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.