow) So today due to my inability to become alive I decided I would have a cup of coffee from the convenience store. I went, got my coffee, my order was understood perfectly. I sat down to drink before class and the lid popped off in my hands spilling steaming coffee onto my legs. I have never been burned by coffee before but let me tell you I was glad I wore jeans today. It hurt so bad, I screamed and my pants of course kept the heat in so it was a perpetual cycle of pain. I managed to get back up to the 11th floor (classes are on the 2nd) and get my pants off. I had to go straight back to class because we always have a quiz first thing. I took the quiz, did the oral homework and bailed (the longest 10 minutes of my life). I sat for an hour in my room with a cold compress on the burns.
    After an hour my leg no longer throbbed with pain so I went back down to finish class. It worked out well I hadn’t missed much, so I finished out class without too much fuss. I now have a mild limp, which should go away fairly quickly all in all the jeans really protected my leg. After class I went to speak with Wentao about them moving my second bed out of my room, again. We’ve been in Chengdu for three weeks and they haven’t done it yet, so I kept bugging Wentao to have them move it out. I then asked her if we could move it into the hall and make them deal with it. She said that they wouldn’t be happy about it but they would have to deal with it, and there was no way they could move it back into my room. So I made a plan that after dinner and a movie I would do so. This is actually a pretty common situation, it’s a difference in culture, as long as he staff can’t see the problem then there isn’t one. Wentao also had burn cream in the storage room, so I now have medicine to put on my coffee injury.
    Dinner and a movie was fun, went to see Expendables 3 which was such a prefect ode to American ideals of Masculinity. Us Americans, were laughing often but the Chinese people really didn’t, I suspect some of the humor was lost in translation. After the movie we got back to the dorm and rounded up everyone with the door open. Together, we move my very broken extra bed into the hallway. Hopefully it will be dealt with by morning. To be honest I felt like a delinquent moving it out into the common space. Oh well, it’s finally out of my room and I have space!! I actually have a really large room. That was my adventurous Tuesday, hopefully tomorrow will be calmer.

Sept. 17, 2014

    Mostly communicated with my Dad via Skype and Facebook this morning. Wednesdays are nice because they give me time to do my homework and get my laundry done. Lunch was very quick and then it was off to Chinese history. We are finally getting out of very very ancient China and into the Spring and Autumn period. Next class is super exciting for me. We will be discussing Chinese philosophy, a personal enjoyment of mine. It should be interesting to see what the Professor has to say on the subject as she is a part of the culture instead of an outside observer. I then chatted with Wentao for a little bit about life and head back up to my dorm room. I ended up having a good chat with Leah and Myeisha, who were on the Beijing trip. It was nice and kinda good to get to talk to other people. Everyone has really interesting stories about life and what lead them to China. I am happy I have such an eclectic group of people that I am spending the year with. It was then study and homework time and since my room is newly cleared out we all piled into my room. I am happy today was a quiet one, especially after yesterday. Coming up in the week there will the mandatory orientation on Friday for the University (even though we’ve been here for nearly a month) and a trip to a museum that has artifacts dating back to 2000 BCE. I am very much looking forward to venturing outside of Chengdu.

Look at all the space!!

Messy study desk

Chengdu Week 3 - Beginning of Week

Sept 14-15, 2014

      Well the last two days have been really quiet. It’s been mostly bonding with other people and finally realizing that we have a proper routine of homework and social life. I need to find more Chinese people to hang out and talk with. I am going to speak to Wentao tomorrow about finding a serious language partner, someone who will actively speak Chinese with me. Unfortunately all the friends I have made mostly want to speak English because it’s their major of study so to speak the language I am learning I have to really force the issue. It alright though, I knew this would happen, so time to buckle down and find someone who is really wanting to speak Chinese with me.

People dancing in the street because they can.

Fan dancing on the campus

Engrish!!

     As for this blog post I thought I might describe the sounds and feeling of Chengdu and perhaps the China I have come to know. Chengdu, like many place in China, is both old and new. You see brand new expensive foreign cars and then you see a man holding two large baskets over his shoulders selling his wares. Everything here is done quickly and slowly. You’ll get your food very quickly but then the restaurant owner will go lay back in his chair set up on the street. You often see people napping midday in their cars, and men just sitting around playing cards or Mahjong. Traffic, of course, is insane but no one seems to get hurt, even when cars are heading straight for one another. People cross the street without warning, and I even find myself doing it now. If I a unsure about crossing a street I will wait for a local to go and I just follow. Car horns are always sounding on the air, though they quiet down significantly after night fall. Every once in a while I am jolted awake by a particularly aggressive horn.
        Food here is cheap no more than 1 or 2 USD (3 to 10 RMB) for breakfast and lunch, unless you go family style and then the price creeps up to about 20-30 RMB (4 to 6 USD). Food is generally spicy, but us foreigners can get away with asking for 不辣 (bula), not spicy food. Some people in the program have come here disliking spicy food. I am really not sure how they are surviving, even the not spicy here has some numbing peppers in it. Eating is generally an event, people come a stay four hours eating on the many dishes ordered and shared between everyone. Laughter, loud voices, and table banging are all part of the experience of dinner, people here are very much alive. Outside and inside are less defined, many places lack doors during operating hours. Food is often made in front of your eyes including the noodles, someday I will learn how to recreate the meals I am eating.
        Chengdu is quickly becoming the city of my heart. I think no matter where I end up in life I will always come back to stay, at least for a little while, in Chengdu. There is so much to see and I barely have any time to do it. I have a good feeling about this coming year, let’s see where we end up!

Chengdu - Week 2 End of Week

Sept 12, 2014

    Yay for Friday, which mostly involved lounging around, at least for the morning. I went out with Jiajing for lunch in Sichuan alley. Going to food with the locals is super easy and usually a delicious experience. After lunch it was time for the first calligraphy class. The teacher told us a story about how her grandmother fell in love with her grandfather’s calligraphy, and that’s why they got married. Having beautiful handwriting is very important, particularly when it comes to calligraphy; it shows good strength in character. I ended up really messy at the end, making ink is an interesting process and I am not able to keep my hands clean. My writing isn’t very good but that’s ok, I am hoping to practice and get better. After class I took a nap (I’ve been extremely tired, I think the excitement of moving in is wearing off).
    I went to Brennan’s room afterwards and we translated some menu. We decided to go to dinner, which ended up an adventure unto itself. Lots of people on the streets and around town so finding a place to sit. We ended up wandering around until we found a little restaurant. I got me some spicy noodles and we actually had a pretty good meal. There was a sleeper cell in the  restaurant who helped us order. For those of you new to the blog, sleeper cells are people who speak very good English and appear in a foreigners’ time of need. He is now our friend with whom we can communicate, it’s pretty funny. I came back to the dorms and got ready for bed. The internet is now magically returned so I will attempt communication.

Sept 13, 2014

    Today is day long in the making. Chengdu is a city famous for it’s laid back atmosphere, people playing mahjong in the parks while sipping tea. So that’s what we did, Tong gathered up Raphi, Cassidy, Sean, Brennan, Jose, Gabe, Bawadan, Erik, Crystal, and myself to a park outside of Chengdu. We arrived at about 10 am. The park was quiet, and not many people had shown up yet, but according to Tong this was a place that usually hosted weddings. We were lead all the way in the back, and we got set up at some mahjong tables. Mahjong as it turns out is an incredibly complicated game. It took nearly four rounds and almost constant supervising from Tong to get the game right. Once we figured it out though we had a great time. I never won a single round, but I never win at games anyway. It was just good to spend time with friends.
    For lunch we went and got this huge meal, sort of by accident. Tong didn’t realize how big the dishes would be and that some of us have strict dietary restrictions. This place in particular served lots of fish so I ended up with two bowls rice. I am actually not all that hungry these days, it has to do with the adjustment period, so two bowls of rice was quite filling. After lunch we headed back to the Mahjong tables. Tong this time picked up ping pong paddles and balls. Cassidy and I took turns playing him, but then this family showed up and by the end of the day we had played for 2 hours with this random family. It was great, Cassidy and I of course were pretty terrible at it but they went with it. It was so much fun, tons of laughing and joking to be had by all.
    The last stop of our outing was the flower market. Cassidy and Brennan have been itching to get some plants for their rooms. I am on the west side so I don’t get enough sun to justify spending money on a plant.After the flower market we headed back to the dorms. It took about and hour and a half. Everyone was super tired, we were up extremely early to get out and meet Tong, so everyone sort of checked out for a bit. Dinner was a quickly run to the noodle shop and I had an Aha! moment. I was able to correct Jose’s order to the waiter got him what he wanted. I was understood and that was all that matters, finally seeing a comfortable improvement in my useful Chinese. Overall it’s been a fun, eventful day, mostly full of laughter. Tomorrow is a study day, so I suspect it will be much quieter.

Ping Pong Family fun!