We went to hot pot as a group last monday night...
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| From left: Martha, Al, Ricki, Josh, Margaux, Liya (english teacher), and Jason (english teacher) |
Thursday we had to go to the police station to register as foreigners, which took forever and was so disorganized, of course. Then in the afternoon I had to help interview host families for us to stay with. My job was to assess the student's english (all the families had students who are studying here at the palace). Some of them were really shy and awkward and some of them could barely speak english. But also some of them were great.
We recently discovered some new restaurants on street nearby so we've been eating pretty well, lots of dumplings, noodles (not what you think of chinese noodles though, they're all made from different kinds), etc.
Thursday after dinner we went on a hunt for this british bar we had heard about just to check it out. After some time wandering, we found it. We ended up having a beer with the owner, who was totally weird. He's married to a chinese woman and has lived in China for 8 years, but doesn't speak chinese or eat chinese food. He has a driver to avoid interacting with people at all costs. but seems to be doing pretty well here in china of course. When I asked him what his favorite place in china was, he couldn't give me answer, not because of how great china is, but because he doesn't particularly like anywhere. typical foreign snob. but we'll still probably go back for drinks on our own at some point, haha.
Friday our internet was down so of course we all freaked out. I finished a great book called the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. You should all read it. I loved it. Friday night a new foreigner came, Jean-Raphael. He's french and very nice. So now there are 4 girls and 3 boys; 4 americans, 2 british, and 1 french. It's a nice mix, haha.
Saturday I spent the afternoon taking a practice GRE. I’m planning on taking it in August so I have to study while I’m here. L There’s a graduate program through John Hopkins in Nanjing, China that I want to apply for, in case you were wondering. But anyways, I improved a lot on that already so that was encouraging. Saturday night we bought some wine and played cards in our room. And of course watched some sex and the city, which we do everyday, at least twice a day, haha.
Initially when we arrived, we were upset because we only have Mondays off, but we had been promised “weekends” off. So after a lot of drama, we have been granted a “second” day off whenever we want, which we’ve basically decided will be Sundays. So we had Sunday off and wanted to go to Li Bai’s home in Jiangyou. Li Bai is an ancient Tang dynasty poet. He’s basically the Shakespeare of China. And we studied him in class a lot so I actually get him. My favorite expression I learned relating to Li Bai is 只要功夫神，铁杵摸成针, which means “If you persist, you can grind an iron rod into a needle”. So it’s about sticking with it and persisting until something is accomplished. Apparently it’s also slang for masturbation. But anyways, we had to back by 4pm because that’s when were being picked up by our homestay families. We needed to get a train to Jiangyou so we hopped on a bus to the train station. Once we got there, we were confronted by a huge confusing board with lots of characters and numbers, from which I deduced that there were only 2 trains and we couldn’t go on Sunday. So instead we walked around the train station area and go some lunch. We’ve been looking for a good fake DVD shop for awhile but still haven’t found one. We did find a shop with a few things so everyone was happy about that. Then we came back to the palace.
At 4 pm our families came to get us. I knew all the kids already because I had interviewed them. I ended up with my favorite girl Eva.
She’s 13 and speaks English extremely well. Her cousin also hung out with us the whole time because she’s studying English too. She’s 15. First we took a taxi to Eva’s family’s curtains shop, which turned out to be right next to the train station. The shop was nice. Then the uncle drove us to their apartment, which was on the outskirts of town. It was much more calm and peaceful and not as polluted where they lived. Their apartment overlooked the river, which was pretty despite the fact that the river is brown and has trash floating in it. Then we walked to a nearby market where farmers from the countryside come to sell their food. We got some delicious noodles called “Liang Pi”. The noodles are served cold with some veggies in them, a bit of soy sauce and spicy sauce. I don’t think the noodles are made from wheat (or whatever noodles are usually made from), maybe they’re from rice, if that exists? Anyways, delicious. Then I walked around a park with Eva and her cousin. Then I met her parents, aunts and uncles, and a grandmother for hot pot, which seems to be the thing to do with guests, as this is my 3rd hot pot meal in 2 weeks since arriving in China. They ordered some gross stuff, like cow liver. And they kept serving it to me so I had to eat it. And it was sooooo spicy. I thought I was going to throw up from the amount of food and the spice. But I didn’t, thank god. Then we went home, watched some TV, and played cards. My host family gave me a nightgown to sleep in, which was actually pretty cute. Then they gave me water so I could wash my feet, which was actually really nice. I think we should do this in the US too. No one likes going to bed with dirty feet.
Then next morning they wanted me to get up at 6:30am! That’s normal for them because Eva usually has school, and if it’s summertime, she has to study. (In response to the following questions, she said “she’s not allowed because she has to study”- Do you have a boyfriend? Do you drink beer? (I know she’s 13, I forgot, haha) Do you like karaoke? (which EVERYONE likes)). I had a hot shower, which was amazing, but maybe strange because half way through, Eva asked me if I was using the hot water. If you have hot water, why wouldn’t you use it? Oh well, they didn’t say anything else about it. Then we had breakfast which was hard-boiled eggs, baozi (stuffed steamed buns), bread, shredded potatoes stir-fried in a spicy sauce, and some eggs soaked in something, but were actually pretty good. Then we went to Eva’s mother’s hometown, which was a really small farming village. It was great to get to see the countryside, which I’ve never really experienced. We picked watermelons and lots of other vegetables to bring back to our house and had them for lunch. J and the family in the village that we were at cut up watermelon for us to eat (a big deal in china). And then we picked pears off a tree, peeled them, and ate them on the spot. Pretty awesome.
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| Cow and I in the countryside |
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| Our chosen watermelon. And my host cousin. |
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| fields after fields, so beautiful |
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| My host Great Aunt. She's like 70, and carrying corn on her back in a basket. |
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| the biggest home in the village, aka they're rich. I think they have electricity and running water, but I wasn't sure. This is my host mom's house when she was a child. |
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| random people in the village. I'm probably the first white person they're ever seen. |
Then we went home and made dumplings, which I've been wanting to do foreverrrrrr.
Then we ate lunch, which were not the dumplings (we had those for dinner- yummmm!). Instead, we had chicken soup (so the whole chicken- feet, bones, etc. all in the soup), rabbit (mostly bones) with some potatoes (which I ate), some shredded pork dish with these nasty bitter veggies, and eggplant (which was ok but then it got cold and was gross). After a short nap, we set out for Beichuan, which was a small village hit particularly hard by the earthquake in 2008.
Beichuan was a poor village and not built particularly well, which is partly while it suffered so much during the earthquake. It is also surrounded by beautiful and tall mountains (up to 22,000 ft), which further isolated it. During the earthquake, there were numerous rock and mud slides, which killed people who managed to escape the crashing buildings. And by rocks, I mean boulders the size of a small house rolled down into the village. And an entire river was rerouted by the Earthquake, which flooded part of the town and contributed to the mud slides. The original town of Beichuan was too damaged to rebuild, so it was relocated about 15 km away out of the valley (During the earthquake, many supplies and rescue workers couldn't get to the village because they were in the valley. There also weren't able to communicate with the outside world for about 72 hrs after). The old town of Beichuan has been preserved as a memorial for the 70,000 people who died (total, not just in Beichuan), making it the 21st most deadly earthquake in history. So we walked around the town and looked at the damage. It was really sad, but also morbidly interesting.
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| a flooded office building |
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| apartments |
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| the river on the other side of a mountain got diverted by the earthquake and now runs through a tunnel that used to be for cars. This bridge broke during the earthquake so now it's just a waterfall. |
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| A school. The earthquake hit at 2:28pm. All the kids were napping when it happened. 107 people died here. |
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| The info about the school above |
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| rock slide |
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| This is a mass grave where people were buried. It's also a memorial. |
Then we left the town because it was raining so hard. We got lost on the way back and it took 2.5 hrs. But we got to drive through the mountains, which are amazingly beautiful. The pictures don't do it justice, especially with the fog. At some point in my life, I want to come back and hike here (Lucas?!). They're extremely rugged and sharp.
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| This is the China you see in the movies. |
When we finally got home, we ate our delicious dumplings. By saying how much I liked them, I was then fed another 6 after already eating 8! So I was EXTREMELY full after that. Then I came back here to the palace.
This morning I had class, during which I showed a powerpoint I made about my life. I have pictures of my family and friends, and my school. The highlight was of course my dogs. But they said everyone was beautiful and very cute and that we are all rich. haha. So congrats if you were in that ppt.
Classes have been better because now we're seeing the same students again. But still not that rewarding or challenging. Still getting along great with my friends here. Last week I met a girl in the park who invited me to join her for a dinner with her friends where they practice english, so maybe we'll go to that.
I'm planning on going to Hong Kong this weekend, but it's been so complicated. They're afraid I'll get hurt or something and they'll be held responsible. So basically I gave up asking permission and I'm just going to go. They won't notice. But I also still haven't been able to buy my ticket. I'm going this afternoon so hopefully that works out. In Hong Kong, I'm staying with my best friend Natalie and her family (LOVE THE NIELSENSSSSS!!!!!) and hopefully seeing my roommate from Shanghai, Katie.
No other plans for the week! Congratulations if you made it to the bottom of this! :)
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| My host mom and I |
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| My host cousin and I |
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| Eva and I |
1 comment:
was I in the slideshow???
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