Tuesday was a quick class, it was the first time we ever had a review as part of the class. We talked a bit about certain phrases that people often confuse. The word 来 is used in a lot of phrases, it denotes transient action or change of state. It’s useful but often can be confusing, so that was really nice right before the exam. It’s kind of interesting as the last chapter was about the environment and how to conserve energy. Then we had a discussion about such a thing. It’s nice to be able to at least understand better the topics that are actually news worthy. Watching the Chinese news is becoming easier to do though their are definitely sections I still am unsure of, even with the newsreels. The second half of the day was history class. It was pretty… interesting I suppose is the word. She has started using movies to help talk about modern history, but the movie failed today. Then the class sort of descended into chaos. All the while Jesse was trying to fix the audio and video, it was a pretty strange situation. I have a hard time focusing in that class most days, though the student presentations are always fun. Class finally ended, Wentao had asked me and Cassidy to come to the office. She will be heading to the States soon to give a USAC presentation. She’s been using Cassidy and I to spit ball ideas for the presentation. It was actually quite fun, Wentao is such an interesting lady. She really seemed to like our ideas so I look forward to the finished product. The rest of the day was spent just relaxing and going over test notes. Dinner went as it usually does and now I am just sipping tea enjoying the evening. A good way to the end the day.
Feb. 11, 2015
Wednesday is the usual free day. It actually turned out to be a really nice day. jesse and I had a bunch of errands to run. First I needed to send off my post cards, and Jesse needed to get some postcards. So first we went to Panda Post. It wasn’t too busy so that part went really quickly. Then we were on a rather long bus ride over to work. I needed to pick up my paycheck and get some coffee. I was told that I could buy Chinese grown coffee. We found it, oddly enough, at an import store that most carried American goods. I think they had it because Americans tend to drink a lot of coffee. There was then a period where Jesse and I had to wait for my bosses to return from lunch. So we holed up at the 85 degrees coffee shop for about an hour. There was some shenanigans in people watching and goofing around with our Wechat app. I finally got my paycheck and we were able to walk back home. This day was probably the nicest, warmest day we’ve had in a while. I think spring is finally around the corner. Before heading home we grabbed some veggies and lunch. This whole adventure actually took much longer than we expected but I think it was worth it. I made dinner with some of the veggies we bought and studied for my exam tomorrow. A very good free day if I do say so myself.
Feb. 12-13, 2015
The exam was the first thing on the agenda for Thursday. All in all I think it went very well. I was done around 11 so I took the full amount of time expected for the exam. I left with a satisfied feeling so I’m counting it for a win. I will have two days of class next week before the break so we’ll finish another chapter. The rest of the day was spent lounging around and making curry. Not really much to report. Friday was a bit more interesting. After Jesse had finished his exam we went to Trust Mart. I have noticed that Chengdu is beginning to empty. No surprise though, the Spring Festival is around the corner. Many people are beginning to travel back to their hometowns, so the Trust Mart crowd wasn’t too bad. It was Jesse’s birthday on Thursday and he said he wanted lemon bars. I though that actually sounded pretty good, and it’s not that hard to make. So I spent the afternoon baking. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself, though the crust is a bit thick. It’s amazing what a little toaster oven can do. I also made a stop with Wentao to help her organize her thoughts even further for the presentation. Jesse and I then went over to Raphi, and played a few rounds of Chinese chess. Then with Brennan and Cassidy we went to a Tibetan restaurant for Yak and potato pies. It was really strange when we walked in as everyone just stopped and stared at us. The dinner was then spent just catching people’s eyes staring at us. Also there was a little girl who was absolutely adorable, I got a picture with her in the end. We finished the night with Big Trouble in Little China, a fantastic movie. So begins the weekend.
Feb. 14, 2015
Today was a pretty awesome. Jesse, Raphi and I all got out of the house around 10:30 am and walked to Bamboo park. The walk took an hour, but we simply followed the river. Some people really dislike walking but I really enjoy it because it helps me orient myself. So we walked and chatted then finally arrived at the park. There is a section of this park that has some really interesting old buildings, but it cost 20 RMB to get in. It was worth the money, we wandered around and got some really awesome pictures. Chengdu, for all of it’s city-ness, has beautiful places to escape. After we had wandered around for about an hour we went to the open area. The open area is the actual park and there were people just enjoying a Saturday in the park. The weather is finally getting warmer, so it was a perfect day to be out. Eventually we all settled on a tea house in the park. Everyone ordered some tea, which was amusing. I asked the lady how much it would cost and she answered in Chinese. I said ok, then she began to speak about where we would sit. However, another Chinese lady scolded the witness, saying we didn’t understand. I then informed her that we could understand. I might have enjoyed to look of surprise on her face, it’s great occasionally breaking through the stereotype of foreigners not understanding Chinese. We were settled under a large tree, we first played Chinese Chess, which was funny because a Chinese man started telling Jesse and I how to play. It was magic. Then we played card games and chatted for a couple of hours. It was a super relaxed day, it felt really nice to do something like that. We walked home, and by the time we made it back it was 4:30. There was a quick jaunt for some dinner/lunch. None of us had really eaten that day, but we weren’t doing too much either.
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| That's not fog... |
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| City Art |
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| Along the River there were random old structures |
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| The sign said not too... |
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