Chengdu - Week 2 Beginning of week update (Pictures at the end!)

Sept 7, 2014

    I had a rough time sleeping last night, I guess the nap during the afternoon threw off me sleeping rhythm. I skyped with my friend amber at 3 am my time which was funny as her day was essentially starting. I didn’t get up until 9 in the morning, and I essentially lounged around doing homework. Cassidy came in and we just chatted whilst working on our homework. We then eventually broke off and had some quiet reading time. We then gathered the troops in search of moon cakes. Tomorrow is a holiday, the mid-Autumn festival and the USAC people wanted to buy something for the staff who have really helped us get settled. So we went to Trust Mart (Walmart) and we bought two boxes of moon cakes. We then stopped for dinner and ended up accidentally ordering two dishes with unknown animal brain. Everyone was watching us wondering if we were going to eat. As it turned out we did, and it was fairly gross. We then consoled ourselves with ice cream and head back to the dorm. Kong has taken up in the kitchen and is currently cooking food that smell delicious so hopefully I will go to bed with a full stomach. It was a very nice slow day, tomorrow we are going to find a park to hang out in.

Sept. 8, 2014

    Today began with  skype call to my mother, who I think was very happy to chat. But due to the internet situation Skype is mildly stressful as it always seems to break off. However, I have discovered that wifi in the lobby is fairly reliable so next round of skype calls I am going to attempt it in there. After the skype call it was peaches for breakfast. So today is a national holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節, the best way to describe is Chinese family day. People get together look at the full moon and eat moon cakes.  Meiling (one of our new Chinese friends) took us to QingYanGong, or one of the earliest Doaist temples in Chengdu. It was alive a beautiful, the music from the service filled the courtyard. We eventually stopped at a teahouse, which is common hang out place for elderly people. Some people stared, there was one Nainai (grandma) who gave us peanuts and an elderly gentlemen who made sure we always had full cups of tea. We also had an interesting encounter with a woman who was trying to get us to convert to this religion that was technically anti-communist party. She was very persistent until the older man sharing our table chased her away, FaLunGong (google this if you don’t know what it is) was mentioned in the discussion. Apparently the the group she was trying to get us to join was quasi-dangerous especially for us foreigners, who are merely guests in this country. The elder gentleman had our back though and chased her away, so we only brought back Party approved Daoist literature (Which at the end of the day will take a large amount of effort to read). It was really cool and everything was alive and bustling. Around lunch time we headed back to the dorm.
    I skyped with my Dad, or attempted to and then headed out to lunch. It was really quiet today, people were mostly with their families. After lunch, I joined the USAC cleaning crew and I spent three hours helping (They had already been at for 6 hours) make it usable. Nine hours and   about 20 rotating members we now have clean kitchen. I will be spending money to cook instead out going out which is very cost effective. The rest of the day was a little crazy, Jose decided to nap in my bed because it’s more comfortable than his. I hung out with Crystal and Cassidy just chatting. Then we had impromptu singing in the dorm while we were waiting for dinner which was fantastic! It’s great to bond with everyone (even Cassidy gave in and did the Gaga walk to Bad Romance). Life is good here, school starts tomorrow again. It should be interesting, so begins week two in Chengdu!