Chengdu Week 13 - Thanksgiving Special Update

Nov. 26, 2014

    Free day today! Which means most of the morning was spent lounging about. I had a tok with Jesse and we both decided that getting a cheap smart phone would be beneficial. almost everyone in China has a Wechat meaning as long as we have internet we will be able to communicate with pretty much everyone. So I dropped a little bit of money on a new phone, it was still less than 100 USD. Both Jesse and I made plans with Weiwei to go after classes let out, to China Unicom, one of the providers that allows for foreigners to get a phone with just a passport. Then for me it was off with Jackie for shoe shopping. She and I have been planning this kind of outing for a while but it has either fallen through or we just forget in the moment when we should ask the other. I ended up having a great time, I don’t know Jackie super well, but it was nice to be hanging out with some slightly different. She is also a yearlong so I will be seeing her all next semester too.
    I ended up finding a cute pair of shoes that will go with the slightly dressier outfit I have. I need to wear them around though so that the first time I need to wear them they don’t destroy my feet. Jesse’s class let out and we snuck down into the office to find Weiwei. She walked us over to a fairly familiar area over by the Trustmart. Then it was a matter of figuring out which plan we wanted. It took a while because all the middle ground options we wanted were unavailable. But we finally found a phone for 50 kuai a month that has both data and minutes. It was a old situation. I have to change my number again, but as long as everyone has my we chat it should be good. After all of that I met up with Chiyi for a little bit of Chinese help. I was apparently much more tired that I had thought, I was completely failing at Chinese, it was magical. But Chiyi managed to get my through it. I am excited for tomorrow, which will be a USAC Thanksgiving, I am cooking so we shall see how this goes!

Nov. 27, 2014

Corey, Jesse, and Sam

    Happy Thanksgiving! So the day started out fairly normal, it was just going to class. Though a good portion of class was spent talking about our plans for the meal that evening. Not really surprising I think people were extremely excited to had our party. I headed out with a small groups to the apartments after classes let out. I had volunteered myself as a cook for our Thanksgiving feast. The turkey would have to be bought from an outside source but everything else was to be made or bought. So after a few stops at the stores, I had enough potatoes to feed a small army. I miss a decent potato peeler because I spent most of my time just peeling them.              I literally bled for those potatoes. It took nearly an hour and a half. Then I had to cook them in three batches due to limited size of our pots. The potatoes alone took three hours from start to finish. Then it was on to the pasta salad that I made up out of thin air. I just wanted to add something that no one else was bringing, it turned out to be really tasty if the empty pot at the end of the night was anything to judge.

Chinese potato masher, the Harbin beer bottle

    Thanksgiving was essentially amazing. I have really been missing my family, since this time is year is when I am almost always guaranteed to see them. But I have a China family too and they made everything worth wild. Our Thanksgiving dinner was whatever we had, from Turkey to rabbit and throw in some vegetables and other food no one knows the English name for (or if there is even an English name). It amazing because everyone came together and just enjoyed being with one another. I managed to get some pictures of the night, I hope it captures the merriment and profound belonging. Happy Thanksgiving, please tell everyone how much you appreciate them. I am thankful for the family at home who have supported me in this endeavor to China. For my friends, who even with an ocean between us remind me everyday why they are awesome. Thank you, I love you all. Now it is time to turkey coma, see you on the other side!

Fellow cook Jackie

Round Two

Also Rana's birthday so candles!

Chengdu Week 13 - Life goes along

Nov. 23, 2014

    Lazy sundays are a very nice thing. I managed to sleep in until 8:30 before people were pounding on my door, demanding their coffee. (And by people, I mean Jesse and Raphi, my fellow caffeinated addicts) Then it was homework really fast, but the workbooks are strutted in a way that as long as I took notes in class I can muddle through. After lunch Jesse taught me and Raphi how to play Chinese Chess, it’s way shorter and slightly more strategic than Western Chess. I am very bad at it but it was fun none the less. The rest of the evening was spent lazing about and general resting. It’s nice having a quiet day after such a long Saturday. Classes tomorrow, hopefully I will be able to Chinese better than last week.

Nov. 24, 2014

    My room smells like coffee in the mornings now, people will come by just to smell my room. I should get a sign that says Coffee Shop. Class went better than expected. I was able to actually figure out the words and get sentences put together in a timely fashion. Then after lunch it was off to work. I am beginning to tutor and older student. It took me all of five minutes to realize that her English is not bad. Instead she;’s pretending it’s bad because it gets the attention of her other, who also works at the english school. She probably also was teased for having good English in school, many of the students react that way when someone is able to speak English to foreigners. As soon as I got her talking about the environment and Harry Potter, we were on the same footing. It was really fun getting to talk to an 11 year old, who had a more grasp of the language. I love the little ones but saying the sentence pattern over and over again gets old quickly. She just needs confidence and someone who isn’t demanding she speak English all the time. So over all I think the situation went well. After work it was food then a couple of rounds of Chinese Chess. While Raphi and Jesse played I did my homework. We devolved into catch with the football before watching some  shows. TV helps keep our sanity and stay mildly connected with the outside world (Specifically American Pop Culture).

Nov. 25, 2014

    I am pretty sure I got 100 percent on my quiz. It’s a nice feeling, especially after the last one. Class went well for me, Jackie and I made plans for going shoe shopping. She has a few stores scope out, we’ll see what we come away with tomorrow. The rest of today was essentially an adventure between Jesse and I. We went to the Muslim restaurant for food, and then half the dorm showed up. The place is really popular with the foreigners, I think the shop owner gets confused about why we all keep coming. Then it was back to the room for a quick nap, that I would be prepared for the amount of playing I would be doing with the kids. Jesse was invited to have a job interview with the school I work at. He’s been wanting a job  for a while and there is an opening, as Chuck is leaving. So Jesse will be taking over some classes, which is fun. I also spoke to Wang laoshi about her daughter, whom I am tutoring. I think the girl is just trying to create her own space in the world but doesn’t know how to do it. I am getting the impression that they would prefer that I mentor her more than tutor her in English. That works for me, I feel like Chloe and I are fairly similar in wants and needs in life.
    Class itself went really well. The kids were on the ball with their vocal and willing to participate in all the games. Sometimes I have to coax them into playing or one kid is just running around not paying attention. Even during break they stayed the classroom, preferring to play with me then head out. After class though, I was talking to another co-worker, Mark, when Tiger came up to me and gave me a small packet of cookies. Mark said “In China, love is food.” Which is true culturally, but it’s awesome that after such a short time together the kids and I are able to sure food and have a good time learning English. After class it was back to the dorms for general shenanigans. Tomorrow is my free day I look forward to taking a rest. Also fun note I think I am doing a singing competition in Chinese, so that will be fun. More information as I get it.

Chengdu Week 12 - End of Week

Nov. 19, 2014

    So I left fairly early with Cassidy to go to the Global Center, which is essentially just a giant mall in a cool building. She and I both had hopes that we could buy some clothes. It was actually a good hour bus then train ride to the center, it’s pretty far out of Chengdu. The building itself is very interesting looking, and walking in side is overwhelming just a little bit. This mall has the world’s largest indoor water park (I think so anyway, correct me if I am wrong.). Essentially Cassidy and I spent the day shopping and chatting about life. Cassidy discovered the wonder that is Uniqlo, a Japanese brand store. She was able to get a bunch of clothing. Unfortunately my bust is way to much for China to handle, so even with my weight loss I still can’t buy anything in China, but I will survive. I’ll just wear my baggy clothing or if I get really desperate just order online. It was really fun, and we made it back around 3 pm.

Four stories up looking straight down

    After our adventures in the Global Center, I had to scramble a little bit with homework. I have a history presentation tomorrow and I needed to actually write up the physical powerpoint as well as my own notes. Then I got my Xian journal together, essentially I used my blog, which is one of the reasons I keep a blog. Then it was time for Chinese memorization, I have 26 characters to learn for the dictation tomorrow. At some point Chiyi popped over to practice English. Her test for English qualification is in a few weeks and she is really beginning to study hard. We talked about good study habits and also how to use the USAC students as a resource. After that it was actually surprisingly late, so here I am in bed. Tomorrow should hopefully be an interesting day.

Nov. 20, 2014

    Chinese was not on today. I spent most of class struggling through. It happens, just gotta roll with it I will figure it out. History didn’t do much to improve my faith in classes. I had my presentation, which went well I think. I discussed the connection with Tang dynasty’s rise into the Golden age and Wuzetian’s role in getting to that point (If you have some time look up Empress Wu, she’s awesome). It was a pretty standard presentation and Xiao laoshi didn’t do much except repeat things I said in agreement. I consider it a win. Class finally ended and I spent the rest of the evening with Jesse and Corey watching movies. I did somehow manage to lose my room key (Probably when we went to dinner), so it was 100 RMB to get a new one. I hope I can find the old one and get the money back. Overall it was a meh sort of day.

Behold our mighty addiction!!

    The one thing that made it better was Jesse went to Ikea to get the vacuum sealed coffee for the French Press. He came back with ten bags of coffee, as they were on sale. Essentially it was the most ridiculous thing, I have ever seen. Jesse and I both have a coffee addiction, the rest of the dorms also got a kick out of it. I now have coffee for days, it should last for a couple of months at least. Otherwise the day was unspectacular, tomorrow is Friday and I can’t wait, weekend time!!



Nov. 21, 2014

    I spent a good portion of the morning milling about. There wasn’t really anything to do except some quick calligraphy homework. Otherwise is was computer time. Today we discovered that our calligraphy teacher was ill and would need a substitute for the rest of the semester. Yen Laoshi took over for the class. It was actually quiet relaxing, we just wrote characters until we felt like finishing. I enjoyed the time to sort of free hand. Then it was back up into the dorms, for cooking. I helped Corey cook some Chicken for our dining pleasure, though dinner was far later than I expected. I also somewhere in-between manage to have an allergic reaction to something. Thus Benadryl started flowing through my veins, making me into a zombie. I really hate having to take it but I didn’t want to itch any longer. Having allergies in China makes life a little bit difficult, because I’m not always sure what caused the reaction in the first place. Tomorrow is my long work day. We shall see where it leads, hopefully it won’t be too difficult.

Nov. 22, 2014

    Saturdays are unfortunately long days. I went early in the morning to Starbucks, to meet Cindy and Mabel. Cindy was in full form today, but she was actually speaking more English. Meeting  in the coffee shop is really difficult because at some level we need to be respectful to the other patrons. Cindy is at the age where she doesn’t want to sit still, so book work is essentially out of the question, no matter how much her mother would love for us to sit for a two hours. She continues to ask about my own kindergarten experience, but it’s really not the same thing as we are in a tutoring session. That and any games played were always in groups. I was treated to lunch, then it was back to the dorms for a quick nap. I actually did get enough sleep in-between, and was up and ready to go when it was time to leave.
    Saturdays are generally like any other other day, in terms of traffic, but for some reason it took the bus nearly 20 minutes from the time I arrived at the bus stop. Then it was extremely crowded, which is unusual for the time of day. Once I arrived at work, albeit late, there were no students. We thought for a moment that we weren’t going to have anyone, when three students showed up ten minutes late. Class in small numbers is a little bit difficult to get the energy up. Lily and I managed, and at the end we colored turkeys. It’s funny that they talk about Thanksgiving but most kids have never eaten turkey, or if they have it wasn’t a particularly special occasion. As Thanksgiving closes in, I realize I am missing my family. This is the time when I get ready to see everyone and this year it won’t be that way. The USAC students are planning on having a Thanksgiving at the apartments, so hopefully that will help with the longing I think everyone has for home. Only three weeks left of the semester, and I have been in China for three months. I wonder where the time went?

Chengdu Week 12 - A normal week? Maybe?

Nov. 16, 2014

    Today involved homework, study, and meeting with friends. I got my homework done in the morning, Chinese during coffee is always a good thing. Jesse and I have purchased a new kind of coffee from Ikea, it’s better than what we had from Starbucks, a significantly less. I miss my Bibo’s and Trader Joe’s coffee. After homework I met up with Meiling, she and I chatted and I gave her, her souvenir from Xian. Then it was out to the market with Jesse and Corey. Jesse’s watch had an unfortunate incident in which someone accidentally through it away. So Jesse went to an open market and bought a knock off Omega watch. It’s fun wandering around the market, but they always jack up the prices for us foreigners. It’s fun to hear Jesse and Corey attempt to barter. Corey has trouble bartering because he always converts into USD, but both Jesse and I are like “But the Chinese people only pay 100 kuai (another word for money)!” It’s an on going struggle. The rest of the day was a quiet affair, just studying and hanging out. I can’t believe that classes are more than a 2/3rd’s over. This time next month I will be out of classes, and starting into my winter break. So much Chinese and so little time.

Nov. 17, 2014

    Today was filled with mild excitement. Classes were normal, Chinese class is getting easier and easier which I feel could be a good or bad thing, for now let’s operate under the assumption that’s it’s a good thing. I managed to get through the homework fast enough, but then I discovered that my power cord had finally kicked up it’s heels and died. I found this out as I had plugged in my computer to recharge the almost dead battery. With serious gerry-rigging, I was able to keep my computer alive long enough to transfer my blog, China pictures, and music into storage devices. It was a stressful hour or so. Poor Jesse got yelled at more than once out of panic for information about what was happening. Thankfully he and I had already set something up in which I am buying his second computer from him. Our plan was just moved forward by a week or so. So it all worked out, mom is meant to transfer the money so it shall all be kosher soon. I went to visit Chiyi and got some help with my presentation for tomorrow’s class. After all the worry it was smooth sailing. Raphi, Corey, Jesse, and I went to dinner and we consumed way too much Gengpaoji. Overall, a good day.

Nov. 18, 2014

    Today was more lively. In class usually our breaks are increments of ten. Usually we have two ten minute breaks or one long 20 minute break. But today Laoshi gave us a 15 minute break, which we all mucked up. Everyone was late by five minutes. Laoshi said that unless we sang her a song she wouldn’t let us have another break. We decided on I’m a little tea pot and went for it. Her reaction was the best, “You all sound nice (said in Chinese), ok, forgiven.” She made this hand motion along with forgiven that just made us all laugh, probably harder than was necessary. At the end of class Laoshi said that we could go back to writing sentences, instead of the paragraphs we’ve started doing for the new words. Her reason was that our paragraphs weren’t good and that maybe it was too hard for us. Now what she meant to say is that we didn’t have enough understanding of Chinese written language to properly connect the sentences in a coherent paragraph. We all knew that but we pretended to be hurt. She kept trying to correct herself, but she was only making it worse. Yin Laoshi finally caught on and she announced “If you are hurt I claim cultural differences, now go away!” Everyone laughed and said our goodbyes. It was quite fun.
    Lunch ended up being with three Korean people, Nina, Crystal and Nick. We all ate lunch and chatted the whole time. It was actually quite fun. Nick lived in Florida for two years so his English was pretty good. I really like making international friends. After lunch I went to meet up with Meiling, she and I were having one final meeting before the dubbing contest. We would be doing a scene from Coraline. A bunch of Chinese student learning english were hosting the contest. It was actually quite fun. There were a bunch of other USAC students assisting their friends as well. I had to leave pretty quickly after that as I had work.
    Work was interesting, I think I will begin some tutoring hours which is good because that means more money in my pocket. Also tutoring is something I am far more familiar with, so I think I will be able to do it well. Class was going about how it usually does when the lights suddenly cut out. At first I thought it was just the classroom but it turned out to be the whole area. Even the apartment lights were out, which naturally lead to mass chaos as the kids began to run around in the dark. We were able to get everyone shipped off to their parents and groups of teachers (myself included) walked students out with flashlights. Thanks Grandma, the flashlight came in handy! Then I headed home and essentially crawled into bed, where I am right now. Time for sleep, tomorrow I traverse to the global center.

Chengdu Week 11 - Ending

Nov. 13, 2014

    Class was in a different classroom, due to ours not being unlocked. Things don’t always go smoothly. Lunch was with Andrew and it was actually pretty filling, I was in the mood for a family style meal. I also ate pretty much the entire plate of chicken. The restaurant we went to has the best gengpaoji (kung pow chicken) I’ve had in Sichuan. History class is beginning to turn into a joke, not because our teacher is unable to teach, but more along the lines she isn’t used to teaching students who actually know a thing or two about Chinese history. She always treats us like we have no idea and often misunderstands what we say and misconstrues it into something that fits her image of what she understands Americans to be. For example, I made the comment that one of the temples in Xian reminded me of my time in Japan. This is because the simple, elegant temples in the Tang dynasty were exported to Japan and Japan continued that very specific tradition into modern times. However, Laoshi took that to mean that I thought Japan had influenced Chinese architecture. It was weird because she was seemed really pleased I had made this grievous error and announced it to the class today. I interrupted her and told her no that’s not at all what I meant, it made class mildly strained until break. Then after break she once again talked about the possibility of curses and Fengshui being admissible reasons for things happening. Which is fine, but that’s not historically admissible in academia. The class will be over soon and I will take her class next semester for audit instead of credit which will keep it interesting without needing to write a paper.
    After class there was another odd moment. A woman was wandering around, standing in people’s doorways but not saying anything. I tried to speak with her but she went too fast. I got Cassid to help me understand, we’ve had people in our dorm looking for someone. It turned out however, she was a migrant worker looking for money. She vented to Cassidy and I. We later found out she was likely trying to get into people’s rooms to steal things to sell. It was a weird moment. But we got through it together. Then it was sword fighting in the hallway (Jesse misses fencing) and dinner. We watched Princess Mononoke and holy crap my Japanese is getting bad. I don’t use it so I guess it’s getting lost. It also doesn’t help that when I look a characters the Chinese reading pops up instead. Such is the nature of learning languages and not using them. Tomorrow will be interesting, I am going with a few dorm mates to a grand opening for Wentao.

Nov. 14, 2014

    Today was a little bit different. The USAC students had been invited to an elementary school for an International Art exhibition (It was actually a field day for an elementary school but it had a really official sounding title). Myself, Sean, Eric and Ashley (or Meifeng) waited for nearly 45 minutes for the car that was meant to pick us up. Apparently it had gone to Sichuan University instead of our university. We almost didn’t make it due to traffic and having to juggle between Wentao’s calls, as she tried to figure out what was going on. So we finally arrive just in time for the opening ceremonies. Alright, let me explain this job. The four of us were there essentially to make the school look more diverse. That they actually had access to foreigners ,who spoke English. We got up on stage waved some flags, the got off. We then waved another round of flags and we were done. This was only done for the pictures, so that school could post them on the website and attract more students. Then the children dispersed for games.

Erik as a computer

Sean High-fiving the Children

    All of us opted to stay for the games. It was fun playing with the children, I think they liked having other people besides their teachers. After the games we were taken inside and we watched some traditional Chinese entertainment, string and giant top tricks. It was actually very interesting, I really enjoyed it. Then there was a brief magic show, which was specifically designed for kids. It was all good fun. Lunch went swiftly enough, I chatted with a few of the actually teachers at the school. Apparently it’s a very very rich school. Then I had to go back to school, I had calligraphy at two. Calligraph was quite fun, it was a smaller group, people opted out of going. I feel like I actually did well in the class, even though my talent for calligraphy is minimal.
    Corey made dinner for all of us, chicken breast sandwiches.They were quite tasty, I did dishes instead of paying which was really nice of the man. Jesse, Corey and I then recluses into the room and watched two movies. It was nice just chilling after such a long day. Tomorrow will also be long, I have to tutor Cindy and go work at YMCC. Hopefully it won’t be too bad.

Nov. 15, 2014
    My Saturday was a day of work. First, I went with Cindy for her two hour English lesson. That was actually quite fun, games of hide and seek and long with combing my hair made the time fly by. Then it was back to the dorms for some food and a nap. I left the dorms again for work at YMCC. Today wasn’t as fun, it was a review day and so everything we did went really quickly. That left myself and Lily struggling to come up with relevant games for the kids to play to pass the time. We managed through it though, but I was happy for the day to be over. It was payday, which always blows my mind a little bit. The spending power of the RMB is actually quite high, particularly for essentials such as food. So as long as I work and don’t go crazy with spending money, I will not need to pull money out of my account in the US. Yay for not returning as a broke student. I went to dinner with Corey and Jesse and then it was back to the dorms for some movies. We somehow have gotten into the habit of winding down the night with movies and I really like the tradition. Tomorrow is the start of new week, let’s see what goes on.

Chengdu Week 11 - Homecoming

Nov. 9, 2014

    Jesse, Corey and I got up early and headed to the city wall, built in the Ming Dynasty. Sundays are always very busy so went as soon as the wall opened, and rented bikes. On a bike you can ride all the way around the inner city of Xian. The experience was epic. You are given a little rickety bike with no gears or air in the tires and you just go. It was a cool morning and the pollution was strong, still it was an epic time. We took about 40 minutes to ride around the wall. Then Jesse and I wandered off to get some souvenirs from Xian from the calligraphy street we had found earlier. I ended up with a gorgeous wall scroll painting of mountains. Then it was back to the hotel for a final pack. We got onto the train at 1pm and we were on it until 5am the next day. This time it was a little bit different. It was way dirtier and the people were less friendly, though that may have to do with the length of time they had spent on the train already. It was ok as far as trips go, I managed to sleep quite a bit more. Getting back to the university the first thing in order was a shower and then back into my bed. It was amazing to have room to spread out. Overall I think it was a very fun and interesting trip.

Nov. 10, 2014

    I drifted somewhere between sleep and awaking for a few hours after arriving home from the train station. I eventually made the decision to get up and have a cup of coffee instead of throwing off my entire sleeping schedule. I milled about my room getting homework and various housekeeping chores done. I had to run down to the store for some essentials (read: toilet paper). I went out to the Trust Mart for the other things I needed. Interestingly enough deodorant isn’t really a thing here. Which make it a rather expensive purchase, of course expensive in my mind is really only a few dollars in American currency. I also got my first package from home!! It arrived probably while I was away in Xian. Thanks Mom, everything inside will be put to good use. I went back to the dorms and finished the rest of my homework. I also spent a good while chatting with my friend Meiling in Chinese. I am getting excited that I am able to hold coherent conversations in Chinese. Today was slow because, holy crap travel takes a lot of out of person. Something about being in a confined space in particular wears me down. So a day of recovery and tomorrow there is class. There will be one another person in my class, the rest of the people will be becoming back from their extended vacation.

Nov. 11, 2014

    Class today only had three students. It made for a very slow class, but we all managed to struggle through it together. A good portion of the class was talking about the Xian trip in Chinese. Which was exciting because I was able to do it in a way that was more meaningful than the food was tasty. After class it was laundry and house keeping chores. Around three everyone who went to Huashan arrived home. Then I spent an hour or so talking with Cassidy and looking at pictures. I thin I am going to attempt to go in the off season so that there is less people. We shall see, what happens. work today was interesting. One of my kids got so excited he bit me on the arm. I had picked him up and spun him around and I guess he couldn’t contain all that excitement in his little 6 year old body. I was so surprised that it didn’t hurt, the bite has already faded. My TA Lily, of course, marched him out to his mother and explained what happened. The mom apologized to me and then smacked the little boy. All the parents around us nodded their approval of this reaction and I was mildly horrified. People are certainly more physical with their kids here, and my cultural upbringing has taught me that is wrong. It was an interesting experience, but I think I can say I am a true teacher now. The bus was more crowded than usual, I don’t really know why. I am home now and tomorrow is a free day, so homework and hopefully a little exploration. Good night!

Nov. 12, 2014

    Free day today, which involved panicking about homework, lunch, and then discovering my Chinese isn’t terrible. Overall a pretty standard day, but I had an interesting moment while walking down the Tibetan street on my way to dinner. Walking down that street there is a police car or military personal patrolling, guns poised and ready to be used. The people who own the shops and who walk around there are clearly not Chinese in heritage. They have their own culture, language, and even mannerisms are distinct, differences even a foreigner can notice within a few moments after stepping onto the street. I wonder what it’s like to be that way, an island in a country that is distinctly different than your own, and yet the China is their country. Many Tibetans in the Chengdu have learned Chinese (Sichuan dialect or Mandarin) out of necessity. Tibetan identity gets twisted up in Chinese and Western rhetoric, but I wonder what they have to say about themselves. I have my opinions, but I am beginning to think that a person from Tibet might not agree with everything I have to say. They exist in a complex system and have managed to take their culture and export it in a way that allows for it’s preservation. Just a passing thought I’ve had the last few times I’ve been down Tibetan street.

Chengdu Week 10 - Xian Day 3

Nov. 8, 2014

    The day start with Sean, Jesse and I admitting that we have a coffee addiction. We camped out at the table nearest to the drinks and just kept emptying out the small jug they had for us. Then after breakfast we were back on the bus. Our first stop was actually within walking distance, but the drove us as they usually do. It was the Stone Stele Museum. It had statues and famous calligraphy tablets. It was a quiet, peaceful way to start the morning. After about 45 minutes it was a long three hour ride out to the countryside. The problem with this area is the pollution. I could barely see 50 yards away from the freeway, so I have no idea what the Shaanxicountryside looks like. We arrived in Yuan village around lunch time and were immediately ushered into a restaurant. The food was actually fairly tasty, it’s amazing what happens when Wentao plans the trip. We were then unleashed onto the tourist town. It was ok but it didn’t really feel any different than any other tourist town we had been to. There was one really cool  little shrine in the back of the town that I enjoyed, but otherwise we wandered around and then got back on the bus.

He's making an impression for a wall scroll

Yuan Village Shrine

Noodles!

    We were driven to the Tang dynasty tombs. Before we went into the ticketed area of mountain, we were take to a mountain dweller home. They build their homes into the hillside using the natural insulation of mud and hay. It was actually pretty interesting. We were taken back up the hill, and into the ticketed part of the mountain. We technically had about 45 minutes but a group of us committed to climbing to the top. And so up we went, it was an intense, steep and totally doable. The top allowed for a sorta of view of the area. Again the pollution made it nearly impossible to see anything and the camera I was using was unable to pick anything up really. It was still a fun journey. Going down our little group essentially ran down the mountainside, probably not the best of moves but we had a blast. Then it was back on the bus for an obnoxious bus ride home. Everyone was really squirrelly, but we managed to make it back in one piece. We got dinner in the Muslim quarter, it was pretty tasty. Then we wandered around, singing a very catchy popular song in Chinese. It made Chinese people around us laugh pretty hard. It’s our little joke.  Then it was back to the hotel for movie (Crystal had never seen the Lion King). Tomorrow we go in the morning to ride the city wall before we have to depart.

Climbing Mountains

Straight shot down.

Cut my hand on this bit

It's a view of Pollution!

Pollution O.O

The rock face I scrambled up and down...

Chengdu Week 10 - Xian Day 2

Nov. 7, 2014

    The day began early but in a very natural way. I went to bed at 10:30, since I was exhausted from the train ride. I went down and there was only Jack eating. We had a nice chat and consumed too much coffee. I enjoyed it. Eventually people trickled in as the morning rolled around and eventually we were able to get going. Our first stop was about an hour outside the city. It was the hot springs of the Tang dynasty. Famous for being the site of Chinese valentine’s day. I essentially glued myself to my history professor and she walked us (myself and Karen) through the palace. It was really interesting as this particular site was famous for ancient Chinese history but it had modern historical context. It’s the place where 蒋介石(CKS) agreed to work with the Communist party during the Japanese invasion. So there was a section that contained an office, sleeping quarters and bathrooms, all of them modern. It was really interesting to see that. Xian is an ancient capital and Chinese culture rarely forgets their roots. Certain areas have deep cultural meaning, so it was very strategic for moral in invaded China.

    After the palace it was off to the Terra-cotta warriors, the thing Xian is the most famous for. We ate lunch in the park and then we were set loose. There are three pits, the third is the most recent and was fairly excavated, but it was also the smallest. The second pit is huge but hardly excavated, I think most of it was destroyed through time. It was amazing to see the size of it. The first pit however was the most impressive. At least two football stadiums long, the warriors were all restored. I think the think that really moved me was the physical size of the pits. This is the Mausoleum of the first Emperor of China, who found his empire in 221 BCE. And he essentially constructed tomb that even in the modern era can’t be matched in it’s complexity. I took as many pictures as I could but it’s had to really get the scope of what I was seeing. This mysterious place I had always heard about was suddenly right in front of me and tangible. It was a moving experience.

    After the terra-cotta warriors, we went back into the city, which took a really long time. We were off to the Wild Goose pagoda. It famous because the monk that established the temple was the monk who traveled to India to bring back the Buddhist canon. He spent the rest of his life in the temple translating from Sanskrit into Chinese. It was ok, after everything that we had done to today I wasn’t feeling particularly adventurous. We wandered the grounds, and just milled about. It was fun and then quick enough we were back on the bus. We were taken to the Tang dynasty show (total tourist moment) and had a Jaozi dinner. It was actually a pretty tasty meal despite the problems I caused by not eating pork. I ended up with a little plate of jaozi since I couldn’t eat about half the dishes served. It worked out I was definitely full by the end. The show was fairly interesting. Very colorful, and full of chords I did not recognized.  We made it back to the hotel and for some reason everyone had way too much energy. There were frisbees being thrown and various shenanigans. Overall it was an insanely fun day. Tomorrow will hopefully be as awesome.