I finally feel like we're settled in and have finally gotten used to everything. I'm getting to know the area better and I'm figuring out how to get places. Classes are going well and I'm just really liking China. 2 weekends ago we went on a field trip to a museum and then last weekend was the first free weekend we had. We went shopping at Jinli street and it's basically a tourist shopping street with traditional buildings but it was really cool. I went with Gillian and my roommate Lauren. We shopped for a while and then got some pineapple rice served inside half of a pineapple. It was pretty delicious. We sat down to eat it and this old man came over and started taking pictures of us. Gillian and I have blonde hair and Chinese people love blonde hair. A few girls came over and started taking pictures of us too and then before we knew it there was a huge crowd of people (mostly teenage girls) taking pictures of us. People started sitting down and taking pictures with us too. It was hilarious. We took pictures with people for a good 15 minutes and then Lauren suggested that we try to make our way out or it would never stop. As we were walking around I saw people turning around and taking pictures of us on their phones too. We were pretty amused.
I started teaching English last week. I have a class of three 7 year olds once a week and then I teach 6 middle school classes. I have a little trouble with the 7 year olds because it's hard to keep them focused and on task but I really like the middle schoolers. This was my first week teaching middle school and I had 3 classes of 8th graders on Monday and 3 classes of 7th graders today. I really like that age because they actually listen and participate in class. The classes are 40 minutes each which isn't bad at all. The middle school classes have 40-50 kids in each class so they are pretty big classes. Today I asked the kids to introduce themselves and one of the little boys told me his name and his phone number and then said call me. It was so funny. Several little girls have come up to me after class to tell me how pretty my hair is because it's blonde and curly. When I walked into each class for the first time all the kids gasp and just stare at me. I guess they aren't really used to seeing blonde people in China. People on the street wave and say hello to me too because I'm western. It's usually only when I'm walking alone but it happened at least 3 or 4 times today.
Next week is Chinese National Holiday so there's no school or work for a week. I don't have class on Friday so my holiday starts today. Tomorrow a group of 8 of us are leaving to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge to go hike for a few days. The gorge takes 2 days to hike and then we're planning on doing some day trips. It's a 22 hour train ride from Chengdu to Kunming and then another 9 hours to Lijiang. We've got a hard sleeper on the train so we have beds, which is great. From Lijiang we'll take a 2 hour bus ride to get to the gorge. It will be a lot of traveling but I'm excited! I've taken a 24 hour train ride before from Hong Kong to Beijing and I slept for a good 12 hours so it wasn't bad at all. I have a book, homework and some sleep to catch up on so I should be set. I'll be back in about a week and I'll try to update about the trip!
Thursday, September 27, 2012
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Week 1: Pandas and earthquakes
I have now been in Chengdu for a little over a week. It's been a lot of fun so far. My classes are going pretty well. Nothing too exciting but I definitely feel like my Chinese is improving already. I've been able to speak briefly with a few people in Chinese when ordering food or buying things, which is exciting. This past week there was an earthquake in China's Yunnan Province. I think it was a 5.6 magnitude earthquake and something like 50 people died. It's pretty far south of Chengdu but I woke up and felt my building swaying. At first I thought it was the construction they are doing on the building but later I figured out it was an earthquake. Most people didn't even feel it here though so it wasn't a big deal.
On Saturday we had a field trip to go to the Panda Research Base and we got to see baby pandas!! It was kind of amazing! They were so small and adorable! You could hold a panda and get a picture taken with it for $200 USD but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money just to hold a panda for 5 minutes. We spent the morning with the pandas and then in the afternoon they took us on a bus tour of the city. It was nice to see what all there is to do in Chengdu and we're definitely planning to go explore the city more.
Yesterday my roomates and I decided to thoroughly clean our apartment since it looks like it's never been cleaned. We probably started around 1pm and cleaned all day. At about 6:45 I headed to my room to study and the power went out. It was only our apartment that lost power though. We called Wentao (the program director) and she called some people to try and fix it. We had 3 different people come work on fixing it but nobody could. At 9:30 I decided I needed to go study before it got any later since I had a quiz today. I went over to someone else's apartment to study and spend the night because it was really dark in our apartment. When I woke up this morning their power had gone out. At least there was some light coming through the windows but the bathroom was really dark so I had a hard time getting ready. I got back to my room today though and the power is back on! So exciting!
On Saturday we had a field trip to go to the Panda Research Base and we got to see baby pandas!! It was kind of amazing! They were so small and adorable! You could hold a panda and get a picture taken with it for $200 USD but I just couldn't bring myself to spend that much money just to hold a panda for 5 minutes. We spent the morning with the pandas and then in the afternoon they took us on a bus tour of the city. It was nice to see what all there is to do in Chengdu and we're definitely planning to go explore the city more.
Yesterday my roomates and I decided to thoroughly clean our apartment since it looks like it's never been cleaned. We probably started around 1pm and cleaned all day. At about 6:45 I headed to my room to study and the power went out. It was only our apartment that lost power though. We called Wentao (the program director) and she called some people to try and fix it. We had 3 different people come work on fixing it but nobody could. At 9:30 I decided I needed to go study before it got any later since I had a quiz today. I went over to someone else's apartment to study and spend the night because it was really dark in our apartment. When I woke up this morning their power had gone out. At least there was some light coming through the windows but the bathroom was really dark so I had a hard time getting ready. I got back to my room today though and the power is back on! So exciting!
Monday, September 3, 2012
Chengdu
I arrived in Chengdu on Saturday. I was picked up from the airport and taken to my apartment. I'm really surprised by how big and nice the apartment is! It's kind of dirty but we're planning on cleaning it really thoroughly on Sunday. I have 2 roommates and we each have our own room. Anna is from Washington and Lauren is from Alabama. We get along really well and I'm definitely liking the apartment. We have about a 20 minute walk to campus everyday, which isn't ideal since the people in the dorms live in the same building that we have class in but I'm glad I'm in an apartment. I'll have to post pictures soon because it's pretty awesome. We had about 30 minutes to get settled into our apartment before they took us to the store to get things for our apartment. When we got back from shopping a bunch of us went out to dinner got hot pot. Chengdu is known for hot pot and spicy food. Hot pot is essentially a giant pot (sort of like fondue) where you cook all your food. It's insanely spicy though and we got the mildest one. My lips were burning for quite a while. I'm going to have a hard time getting used to the spicy food.
The next day we had orientation at 9am. I was pretty tired and still didn't feel like I have caught up on sleep and adjusted to the time change yet but I think they are trying to keep us busy so nobody gets bored or homesick. We had orientation at a hotel during the morning and then in the afternoon they sent us on a scavenger hunt. My group's task was to ride the bus and go find IKEA. We ended up shopping for a little while. When we got home that night my roommate Lauren found a mouse/rat (still not sure which one) in her room!! They told us at orientation not to leave our windows open because mice get in but we had already left the window open. The mouse was on her window sill so I got a broom and knocked it down and Lauren tried to catch it. It was ridiculously fast and managed to get inside her drawer and we lost it for a while. Eventually we got it out we stood on the bed screaming and trying to hit it with a broom. After what seemed like forever Lauren managed to kill it with the broom. There is now blood on her floor and she ended up sleeping in another room last night. We're kind of traumatized by the whole situation. Then today we found a mouse had eaten through our bread, cereal and a tomato. We bought traps today so hopefully they work.
Today was the first day of class. I have Chinese 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. I only had Chinese today and it went surprisingly well. My teacher is awesome and I couldn't believe how much Chinese I understood! After class a big group of us went to Carrefour, which is a big supermarket. We picked up a bunch of things we needed for our apartment and I was able to get a Chinese phone. I'm exhausted and hoping to catch up on sleep later this week but I'm really liking Chengdu! It's a cool city and a lot nicer than I was expecting!
The next day we had orientation at 9am. I was pretty tired and still didn't feel like I have caught up on sleep and adjusted to the time change yet but I think they are trying to keep us busy so nobody gets bored or homesick. We had orientation at a hotel during the morning and then in the afternoon they sent us on a scavenger hunt. My group's task was to ride the bus and go find IKEA. We ended up shopping for a little while. When we got home that night my roommate Lauren found a mouse/rat (still not sure which one) in her room!! They told us at orientation not to leave our windows open because mice get in but we had already left the window open. The mouse was on her window sill so I got a broom and knocked it down and Lauren tried to catch it. It was ridiculously fast and managed to get inside her drawer and we lost it for a while. Eventually we got it out we stood on the bed screaming and trying to hit it with a broom. After what seemed like forever Lauren managed to kill it with the broom. There is now blood on her floor and she ended up sleeping in another room last night. We're kind of traumatized by the whole situation. Then today we found a mouse had eaten through our bread, cereal and a tomato. We bought traps today so hopefully they work.
Today was the first day of class. I have Chinese 3 days a week for 3 hours each day. I only had Chinese today and it went surprisingly well. My teacher is awesome and I couldn't believe how much Chinese I understood! After class a big group of us went to Carrefour, which is a big supermarket. We picked up a bunch of things we needed for our apartment and I was able to get a Chinese phone. I'm exhausted and hoping to catch up on sleep later this week but I'm really liking Chengdu! It's a cool city and a lot nicer than I was expecting!
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