Hot Pot

Hot Pot - that is mildly how I would describe these past two days. A little bit of spicy, but overall really good.

Yesterday we had orientation which is nothing like orientation in the states. It lasted a total of an hour and a half and about half of it was in Mandarin. Then the important stuff they flew by and none of us knew what they were saying. It was A LOT different than the American ones which last a week and seem to drag on and on. We then had a lazy afternoon while some students took a test for the intensive mandarin class. We went back to the dumpling place and got noodles instead. It's the Olive Garden of China. They give you so much food for like $2, it's awesome! Forget going on a diet here. We had so much extra food and were able to get a to go box somehow and took all of our extra food home with us. Between finding a restaurant, attempting to order everyone's food, getting our food, eating it all, and trying to pay, we have to set a block of two hours of time.

Our fried noodle
"Olive Garden"of China

While at this "Olive Garden" dinner we got some interesting spiced candy from an old  man playing music on the street. What we thought was an instrument turned out to be the chisel that he uses to cut the candy for people. It was the Chinese equivalent of our taffy but with a spiced nutty taste. It was interesting to say the least. We were all exhausted after this, so we used the afternoon as a chill time. Some of us had to deal with some visa stuff, which is a whole fiasco and story in itself. But overall it was a nice afternoon.

Hot Pot! Middle is not spicy,
Outside is spicy

Unlike in the US where there is WiFi everywhere, the only way you can really get wifi here is through your sim card and your cell phone. So one of our guys is a tech genius and suggested a router, so half of us now have routers so that we can have internet all over our rooms. Before it was one e-thernet cord, so only me or my roommate were able to be on the internet. It's amazing how we take advantage of stuff like that, like we expect wifi almost everywhere in the US and while some restaurants and malls have it here, you have to login and you guessed it, it's all written in mandarin characters. So needless to say, having wireless in our room makes life a little bit easier. My roommate and I can both be on our laptops on the same time, can skype in the hallway, and I can text on my ipod all at the same time.  The little luxuries of life.

Hot Pot with food in it!

Getting the router was an adventure however. The store was a little further than we had previously remembered and we got there half an hour before it closed, which usually isn't a big deal, except for the fact that this is a 6 story electronics store with different booths and brands everywhere - no organization whatsoever. We finally managed to find our routers after some investigating, but on our way out a random man and his wife asked us if we wanted DVDs. We were told they were on the 4th floor but instead of going up, they took us to the main level so we thought maybe they were telling us that it was closed and showing us the way out. We felt weird following them so we started to go a different way, but then they came back and found us. They took us next door to elevators that went up to over 20 stories! He told us to come to the 10th floor for a DVD (this was all in Mandarin by the way,) but luckily one of us got a phone call and were able to escape. Some of the guys went back and checked it out yesterday, turns out it was a sketchy business floor, who knows what he wanted, but our common sense and instincts worked out well this time.

We then met up with a bunch of our group for some infamous hot pot. It's like the Mongolian Grill of China. Chengdu is famous for its hotpot and spicy food, boy were they right! The bowl of spicy sauces sits on the table over a stove that they turn on for you. They then bring you a variety of foods. Once the spices and water start to boil, you throw in the food and let it cook. The foods ranged from tripe (pig intestine.... couldn't bring myself to try it. YUCK!), quail eggs (they tasted like hard boiled eggs), beef, cabbage, and other vegetables. In front of each person is a bowl of oil to cool down the food when you take it out of the pot and to add flavor. You then flavor your oil with garlic, salt, straight MSG.. yes you read that right, cilantro, vinegar, and oyster sauce. It was spicy, but amazing! The funny thing is, you cook it all yourself, something I don't think they would really allow in America. After dinner a bunch of people went to an old traditional street to go see it at night, I went back to the dorms because I was starting to not feel well. Apparently it was closing down when they got there so glad I didn't go - we have 3 months!

McDonalds To Go Bag

The kids at McDonalds were so cute!
They told me I was beautiful

Yesterday, 8/30 for us, started off as a nightmare. Since the Visa Headquarters messed up our Visas, we have to go apply for new visas because many of ours are only good for 30 days, they were supposed to be 180. So we were advised to go to the American Consulate in which there was a long line of Chinese Citizens there trying to get their visas to go to America. At first we thought we had to wait in line, but we were soon told that since we have USA passports, we could go straight to the front of the line. Yes, we pulled the "I'm an American card." While we were waiting line some guy busted out his iphone and started taking pictures of us. Americans at the US consulate, who would have thought? When we got to the window, the guy didn't speak English which was frustrating. But then he put us on the phone with someone who did. They wouldn't let us in to the Consulate, they would only talk to us through the window. Then they told us they couldn't do anything and to go to the security bureau, which is what we were told by the school we had to do. We then had to take the subway to the Security Bureau which is the equivalent to the US DMV. We had to get paperwork and take a number. They take a lunch and close down from 12-1 and of course they stopped at number 52 of course, and I was number 54. So we went to McDonalds, which is half the price that it is in the US and just as good. Then had to go back to the Bureau, overall it was just frustrating. The best part is they took our passports from us and won't give them back until next Thursday, so hopefully nothing big goes down. Luckily most of us have a US ID of some sort.

Monastery Library

After that exhausting fiasco, we decided to keep trekking and went to a monastery. This was no ordinary monastery, or at least not what I think of when I think "monastery". The monks, acted pretty much like ordinary citizens. We saw one riding a moped and another with and Iphone, definitely not what I would picture. This was more of a tourist spot, but many people still went there to burn incense and pray to the different Buddhist Gods. It was an interesting experience, definitely very traditional looking architecture and very beautiful! We found a monk chant going on where Buddhists come to pray and chant a Buddhist God's name. The monks go first marching in the square wearing yellow robes, followed by Buddhist women in brown ones, followed by random people who came to pray. They march around the square, it was definitely different but peaceful to listen to.

We bought bread from him.
Since he was so different I had to get a pic

After the monestary, we hopped on the subway again and went to the Lotus Market, a market with everything you could imagine that lasts at least 4 square blocks if not more. Half of it you bargain for the items, but if it has a pricetag written on it, you can't. So we found a lot of great stuff, I got a purse for about $4.50 and my roommate got a dress and a shirt for $4.50 each as well. The only downfall is, you can't try on the clothes before you buy them, you just have to hope that they fit! We met a young Muslim man who looked nothing like any other Asian I have seen yet. He was very exotic and had very beautiful light brown glowing eyes. We bought some bread from him and on the way back I got a picture with him because I couldn't get over how different he looked. Apparently he's from a province in the far northwest of China. The market wore us out so we came back earlier than planned and made it home in the pouring rain. The catch to going to the market however, is trying to cross the street from the subway to the market. The cross traffic never has a red light, so people just clump into groups of 15-30 and cross the street, hoping the cars slow down. I saw 5 people whose backpacks got bumped by a bus. It is scary, but entertaining. The trick is to go in the middle of the group so that way if anyone gets hit, you're in the middle. You cross halfway then wait for the traffic coming from the other way to slow down and sprint across. It's definitely a different world in that aspect here.

Our first meal we ordered on our own!

Last night we went to a Chinese restaurant for the first time without one of our Chinese friends there to help us. One of our guys speaks Cantonese, but most people in Chengdu speak Mandarin or their own Sichuan version of mandarin.... Eventually we just began to point at things that looked good and hoped that they worked out. It actually turned out to be a pretty tasty dinner. After that, the last week and a half caught up to all of us and we just crashed. I went to bed around 9:30 and slept until 7:30, with this cold I currently have, it was much needed.

Today it was rainy and gloomy so most of us took it as a lazy day. A few guys went out to explore and found a legit WalMart, nothing like the ones in the states by any means. For the most part I laid down all day and slept and rested, hanging out

The rain cleared all the smog away.
This is the view from our room!

with some of our group. We got our class schedules today which was exciting, except they are all in the same classroom and our Taiji Class is in the big square for everyone to see, it will be embarrassing. My schedule is:

Monday: Nothing! Woooo
Tuesday:  Mandarin 9-11, Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society from 1:30-4:30
Wednesday: Caligraphy 4:45-5:45
Thursday: Mandarin 9-11, Global Business 1:30-4:30, Taiji 4:45-5:45
Friday: Sino-American Relations and Problems 1:30-4:30

All of my classes are in the same classroom which will get redundant, especially when they're all in the same classroom. Taiji is in the giant square across the street which will be embarassing. It's a popular walkway and many people drive through it, so that will be interesting. I will just have to hide in the middle of a group so less people will watch me.

Chinese Medicine...

The rest of the day I napped and rested. Went to dinner at our favorite dumpling place tonight. Had fried dumplings instead of boiled, only 95cents or so for 6 which is awesome. We had dinner for 11 people for about $22 total. That still amazes me! I got some weird Chinese medicine I am going to try tomorrow for my cold, hopefully it will  help, but we will see. My Chinese friend helped me get it and then I had another Chinese friend read it and tell me about it when we got home.

Everyone just went out to the local foreigners bar, but I stayed back so that I can try to rid this cold. We will see. Prayers would be awesome! It has been raining a decent amount the past two days, so hopefully the weather will improve soon. I figured out why all the girls where the platform heels too, first of all it makes them taller, but it also makes it so their feet don't get wet when it rains, or so that's my theory.

Off from Chengdu, hope everyone has a great Friday!


Oh by the way our official bug count is: 2 cockroaches and 4 spiders in our room. Should be an interesting semester!