Adventures in China : Busy, Busy, Busy Update :)

What a crazy time it has been the last three weeks or so. The realities of school are finally starting to settle in with the homework we are starting to get assigned. I can’t complain too much because I am not in intensive Chinese class… they have a ton of Chinese homework EVERYDAY! We are all finally settled into our routines for the most part and our rooms are starting to feel much more “homey” than before.

The second week of school was once again a busy one. One night we went to dumplings once again, this time there was a catch – you had to make your own sauce. There was the basic oil then you add in garlic, MSG (yes STRAIGHT MSG), soy sauce, spices, etc. to mix up your own dipping sauce, it was a an experiment let me tell ya. Mine was extremely sour at first and spicy but add in some soy sauce and vinegar and problem solved! These dumplings were also cheaper… woo! Instead of 6 dumplings for 4.5RNB, they are only 3RNB for 8 dumplings. It is a tasty little place tucked down a narrow road behind the school’s gymnasium. Later on that night our friend Sally, a Chinese student, invited us to late night BBQ. What do you think when you hear BBQ? Chicken, grill, barbecue sauce (which sounds SO good right now!), etc. Well you would be severely mistaken if that’s what you thought it was in China as well, I know I made that mistake. This BBQ place is supposedly only open late night, so we went around 10:30. There, there are skewers of raw meat and vegetables. You pick out which skewers you would like and give it to the cooks and they “Barbecue” it up and mix it with rice. It was an interesting combination of rice, vegetables, and meat.

That Wednesday we went to a Taoist Temple with my Daoism class (Taoism and Daoism are the same thing, just two different ways of writing and spelling it.) It was absolutely beautiful! The architecture, the colors, the immense decoration and detail given to the gods, the gardens, everything was just beautiful, it was awesome to see. It is crazy to me however, how something so beautiful and serene can exist in the middle of the city. There are skyscrapers surrounding the intricate buildings which make for a strange mix of modern and traditional. While there we got to talk with a “psychic master” who had us each write down our birthdays and told us which of the five elements (fire, water, metal, earth and wood) we were missing. Based upon which ones we were lacking, we encouraged to wear certain colors or accessories, do certain activities, or stop doing certain activities. It was interesting. He was a nice guy and showed us the courtyard of the monk living quarters and what not. It was an interesting experience to say the least. Learning about all of their culture and how they have different gods for everything, you begin to realize how different Western and Asian religions are, with Asian religions being very very philosophical.

That week classes were interesting. In Contemporary Chinese Culture, we talked about the history of Chinese names and how people’s names are chose. Traditionally, when you meet someone, you ask them their surname and that is what you call them by – their last name. Then their second name is their given name, which typically has some meaning such as a type of flower, peace, or beauty for girls and wealth, strength, bravery, etc. for boys. The third name they are given is a generation name that distinguishes each generation from one another. Usually the family has a story or a poem and each new generation takes a word to form the poem as part of their name, so the generation name tells a story, adding a new word each generation. We also learned that people used to not be able to have the same name as the emperor and if they did, as soon as that person was emperor they had to change their name regardless of whether it was their given name or family name. Our professor also told us that scholars used to write their feelings out in poems, however if any of the characters could mean something else, they were put to death. One guy wrote about how the wind is silly because he put his book outside and the wind was turning his pages, yet the wind could not read; however when the book was published some of the characters could also be interpreted as the government so it was as if he was telling the government that they couldn't read. These types of stories are abundant back in the older dynasties.

China has an interesting history and culture especially with all of the dynasties, emperors, wars, people groups, controversy, etc. Then in our business class that week, we had a miniature debate/discussion. We discussed globalization and outsourcing to China, which was really interesting to listen to from the Chinese perspective. They have almost 1.4 billion people, so they have to provide jobs for their people somehow. It is crazy when you look around though, the middle class is very small and there is a decently large gap between the lower class and the upper class for sure. But let me tell you, people here know how to work hard. Many people work at least 10-14 hours a day making between 8¥ and 20¥ an hour which averages out to be about $1.26 USD and $3.17 USD per hour. Granted some people when they work just sit there at text the whole time, but most of the people are always working – running around, cleaning, carrying large items, and holding their own, it is an interesting mix to watch. In Sino-American relations we discussed the Diaoyu Islands – a group of islands near Taiwan and Japan that Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China are all fighting over. Some basic background history as I understand it is the islands used to belong to China. But after the Japanese invasion, Japan surrendered the islands to the “Republic of China.” Which is all great right? WRONG! From 1927-1950, China had its civil war in which the communists were trying to take over the nationalists. At the time, China was called the “Republic of China” and governed by the nationalist party but after the communists won, the “Republic of China” and the nationalists were forced to flee to what is modern day Taiwan and the communists came to power in mainland China and acquired the name “People’s Republic of China.” However, both of them claimed to be the legitimate ruling government of China. There is now the “One-China Policy” put into place which recognizes mainland China and the “People’s Republic of China” as the legitimate authority but Taiwan is still referred to as “Republic of China” yet it has its own government. So then what does all of this have to do with the islands? Well since they were signed to the “Republic of China,” Taiwan is claiming them; however Japan doesn't recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state so it claims Taiwan can’t own them. Since Taiwan doesn't own them, neither does China since they can’t decide who they were actually signed over to, so Japan has just decided to keep them for themselves. It’s a crazy and complicated situation. It also doesn’t help that the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of northeast China. I was sitting in class and the sirens started to go off for about twenty minutes and there were protests everywhere. The sirens were to remember the invasion and to help people to remember how terrible it was. It was an interesting week.

That weekend we went to Dujiangyan which is an ancient irrigation system. I know that sounds lame but when you look at it and learn more about it, it’s super cool. First of all to get there we had to take three modes of transportation –a subway ride, an hour train ride, and a bus ride, needless to say that was an experience in itself. The train station in Chengdu is huge and is the main station to and from the city. We had to wait an extra two hours for our train because the earlier ones were sold out, so we wandered around the market. Fun fact, at the market I almost got peed on by a little boy peeing on the sidewalk, this is a common thing in China and I still haven’t gotten used to kids peeing on the street… or people spitting all over. We tried some spicy “French Fries” that weren’t actually cooked all the way, tried some deep fried bean curd, and other street foods. When getting to the train station we almost missed our train and had to literally sprint there. On our way I needed to use the bathroom but quickly decided to wait when I walked into the women’s bathroom and none of the stalls had doors on them. I can take using the squatting toilets and what not, but not having a door on it was too much to handle at that point. The trains here are super nice and comfortable and it was fun to site see the outskirts of the city. The train got up to almost 200 km/hour which is about 123 miles/hour. That was a fun experience, our Chinese friend came with us and even though it was pouring rain we chose to make the best of the situation. We got there and found out students get half priced tickets which was awesome! Tickets were 45¥ which is about $7 USD – so cheap compared to American standards. There were a lot of tourists there but it wasn’t too crowded since it was raining half of the day and is a bit of a trek out of the way. The entrance has a welcome sign, shops, and a pond with a million fish trampling each other in hopes of getting food from people passing by. There are beautiful flowers, bamboo, and trees everywhere and everything is traditional Chinese architecture. The river there is gross and brown but is still beautiful. We first adventured up to the lookout point which looks out at the irrigation system, which honestly I thought looked kind of lame at first. It was just a split river and I felt let down after all I had read about it, but it was still beautiful with the low lying fog, the mountains, and the trees. Chengdu is on a high plain at about 1,600 feet above sea level, which I just learned the other day, so there are mountains surrounding it which are beautiful. We then saw a rope bridge we wanted to get to. So we adventured around some more and crossed over to a small island that is where the river divides. We started reading about it and learned that the system, which was built in 256BC, is still used to irrigate over 5,300 square kilometers of land and is the oldest and only surviving no-dam irrigation system in the world. During the low-water season, 60% of the Minjiang river water is brought into the inner river for irrigation while 40% of the water is drawn into the outside river. The situation is reversed in the flood season ensuring the water supply for irrigation and protection from flooding on the Chengdu Plain. Then the sand and stones are divided perfectly at 20% and 80% and all of this was done over 2,000 years ago which is crazy!!! There are also beautiful temples on the mountains surrounding that you can venture up to and a crazy cool, but scary, rope bridge that you have to cross to get to the temples. When we were there, the rainy season hadn’t quite picked up yet so the water level was low, but it was still amazing to look at and read about. Once we crossed the bridge we ventured up into the beautiful temples that look out over the river and the valley areas. After we were done, we went to the street that is an ancient traditional looking street. We had dinner at a little Muslim place that was absolutely amazing then ventured home. The whole excursion was about 12 hours but cost under $20 including food, souvenirs, transportation, and the park entrance fee. It was fun! We found out that the school is taking us for free in a few weeks, but it was still fun to venture around on our own and get out of the city for a little while.

The next week was another busy one with presentations, Chinese homework, learning about the Korean War, and debate about whether China is stealing American jobs. It was an interesting week. In my culture class we learned about the education system in China, it’s actually very sad. The government has been working to make the amount of the GDP dedicated to education 4%; this was a number put in place in the 1990s but was just achieved this year. Though the government has a lot of money, a lot of the money is put towards government buildings and other things. It explains why most universities aren’t as fancy as our universities and are old and look run down. We have a few nice buildings on campus, but nothing compared to the beauty of the campuses in the states. We also learned that a lot of the education in the extremely rural areas of China is terrible. The small cities don’t have as much money to spend on education and even if they did, they spend their money on other things. Many of the kids in the outlying areas and small cities don’t have a steady education due to the lack of “funding’ and the lack of teachers willing to teach out there. The cost of school supplies is also fairly expensive. Elementary and middle school are in theory free, but that is just in reference to tuition. There are still uniforms sometimes, books, pencils, pens, paper, etc. The average farmer only makes 2,000¥ a year, $316 USD, so they cannot afford to send their kids to school. There are private donors and volunteer teachers that are starting to realize that there are problems but that is still not enough to cover everyone, especially when you realize that the university is about 6,000¥ a year. High school is not required here and many students in the country only go the required nine years, if they go at all. An average of one class of students, 40 kids approximately, die per day due to traffic accidents, murder, and poison, the top three causes of classroom deaths. There is a law that students must partake in morning exercises, however in rural areas the only place to run is on the highway, so many kids get hit. We were old of one guy who had driven through the night and was tired and fell asleep at the wheel and accidentally hit an entire class of students and didn’t realize it until he saw the pile of bodies afterwards. There is also a lack of buses in China, so many students in the rural areas use trailers or hallowed out vans as “buses” which are extremely dangerous. They also overfill cars to 450% their capacity to transport students and as a result if any accident occurs, the chance of the students surviving is very rare. In one case, a student was from the country and thought her city-dwelling roommates made fun of her for being from the country, so she poisoned them. And a few years ago, students were at a performance that was held for the top students in that city. Everyone would try to get in to see the performance so all of the exits except one were locked. About halfway through a circuit shorted itself and a fire developed, which took a while for people to notice seeing as how it was behind a curtain. Once it was noticed the kids started to freak out, but of course the high ranking officials who had been invited were let out first. Once they left, the power went out so many students couldn’t find the door. To make the situation worse, none of the officials stopped to tell any fire department or anything, so after many angry letters from parents, the officials were charged and many of them got an average of 5-6 years in prison. One official had locked herself in the bathroom which didn’t burn down and when the kids outside had banged on the door for her to let them in, to save them, she simply ignored them. She also got a few years in prison for not doing anything when she could have saved at least 50 lives. The total death toll was about 188 students and then some teachers. This story shows the corruption that exists not only at the government level but also at the education level. Many teachers help their students to cheat because it makes them look better so they will get a bonus. One of my Chinese friends, whose major is English, had one of her professors ask her to write some stuff out for him in English. At first she thought it was a practice test or homework but she later found out it was for one of her professor’s friends who wanted to join the military and needed to take an English proficiency exam, in other words he had asked her to cheat. It is crazy because stuff such as that or connections to the government encourage more and more corruption every day.

The students in school, starting at a very young age, must learn about Chinese politics. Teachers must attend a political meeting every Friday in order to receive their bonus, but rumor has it, it’s actually a waste of time because they really don’t do anything. If you have any connection to the government, you can get away with almost anything in this country especially when it comes to traffic accidents and driving. I learned the other day that the reason that some of the driving is so terrible here is due to the fact many people simply bribe the licensing offices to give them their license and don’t actually take the test. That is just one small example of how corrupted the country is. Our professor also told us a story about a teacher in one of the small towns that is very short, only 1.2 meters tall. However he has never been officially employed as a full time teacher because the government thinks that his height will affect the children, which if you ask me is absolutely ridiculous. Our professor old us “He may only be 1.2 meters tall, but to me he is a giant.” It was super cute and showed that though he is short, he has had an amazing impact on many students and is an inspiration to many. The education system here is just so messed up. Much of it is solely test based and discourages creative thinking, emphasizing only subjects relative to how great the government is and subjects that are on those country wide tests. The government is slowly working to improve the education but with 1.4 billion people almost, in a country that is a tad smaller than the US, which is a tough thing to do.

I am starting to see the crowding in this city. We have ridden the bus a few times in the past few weeks and let’s just say there is no limit of people that can be on a bus here. The limit is when no more people can fit on the bus and people are falling out the doors when they open. There were at least 100 people on several of the buses I have ridden around on lately. It is absolutely crazy!!!! There are people everywhere and most people live in apartments because there isn’t a lot of room for houses with this many people, maybe out in the country, but even in the more rural areas of the city, they still live mostly in apartments. It is crazy imagining that there are that many people; I still cannot wrap my head around that fact.

During the week, my friend and I went and explored out of the east gate, there is just so much to see in this city. We found the expensive clubbing district, a Starbucks, which of course I caved and got my 2^nd Starbucks drink since I’ve been in China which if you know me is a miracle for me, a beautiful bridge, a cool park, and a music street, we may or may not have gotten a little lost in the process but it was still super fun. I also had an interview to teach English which went well, but I will get the job hopefully once they start a second class, so we will see; I’m enjoying my free time right now.

That weekend we met our host families which were amazing. Our program hooked all of us up with a host family from a foreign language school in the east side of the city, which was a huge blessing for us. I have a little sister who is 12 named Jessica, a mom whom I call Miss Li, Li being their family name, and a father in whom I call Mr. Li. They are so cute! I only met my mom and sister and my sister’s friend last week because my dad was working, but it was fun! We had an American/Chinese food buffet and played games with our families. My mom doesn’t speak English but my sister speaks English fairly well. After meeting our host families a few of us went to KTV, karaoke, with some girls we met that came into our business class one day. It was super fun!!! Here karaoke isn’t just at some bar, in China you rent a room and hang out with all of your friends. Our friends from Taiwan came with us, so there were four of us Americans and about ten Asian students. We paid just under $5 USD a person and got four and a half hours of karaoke, a large Chinese/American dinner, and several pitcher of orange juice. It was a fun experience and just amazing. A few weeks ago we also went out with our Taiwanese friends because one of them had a friend visiting, we walked to one of the main clubs, CC Club, and hung out for a while. They had a white dance crew there doing a performance and a bunch of Chinese rappers and singers. Some of my friends from the US go there all the time and get free drinks, however since the group we went with was Taiwanese, they had to pay for their whiskey – scotch mix and it came out to a total of $880¥, about $150 USD. It was crazy expensive, I couldn’t imagine paying that much. I just hung out and danced with the girls, but it was an experience to say the least, made for some great people watching.

Within the last three weeks it has been two of our friends’ birthdays. So for the first one, we got her a cake with cocoa and fruit on it, yes they consider tomatoes a fruit. We surprised her with the cake and it was so cute, her look was priceless. The next week was one of our friends from Taiwan’s birthday and they got him a cake. We surprised him as well and sang him a friendship song in Chines as well as happy birthday in Chinese and English. When they went to give him his piece of cake, they smashed it into his face instead which started a whole cake war. Turns out they had bought shaving cream as well and a large shaving cream and cake fight broke out, I managed to escape it until the end then I had no other choice. It was priceless and entertaining to watch. After about 15 minutes of it calming down, it started again but this time in the hallway and with our group as well. We were chasing each other down the hall at 11:45 at night and it was fun to just feel the freedom of a child, something we don’t get to experience too often. However a few of the people on the floor below us didn’t find it too funny and instead yelled at us, but oh well. We got over it and still had a good time.

This past week had to have been one of the most interesting weeks since I’ve been in China. In our culture class we learned more about the education system, but then we learned why there was a lack of population control and why China has sooooo many people! Mao, a very famous Chairman of China, believed that with a larger population, China could have a large and strong army. This proved to be true during the Korean War when US officials made the mistake of thinking that there were 2,000 soldiers or something along those lines when there were over 200,000 hiding in the bushes. Mao figured that the more people, the greater the army, and therefore China could win any battle. Therefore the initiatives the government was trying to pass were not very effective until 1979 when China’s population was so large; they had to enforce the one-child policy. Though there are ways around it. People can claim for their kids to be a twin of another family’s child, pay the fine of about $500 USD, though if they work in a government owned company they will most likely lose their job, or know someone in the government very well. In our Daoism class we went to a Buddhist Temple in the middle of the city and compared Buddhism to Daoism. It was really interesting because we met with a monk who was a friend of our professor and there was construction surrounding pretty much the whole temple, though it was still very beautiful.

Wednesday night also proved to be a very interesting night. A few days prior, my roommate had run across a guy outside her language building advertising for a fashion show coming up to kick of Chengdu’s “fashion week.” We filled out the form and later realized that when we thought we were signing up to attend the fashion show, we actually were creating a profile and putting ourselves out there for this foreign modeling agency. So on Wednesday we got all dressed up and went and met up with about 25 students total, three of us from our group. We then were taken on a bus to 3^rd Ring Road, about 45 minutes from campus, and brought to a nice shopping center. Once we arrived we met with the director of the agency and were briefed on the fact that they were always looking for foreign models and that the fashion show that evening would be a men’s fashion show. So we all got our picture taken and had to sign the board, feeling like celebrities. While they were taking our pictures there was also a crowd of about 20 Chinese bystanders also taking our pictures. They then took us to an Italian Restaurant and got us the equivalent of orange juice but in fancy glasses. From where we were it looked like we almost could have been sitting in suburbia America which was a weird feeling, but still beautiful. They then took us to the runway where we got front row VIP seats for the fashion show and within about ten minutes of us sitting down, they let all the bystanders come in and sit on the stools they had set up and they swarmed around, taking pictures of all of the foreigners. We ranged from American to German to Korean to a girl from Kazakhstan. The fashion show began with a dance crew doing a performance for us then the men began and lasted about 30 minutes. There was a wide range of people from Chinese looking guys to a guy that looked like he was high, a guy who looked like a taller Kurt from Glee, and two guys who were apparently French but were the stereotypical tall, dark and handsome types. There were some weird outfits and what not, but it was fun. Afterwards we all went and got our own dinner. Two of my friends and I went to a Japanese restaurant where I had sushi for the first time ever and tried caviar and it really wasn’t too bad. We then explored the center and found an amusement park, a Nike outlet, an Addidas outlet and a Levis outlet. It was interesting and fun! For dessert we got blizzards from Dairy Queen then met up with our group of foreigners again. From there, they took us to CC club for an after party with unlimited free drinks. It was an interesting experience on a Wednesday night. The guy who recruited all of us is apparently friends with the director of the agency, is originally from Korea but moved to the Pacific Islands and grew up there, then moved to Chengdu about a year and a half ago, so he was very “Americanized” you could say. I stayed at the club until about 11:45 then was just tired, had homework, and didn’t want to be there anymore and walked partially home with two German girls then walked/jogged home by myself the rest of the way. It was a late night of homework and my friends that went with us didn’t get home until 5AM, so boy was I glad that I left early.

Friday night we adventured to try to find the night market my friend had found online, however the directions weren't clear and instead we wandered around for 30 min. I asked a girl for directions in Chinese which was awesome, except I couldn't understand her response… turns out she spoke English luckily. We then ventured and found a shopping complex for dinner. While the boys went to go find noodles, I went to KFC for ice cream. While I was there I saw stars that I thought were chicken tenders…. Until I took a bite and realized they were fish sticks... YUCK! While in line I met some people from Ireland and England who are here with a program teaching English for a semester which seems really cool. It’s fun talking to people and meeting people from all over the world. After that I decided to go back to the school and ventured around and found the bus and went home. It was nice to be able to figure out my way on my own and was a nice sense of accomplishment.

This week is the National Holiday week, the equivalent of the 4^th of July except we get the whole week off. Unfortunately, since education is such a big deal in China though, we had to make up our Thursday class that we are missing for the break on the weekend. So Saturday we had all of our Thursday classes which threw all of us off on our days of the week, not to mention that was the first time I had ever gone to school on a weekend. It wasn't too bad, but just made for a long day. Saturday night, some of my friends from PLU invited me to hot pot. We went and had the skewer kind and it was fun to hang out with new friends and chit chat. We rode bikes there; well I rode on the back of one of their bikes. While we were eating it started to downpour and none of us had expected it so we didn't have jackets and after our two hour hot pot dinner, we had to sit on wet seats. They have a married couple who lives in an apartment complex out the east gate and they were planning to make pancakes. So they invited me over there and I rode on the back of one of my friends’ bikes all the way there. It’s an ab and upper leg work out though, let me tell ya. We ate regular and M&M pancakes and watched Mulan, what better movie to watch in China right? Then we played Clue, which I hadn't played in years, and just hung out. They have a beautiful view overlooking the river, the colorful bar street, the convention center that changes colors, and the Shang-Ri-La – a fancy hotel. It was fun to hang out and bike in the pouring down rain and just relax for a while.

Sunday was the mid-autumn festival day, another big holiday that happened to fall on the same week as National Day. The mid-autumn festival lands on the day of the full moon and is considered to be the middle of autumn and is a day of the harvest. It is a day to eat moon cookies, baked cookie things with mean, pumpkin, nuts, or other random stuff in the middle, celebrate the harvest and spend time with family.

So what better way to spend it than with my host family? My mom and sister picked me up and took me to the panda reserve. First let’s start off with driving. The driving is crazy, most people don’t look both ways before pulling out and definitely don’t check their blind spot, and instead if someone is there they simply honk to make the driver aware of it and the driver swerves. On the highways, when there are 3 lanes that really means there are 4.5 lanes and people just kind of jumble together and attempt to drive, it is inefficient but it’s how they get it done I guess. A few times I had to close my eyes because the driving was too stressful to watch. My family’s friends came with us who happen to be the host family of another girl Katie, so she came along as well. We had to stop and ask for directions several times and would pull over randomly in the middle of the highway and ask. One time we stopped in the middle of the lane facing the opposite direction on a side street, backed up into traffic, turned and went out the entrance to the street and I think ran a red light? Needless to say, it was an interesting experience to say the least. The traffic leading out of the city completely was absolutely crazy with everyone leaving for the national week. The panda park was fun, there are so many and they are all so fuzzy and cute, I just want to give them all big bear hugs. No pun intended. We walked around the park for about 3 hours. They have adults, young adults, big cups, young cubs, red pandas, and baby pandas. They are all so lazy and watching them eat bamboo and sleep is hilarious. Two of the cubs were wrestling each other and pushing each other off of the platform, many were sleeping, and one guy was sitting on a platform eating bamboo and putting on a show for everyone. It was a very nice park and gives a lot of factual information on pandas. It is not just a park, but a breeding and research center since there are less than 2,000 pandas alive in the world today. They artificially inseminate a lot of the female pandas so there are more babies. When we were there we saw a baby about 3 weeks old that was just starting to develop hair and another little baby that was a giant fluff ball at about two months old or so. We also went to the swan lake and fed vicious black swans, that was a task all in itself. They were vicious and hungry, but we fed them out of our hands which was not something you get to do every day. When we were there we got asked to take a picture with a Chinese couple, which hadn’t happened in a while. We also met a couple from Hong Kong. He was French and she was Italian and they had moved to Hong Kong like 6 years ago. They had two super cute kids that my sister and her friends fell in love with. It’s so funny how we love the little Asian kids and the Asian kids love little white kids. It was fun to watch. We got ice cream and then left. On our way out we stopped at the restroom and I saw and used my first Bidet... aka the weirdest toilet I have ever seen. It has a spray washer, you can change the pressure and temperature of the water, the temperature of the seat, and it has a dryer. I was completely caught off guard! The traffic home was a lot better and we all went to hot pot. I tried tripe… gross! And they ordered little fish on sticks… except when the fish came they were still breathing, even though they had sticks through them. After that I sort of lose my appetite. We had some good dessert though. Then my family invited me to their amazing apartment. They live in the east of Chengdu in a nice apartment complex up on the top floor. You walk in the door and they have vaulted ceilings with big windows and beautiful furniture. We had fruit and hung out, and then they took me upstairs to my sisters play room in which she practices ballet in front of the big dance mirror and ballet bar. Then you can go outside and they have a beautiful terrace, a rooftop garden, and a little area to play ping pong, as well as a spare bedroom. While I was there I met my host dad who is absolutely hilarious. He owns his own business in transportation. His company is helping with the new subway line in Chengdu, he works in Shanghai on the weekends, and next year is building a subway line in a small African country, which one I don’t know it was lost in translation. But yet, he is a character! We had moon cookie ice cream sandwiches which are SO good! And he tried to practice his English, it was cute. They took me to pizza hut for dinner which is the equivalent of Oliver Garden here. We got so much food for dinner and I ate WAY too much! I was still full from hotpot and then we had pizza. When we were walking to Pizza Hut, there were these inflatable costume things with people in them. As we walked by he ran and jumped on the back of one of them and it then proceeded to take him in its arms and swing him around, a priceless moment I must say. Afterwards my family took me back to school and we all said goodnight. They had asked me if I wanted to stay the night, but I was tired and had a breakfast date this morning so I had to politely decline. My family is absolutely amazing though. They are planning to send their daughter to high school in the US because it has a better education system that encourages more creative and critical thinking, so that she can go to a an American college. They may come visit Seattle next year which would be awesome!!!!! It was nice to spend the holiday with a family though, since that is what the holiday is all about.

When I got back a bunch of us went to the river and I fulfilled one of the things on my bucket list. We lit and set off the paper lanterns into the sky. It was so much fun and it was so beautiful and brought together community. Some of the lanterns were flowers that once you lit the candle, you let them float down the river. Then there were the giant paper lanterns that you light the piece of charcoal stuff, let it fill with air, and watch them fly up into the sky. It is a lot harder than it looks though, let me tell you. Being able to cross that not only off of my list, but crossing it off of my list in China made me so excited! While we were there we also met the cutest little girl. She was about a year and a half old and was friendly as could be. She was super funny as well. She danced, kissed us each on the cheek, laughed at everything with the cutest little laugh, put the floating flower lanterns on her head, and hung out with us for a while. On our way back we stopped by the east student dorms where our friend lived, went out on the roof and just watched for a little while. She also lives across the street from the river and it was beautiful up there. The moon was out, which is very rare in Chengdu and there were even a few stars. It was a beautiful night. When we got back I sat and watched the lanterns floating around the sky from my window. It is a beautiful tradition and I loved it. Supposedly setting them off is supposed to be good luck but I just love the beauty of it. Of course the next day there are burnt out lanterns everywhere, but it’s worth it the night before.

This morning the girls from the Bible study I am in got together and went to a café owned by two of the girls’ friends. It is in the high-tech zone, which is a newer area where many of the big international companies are located. The food was amazing, I had a chicken and brie Panini sandwich and was so excited… sandwiches are rare over here. They also gave us each a free espresso shot which was just what I needed because boy was I exhausted. The two girls that own it are American so it was fun talking to them. The coolest part about it though is they are working in the Red Light district of Chengdu and have been creating relationships with the women in the brothels. They have made a safe house for the women where currently only one woman and the house mom live, but they are going to invite the women to go live there so that they can escape prostitution. They are also going to employ them at their bakery/café and get counseling for them. This was absolutely crazy to me because back in April I took part in a Social Venture Competition in which we had to create a business that helped the greater good. Well it just so happened that the business we were planning to create was almost exactly mirror image of what these two women are doing here in Chengdu. Now I don’t think it was a coincidence and I think God did that for a reason. So sometime in the next few weeks I am going to be volunteering with them and helping them with their project. They had been praying for volunteers, so it was the start of an answer to a prayer for them and an amazing opportunity for me in regards to something that I am passionate about. Being able to make a small difference in these women’s lives would be awesome! And so humbling. After our Bible study we came back hung out for a bit, they went to get lunch but I was still full from dinner the night before and breakfast that morning. They came back and picked me up and we went to Bookworm which is a bookstore/café type place. They have free Wi-Fi and you can hang out and read their books all day and drink beer, wine, cocktails, coffee, smoothies, etc. if you would like and have a meal – American style of course. I sat down with a nice glass of white wine, did some studying, and began adding to this post. It was so cozy and relaxing and such a homie place to hang out. My roommate and our other friend left early for dinner at their boss’s house. So afterward Mike and I took the scooter home, had some street food (really good beef on a stick), met up with some other friends and got dumplings then went back to our room. It was a nice relaxing evening… until we went to the movies. A group of 5 of us went to the movies, which only cost 25¥ here if you’re a student which is about $4 USD. We saw the movie Looper which was crazy. At the movies you have assigned seating which was weird. But the movie itself was well done, but freaked me out. I almost walked out a few times because I couldn't take it but was really curious to know what happened so I didn't and I didn't want to walk home by myself because I was too scared! I managed to get through it but my heard hurt from too much thinking afterwards. I am now laying in my bed al cozy about to crash for the night.

Tomorrow we are going shopping because there are a ton of sales for the National Day, which is October 1^st so happy National Day!!!! Then we are getting all packed and heading to Xi’an on Wednesday for 5 days. There we will see the city wall, which is one of the few cities if not the only one whose wall is still intact and we will see the terracotta soldiers. It’s a 16 hour ride there and we made the mistake of getting seats instead of beds, but we will survive. It will be an experience.

I am starting to get accustomed to life here. The language barrier is still difficult but I am slowly making progress and can have a very basic conversation. Getting around is easier and I have grown to love this city. I really want to come back one day with my family. I have been a little homesick over the last few weeks but it is more the simplicity of life and the people that I miss rather than home home. Granted my own bed does sound nice right now but I think it’s just because I am really sleepy. And wishing for the convenient way of life doesn't add any adventure. For now I am embracing the culture here, loving the people and enjoying the city for all it’s worth.

Birthday Party Number 2 :)

Taoist Temple

I have a ton of pictures from the last few weeks that I will put up tomorrow, but for now I am about to go to sleep – long week ahead! Sorry for the spread out pictures allow, they wouldn't cooperate into the right places!

晚安 (wǎnān) which is goodnight in Chinese!