Sorry, everyone, I know I've been absolutely terrible at updating lately. I think that I haven't really been in the mood because I know I'm leaving very soon and I'm not sure how I feel about that yet...so I've just been avoiding it. I REALLY will try to do more updates tomorrow, because I definitely have things that I want to share (and that I want to remember).
So- tomorrow I fly to Beijing. My flight leaves at 1:40 PM and someone from the hotel will pick me up at the airport. I'll then spend the 12th and 13th in Beijing (plans= Great Wall/Forbidden City) then I'll fly home on the 14th. My flight leaves Beijing at 9 AM. From there I fly to Tokyo, then Detroit, then RDU. Stupid connections! ;) With flight time and wait times, it will equal about 22 hours. I get in around 7 PM on the 14th (returning I gain time).
So, yeah- I'll try to do more tomorrow, maybe in the airport. :)
2007年8月10日星期五
2007年8月6日星期一
MAYBE I'll write about Songpan...
...but I'm kind of losing motivation as it was a week ago! I'll try to do some, but it may be a shorter story than I expected.
I cannot believe that my summer here is almost over. In 5 days I'll be flying to Beijing, and in 8 days I'll be home. I have moments where I can't wait to go home, and then I have times like this evening when I'm so sad to be leaving.
Things I will miss about Chengdu:
dogs everywhere
being able to walk almost anywhere I want to go
teahouses
hmm...community? Not so much that I'm a part of it, but there are always groups of people on the street or in a teahouse playing mah jong or talking with each other
fruit stands
walking down the street and passing about 10 stores in 2 blocks
The access we have when we're with
I cannot believe that my summer here is almost over. In 5 days I'll be flying to Beijing, and in 8 days I'll be home. I have moments where I can't wait to go home, and then I have times like this evening when I'm so sad to be leaving.
Things I will miss about Chengdu:
dogs everywhere
being able to walk almost anywhere I want to go
teahouses
hmm...community? Not so much that I'm a part of it, but there are always groups of people on the street or in a teahouse playing mah jong or talking with each other
fruit stands
walking down the street and passing about 10 stores in 2 blocks
The access we have when we're with
2007年8月2日星期四
Songpan part 1
I spent yesterday morning/early afternoon in bed, just watching TV and generally being lazy, so I decided I should make a list of the things I want to do each day before leaving Chengdu. On the list for today is Wenshu Monastery. http://www.travelchinaguide.com/attraction/sichuan/chengdu/wenshu_monastery.htm
I think Janell has had her fill of temples and she has to do laundry, so I'm going alone and will meet her for dinner at a Turkish restaurant...yum.
OK, I suppose I should write about Songpan now as I don't want to forget, but writing about it seems a little tedious. I will do my best, though. We left around 7 AM on Thursday, the 26th and it took about 9 or 10 hours to get to Songpan. I don't think it would have taken anywhere near that long if the drive was on flat ground but once we got a few hours out of Chengdu we were basically just traveling up mountains. We stopped a few times and on one of those stops we met a German girl named Charlotte...I'm sure her English would have been great anyway, but she spent a year as an au pair in Michigan so her English was perfect. With about 1 or 2 hours left in the trip, the bus was stopped by police for about 30 minutes. It was, of course, quite dramatic for me since I had no idea what was going on and all the Chinese people were looking out the window and whispering to one another. It turned out, though, that the bus just had too many people on it (there were people sitting in the aisles!) so I think the driver just got a ticket, or something. When we finally got to Songpan and got out of the bus, the air was very cool...I had to put on my fleece or I would have been freezing. We checked into our hostel and registered for our horse trek (the guides were waiting right outside the bus so it wasn't any trouble to find where to go) and then we were pointed towards Emma's Kitchen, which was heavenly. It's a western restaurant that has amazing food and every time we were there, it was packed with foreigners. We found out that we were supposed to go on the hot springs horse ride but since Charlotte and everyone else around us was going on the Ice Mountain trip, we switched to that one. Ha. This is what I just found online:
So, yeah...basically we picked the "hard" trail over the "easy" trail, having no idea what we were doing at the time. Oh, well- we definitely felt accomplished after we finished! The !!! means "may be hazardous when raining", which it definitely did during our trek.
When we were at Emma's Kitchen on Thursday night we met a guy from Toronto who was named Brendan, and he ate dinner with us then walked around the city with us that night. He was tons of fun, so that was great. Walking around the city was such an interesting experience for me...it looked totally different than anywhere else I'd been in China. Songpan is a minority town of Tibetans and Muslims, so the people looked entirely different than the Han Chinese that are in Chengdu (and in the majority of the country). Their skin was much darker and their clothes were very different. The Tibetan people have very pink cheeks that look like they put a ton of blush on them- it is quite a nice effect, actually. ;) We bought knit parkas and 1 or 2 scarves each in preparation for the next day. You have to do some major bargaining, though, especially as a foreigner. I find that it's much easier to bargain if you really don't care that much about what you're getting and really aren't willing to pay more than you say. The scarves and parkas turned out to be VERY wise investments, though.
Charlotte, Janell and I stayed at the Traffic Hotel that night then got up early the next morning to have a good breakfast at Emma's Kitchen before we left at 8:30 AM. It was raining and I had no waterproof options, so I spontaneously went into a store about bought a "North Face' (yeah, right!) rain jacket/fleece combo for 280 yuan (about $36). Although I'm sure I paid way too much for it, it was worth every penny over the next 3 freezing days. I pretty much wore socks, jeans, a long underwear type shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, the fleece/jacket, the scarf, and sometimes the parka every day- and definitely the parka at night.
So, we left at 8:30 AM. There were 5 of us in one group- Janell, Charlotte, and I plus 2 French girls named Magalie and Cecile. We also had 3 guides and I wish I could tell you their names, but I could barely pronounce them, much less type them. :/ We ended up calling them Be Careful!, Earring Man, and Beat the Sheepskin, respectively and for different reasons. They were all part of the Muslim minority so it was interesting to hear their perspectives on the Tibetan people. I hadn't been nervous at all before we left but as soon as I was on my horse, I got a little scared. It took me about 30 minutes to relax a bit and start to enjoy the ride.
Ok, I'm taking a break to go to Wenshu temple since this typing is going to take forever!!! I'll start part 2 either this afternoon/evening or tomorrow morning.
I think Janell has had her fill of temples and she has to do laundry, so I'm going alone and will meet her for dinner at a Turkish restaurant...yum.
OK, I suppose I should write about Songpan now as I don't want to forget, but writing about it seems a little tedious. I will do my best, though. We left around 7 AM on Thursday, the 26th and it took about 9 or 10 hours to get to Songpan. I don't think it would have taken anywhere near that long if the drive was on flat ground but once we got a few hours out of Chengdu we were basically just traveling up mountains. We stopped a few times and on one of those stops we met a German girl named Charlotte...I'm sure her English would have been great anyway, but she spent a year as an au pair in Michigan so her English was perfect. With about 1 or 2 hours left in the trip, the bus was stopped by police for about 30 minutes. It was, of course, quite dramatic for me since I had no idea what was going on and all the Chinese people were looking out the window and whispering to one another. It turned out, though, that the bus just had too many people on it (there were people sitting in the aisles!) so I think the driver just got a ticket, or something. When we finally got to Songpan and got out of the bus, the air was very cool...I had to put on my fleece or I would have been freezing. We checked into our hostel and registered for our horse trek (the guides were waiting right outside the bus so it wasn't any trouble to find where to go) and then we were pointed towards Emma's Kitchen, which was heavenly. It's a western restaurant that has amazing food and every time we were there, it was packed with foreigners. We found out that we were supposed to go on the hot springs horse ride but since Charlotte and everyone else around us was going on the Ice Mountain trip, we switched to that one. Ha. This is what I just found online:
| Name | See what ? | D | B | L | Rain ? | Best time | Cost | Tourism |
| Ice Mountain | Snow peaks, Lush valleys, Monastery | 3/4 | 4 | Hard | !!! | summer but clouds | free | no |
| Hot spring | A lot of lakes | 3 | 3 | Easy | OK | summer | 30Y | little |
| Mineral Water | 2 big lakes | 3/4 | 1 | Hard | OK | summer | free | little |
| Waterfall | Monastery | 3 | 2 | Easy | OK | yearly | 30Y | a lot (10 buses a day) |
| Huanlong | Mountains, Lakes, waterfalls | 3 | 5 | Hard | !!! | April to Oct | 80Y | a lot (5000 people a day) |
| Zoige | Grassland, Monastery | 10 to 12 | 6 | Hard | OK | Aug & Sept | free | little |
So, yeah...basically we picked the "hard" trail over the "easy" trail, having no idea what we were doing at the time. Oh, well- we definitely felt accomplished after we finished! The !!! means "may be hazardous when raining", which it definitely did during our trek.
When we were at Emma's Kitchen on Thursday night we met a guy from Toronto who was named Brendan, and he ate dinner with us then walked around the city with us that night. He was tons of fun, so that was great. Walking around the city was such an interesting experience for me...it looked totally different than anywhere else I'd been in China. Songpan is a minority town of Tibetans and Muslims, so the people looked entirely different than the Han Chinese that are in Chengdu (and in the majority of the country). Their skin was much darker and their clothes were very different. The Tibetan people have very pink cheeks that look like they put a ton of blush on them- it is quite a nice effect, actually. ;) We bought knit parkas and 1 or 2 scarves each in preparation for the next day. You have to do some major bargaining, though, especially as a foreigner. I find that it's much easier to bargain if you really don't care that much about what you're getting and really aren't willing to pay more than you say. The scarves and parkas turned out to be VERY wise investments, though.
Charlotte, Janell and I stayed at the Traffic Hotel that night then got up early the next morning to have a good breakfast at Emma's Kitchen before we left at 8:30 AM. It was raining and I had no waterproof options, so I spontaneously went into a store about bought a "North Face' (yeah, right!) rain jacket/fleece combo for 280 yuan (about $36). Although I'm sure I paid way too much for it, it was worth every penny over the next 3 freezing days. I pretty much wore socks, jeans, a long underwear type shirt, a long-sleeved t-shirt, the fleece/jacket, the scarf, and sometimes the parka every day- and definitely the parka at night.
So, we left at 8:30 AM. There were 5 of us in one group- Janell, Charlotte, and I plus 2 French girls named Magalie and Cecile. We also had 3 guides and I wish I could tell you their names, but I could barely pronounce them, much less type them. :/ We ended up calling them Be Careful!, Earring Man, and Beat the Sheepskin, respectively and for different reasons. They were all part of the Muslim minority so it was interesting to hear their perspectives on the Tibetan people. I hadn't been nervous at all before we left but as soon as I was on my horse, I got a little scared. It took me about 30 minutes to relax a bit and start to enjoy the ride.
Ok, I'm taking a break to go to Wenshu temple since this typing is going to take forever!!! I'll start part 2 either this afternoon/evening or tomorrow morning.
2007年7月30日星期一
Songpan (pictures only)
I'll be posting all about the trip later (we just got back and I'm too tired now) but for now I'm just doing pictures. :) The trip was...amazing. The other foreigners in the pictures are friends that we made while there.
2007年7月24日星期二
Last day in Chengdu for a while
Hi everyone!
I am leaving tomorrow morning to go to Songpan. We will be back on Monday evening, I think. If you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songpan_County
Things here are good...there's actually not much to report right now. Yesterday we met with some pharmacists from the US who are here with an organization called MSI. It was really interesting to talk to them because they are a Christian organization and (obviously) a NGO, but they have developed a really good relationship with the Chinese government. Basically, they put themselves out there as an organization that was willing to help and now the Chinese government requests that they do certain projects. We'd heard that it was difficult for NGOs to work here, but based on our conversation with him it seems that the approach makes a big difference. They were here conducting pharmacy seminars for students at Sichuan U.
Other than that, we've been going to the pool, which is fun because we meet a lot of people there. They're so friendly and really like to practice their English on us. On Monday, we met with a student named Lily and her friend Anita, just to talk. She had wanted to come to one of our workshops but couldn't because of exams. Lily wants to get her MPH in Hong Kong and then a Ph.D. in the US- she seems really ambitious. They want us to come to their hometown one day when we get back, so we may do that.
I finished Harry Potter and now am reading book one over again. ;)
I'll check in when I get back! Hope everyone's doing well.
I am leaving tomorrow morning to go to Songpan. We will be back on Monday evening, I think. If you are interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songpan_County
Things here are good...there's actually not much to report right now. Yesterday we met with some pharmacists from the US who are here with an organization called MSI. It was really interesting to talk to them because they are a Christian organization and (obviously) a NGO, but they have developed a really good relationship with the Chinese government. Basically, they put themselves out there as an organization that was willing to help and now the Chinese government requests that they do certain projects. We'd heard that it was difficult for NGOs to work here, but based on our conversation with him it seems that the approach makes a big difference. They were here conducting pharmacy seminars for students at Sichuan U.
Other than that, we've been going to the pool, which is fun because we meet a lot of people there. They're so friendly and really like to practice their English on us. On Monday, we met with a student named Lily and her friend Anita, just to talk. She had wanted to come to one of our workshops but couldn't because of exams. Lily wants to get her MPH in Hong Kong and then a Ph.D. in the US- she seems really ambitious. They want us to come to their hometown one day when we get back, so we may do that.
I finished Harry Potter and now am reading book one over again. ;)
I'll check in when I get back! Hope everyone's doing well.
2007年7月21日星期六
China Days
In case anyone is wondering why I'm blogging when I'm supposed to be on a trip, unfortunately the cold I had got a lot worse and I had to come home early. It wouldn't have been a big deal typically, but trying to hike up a mountain all day and deal with altitude changes would have been really difficult and I would have probably made everyone else miserable. A surprise migraine also came on this morning- awesome. ;) I was quite disappointed- and still am- but this has turned into a good day. Also, at least I got to see the giant Buddha and the lower part of Mt. Emei. I'll try to post some pictures of that. Everyone else will be back tomorrow morning, I think.
I spent a lot of the afternoon in bed and, being quite hypochondriacal, convincing myself that I either had rabies from all the animals I pet or had been poisoned by Chinese food (I happened to look on CNN/MSNBC and there seems to be a TON of news regarding food imports from China, huh?) Luckily I then started feeling better, so I left the dorm for a few hours. It was a HUGE success! I cheered myself up by 1) finding the new Harry Potter book- in English!, 2) getting french fries from McDonald's and 3) getting a green tea frappucino from Starbucks. Definitely American consumerism at it's best. The french fries were greatly deserved after hiking all day yesterday with hardly any food I liked! I didn't get lost or feel uncomfortable being alone at all, and loved being greeted by the women at "our" supermarket and "our" fruit stand. The woman at the fruit stand is so funny because she talks to me the ENTIRE time I'm there and I just smile because I have no idea what she's saying!!! I think she will miss our regular business when we leave as we are very loyal to her. ;) There is also a guard that works in our dorm who is so nice...he speaks no English but always greets us very happily and the other day we talked about going swimming entirely through gestures. I think I'll miss the small town feel of the area around campus, even though we're in a city of 11 million people. There are a lot of students around, but the area doesn't really feel like a college town...just a nice, relaxing place.
So anyway, this evening turned into an "I love China" day, which I don't think I've explained before. We have "I love China" and "I hate China" days. Neither is extreme as it sounds and each serves a very important purpose. I get through the "I hate China" days because I know that an "I love China" day is right around the corner. The "I hate China" days remind me that as sad as I am on that I'll be leaving in a few weeks on the "I love China" days, it will be really good to go home.
I think this summer has taught me a lot and given me confidence in skills that I didn't know I had- or at least wasn't sure I had. I've especially learned that I am pretty adaptable, or have become that way (hello, "strengths" answer in job interview, lol) and that with the right attitude, I can succeed in challenging situations. I love China, at least for today. ;)
I spent a lot of the afternoon in bed and, being quite hypochondriacal, convincing myself that I either had rabies from all the animals I pet or had been poisoned by Chinese food (I happened to look on CNN/MSNBC and there seems to be a TON of news regarding food imports from China, huh?) Luckily I then started feeling better, so I left the dorm for a few hours. It was a HUGE success! I cheered myself up by 1) finding the new Harry Potter book- in English!, 2) getting french fries from McDonald's and 3) getting a green tea frappucino from Starbucks. Definitely American consumerism at it's best. The french fries were greatly deserved after hiking all day yesterday with hardly any food I liked! I didn't get lost or feel uncomfortable being alone at all, and loved being greeted by the women at "our" supermarket and "our" fruit stand. The woman at the fruit stand is so funny because she talks to me the ENTIRE time I'm there and I just smile because I have no idea what she's saying!!! I think she will miss our regular business when we leave as we are very loyal to her. ;) There is also a guard that works in our dorm who is so nice...he speaks no English but always greets us very happily and the other day we talked about going swimming entirely through gestures. I think I'll miss the small town feel of the area around campus, even though we're in a city of 11 million people. There are a lot of students around, but the area doesn't really feel like a college town...just a nice, relaxing place.
So anyway, this evening turned into an "I love China" day, which I don't think I've explained before. We have "I love China" and "I hate China" days. Neither is extreme as it sounds and each serves a very important purpose. I get through the "I hate China" days because I know that an "I love China" day is right around the corner. The "I hate China" days remind me that as sad as I am on that I'll be leaving in a few weeks on the "I love China" days, it will be really good to go home.
I think this summer has taught me a lot and given me confidence in skills that I didn't know I had- or at least wasn't sure I had. I've especially learned that I am pretty adaptable, or have become that way (hello, "strengths" answer in job interview, lol) and that with the right attitude, I can succeed in challenging situations. I love China, at least for today. ;)
2007年7月19日星期四
Going to see Buddha
It's 11:20 PM and I have to get up at 6, but I thought I better write an update before I forgot everything that's happened...not that too much has actually happened, haha. I went to the pool for the first time yesterday with Jackie and her cousin. It is HUGE- 50 meters. I didn't realize swimming was so hard, but I probably haven't really done it since I started lying out by the pool at age 13 or whatever. There are no chairs or anything here so there's not much to do but swim. It turns out the pool is right behind our building- I have no idea how we've missed it all summer! Janell and I went today...Janell is a really, really good swimmer. I am not. At all. A guy congratulated me on my butterfly stroke and I had to correct him because that was definitely not me! He and his Nepalese friend really wanted to talk to us because "it was the first time EVER that white girls had been in the poor...it's like big stars coming in or something". LOL, I'm pretty sure no one has ever told me that in the States! Anyway, we were there a few hours and everyone was very eager to give me swimming lessons. Apparently my freestyle is decent, but I need to learn how to breathe. I kind of learned how to do a breast stroke, though. Hopefully if I get decent enough at it then 50 meters won't feel like 974329873 miles!
I went out shopping today without Janell. The goal was to find a fleece in preparation of our upcoming trip to Songpan. I realized that it is not good for me to go shopping without her for 2 reasons:
1) I spent twice the time that I spent shopping being lost (it's a big city! found my way in the end, though), and
2) the people working in the store are so nice and they followed me around to help me the whole time. Maybe this isn't actually "so nice", haha, and more like a ploy to get you to buy something because you feel bad-- or at least it worked that way for me!
Anyway, the end result was that I never found a fleece but I did end up with 2 mediocre shirts. So there. Going out with Janell is harder because I notice the stares WAY more-and I think each of us gets them more when we're alone because it seems odd to see a foreigner walking alone. I did have many people offer me a watch, though, lol.
We visited 2 hospitals yesterday. The first one was the hospital for occupational injuries. I thought it was really interesting that there was an entire hospital dedicated just to that. It looked pretty much like an older hospital in America, but more open-air than it would be in the US. In parts of the hospital they didn't have enough room so people were sleeping on beds in the hall. The saddest part was when we went to the hospice floor...the doctor there saw us looking around and wanted to tell us about the ward. It was a pioneer project in China and the money was donated by a Chinese billionaire. He had good English and it was really nice of him to give us so much information, but it was really difficult seeing the patients (he took us in some of the rooms). Firstly, I felt bad that we were in there staring at them like they were zoo animals...I hope they didn't think of it that way, but I probably wouldn't be so pleased if I was their family member. We saw a 4-year-old little boy who had been abandoned by his parents at birth, was raised in an orphanage and now had terminal eye cancer, along with an 18-year-old boy who was dying from a stomach tumor. His dad was with him, and that was so hard to see. I admire people that want to be doctors, because it must be a very emotional experience.
The second hospital we went to was HUGE and very nice and modern. It is at least the biggest hospital in this part of Asia and perhaps in all of Asia- I can't remember for sure. You could never, ever imagine the amount of people that were there, but it resembled a VERY crowded airport. There aren't really any physician practices in Chengdu- almost all of them are based out of the hospital, so that's where everyone who gets sick goes. One of Jackie's roommates took us around the laboratory where she works and we saw all the machines they have (I sound stupid there since I have no idea what all the machines were!). Their lab tests things like glucose, electrolytes, etc., while there are other labs dedicated to diagnosing disease and other things. I wanted to go to one of the other buildings after that- specifically to the floor of "Western and Chinese traditional medicine". It was REALLY interesting. They Chinese natural remedies in conjunction with western medicine. The doctor we spoke to (everyone was very helpful and eager to talk with us) told us that she's seen the results and she thinks they're good- that was/is her major. However, she said there have been no studies done to compare success rates among wards in the hospital that use only western medicine, wards that use only traditional medicine (I THINK there was one of those) and their ward, which combines both. If I was going to be in China for a while that is totally what I would want to study.
On Tuesday, I gave a presentation to the bar waitresses about communication! Professor Zhang wanted me to do this because of my counseling/psychological background, but also wanted me to incorporate a lot of discussion and games into my talk. In China, they typically are only lectured so this is unusual. I was a little nervous, but it went fine and they were all so sweet! It may have been a bit too simple, but going into it I had no idea what to expect about their knowledge of communication skills, etc. It actually was fun and I'm glad I was able to do it.
Hmm, it's getting close to midnight and I can't think of much else that stands out about the last few days right now. We had a meeting with Professor Zhang on Monday and with Connie on Tuesday. Connie wants to organize nightly meetings with all the grad students for the last week that we're here. Tomorrow we are leaving early to go to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha, then we are going to Mt. Emei until Sunday. "We" means Janell, Jackie, Jackie's cousin and I. We were supposed to go to Leshan with Professor Zhang but he had something come up so he wasn't able to make it. Next week we are going to Songpan for 5 days to ride horses- just Janell and I. More info on that later. Hope everyone is doing well!
I went out shopping today without Janell. The goal was to find a fleece in preparation of our upcoming trip to Songpan. I realized that it is not good for me to go shopping without her for 2 reasons:
1) I spent twice the time that I spent shopping being lost (it's a big city! found my way in the end, though), and
2) the people working in the store are so nice and they followed me around to help me the whole time. Maybe this isn't actually "so nice", haha, and more like a ploy to get you to buy something because you feel bad-- or at least it worked that way for me!
Anyway, the end result was that I never found a fleece but I did end up with 2 mediocre shirts. So there. Going out with Janell is harder because I notice the stares WAY more-and I think each of us gets them more when we're alone because it seems odd to see a foreigner walking alone. I did have many people offer me a watch, though, lol.
We visited 2 hospitals yesterday. The first one was the hospital for occupational injuries. I thought it was really interesting that there was an entire hospital dedicated just to that. It looked pretty much like an older hospital in America, but more open-air than it would be in the US. In parts of the hospital they didn't have enough room so people were sleeping on beds in the hall. The saddest part was when we went to the hospice floor...the doctor there saw us looking around and wanted to tell us about the ward. It was a pioneer project in China and the money was donated by a Chinese billionaire. He had good English and it was really nice of him to give us so much information, but it was really difficult seeing the patients (he took us in some of the rooms). Firstly, I felt bad that we were in there staring at them like they were zoo animals...I hope they didn't think of it that way, but I probably wouldn't be so pleased if I was their family member. We saw a 4-year-old little boy who had been abandoned by his parents at birth, was raised in an orphanage and now had terminal eye cancer, along with an 18-year-old boy who was dying from a stomach tumor. His dad was with him, and that was so hard to see. I admire people that want to be doctors, because it must be a very emotional experience.
The second hospital we went to was HUGE and very nice and modern. It is at least the biggest hospital in this part of Asia and perhaps in all of Asia- I can't remember for sure. You could never, ever imagine the amount of people that were there, but it resembled a VERY crowded airport. There aren't really any physician practices in Chengdu- almost all of them are based out of the hospital, so that's where everyone who gets sick goes. One of Jackie's roommates took us around the laboratory where she works and we saw all the machines they have (I sound stupid there since I have no idea what all the machines were!). Their lab tests things like glucose, electrolytes, etc., while there are other labs dedicated to diagnosing disease and other things. I wanted to go to one of the other buildings after that- specifically to the floor of "Western and Chinese traditional medicine". It was REALLY interesting. They Chinese natural remedies in conjunction with western medicine. The doctor we spoke to (everyone was very helpful and eager to talk with us) told us that she's seen the results and she thinks they're good- that was/is her major. However, she said there have been no studies done to compare success rates among wards in the hospital that use only western medicine, wards that use only traditional medicine (I THINK there was one of those) and their ward, which combines both. If I was going to be in China for a while that is totally what I would want to study.
On Tuesday, I gave a presentation to the bar waitresses about communication! Professor Zhang wanted me to do this because of my counseling/psychological background, but also wanted me to incorporate a lot of discussion and games into my talk. In China, they typically are only lectured so this is unusual. I was a little nervous, but it went fine and they were all so sweet! It may have been a bit too simple, but going into it I had no idea what to expect about their knowledge of communication skills, etc. It actually was fun and I'm glad I was able to do it.
Hmm, it's getting close to midnight and I can't think of much else that stands out about the last few days right now. We had a meeting with Professor Zhang on Monday and with Connie on Tuesday. Connie wants to organize nightly meetings with all the grad students for the last week that we're here. Tomorrow we are leaving early to go to Leshan to see the Giant Buddha, then we are going to Mt. Emei until Sunday. "We" means Janell, Jackie, Jackie's cousin and I. We were supposed to go to Leshan with Professor Zhang but he had something come up so he wasn't able to make it. Next week we are going to Songpan for 5 days to ride horses- just Janell and I. More info on that later. Hope everyone is doing well!
2007年7月14日星期六
Opera
Last night we went to the Sichuan Opera, which really wasn't an "opera" as you might traditionally think of one. There were several different performances that weren't related to one another...this might be the best explanation: http://english.dreams-travel.com/guide/chengdu/sichuanoprea.htm
The pictures turned out better than I thought they would considering how high up we were, so I'll attach some. The videos I took are better, but unfortunately I don't know how to add those here.
Not many exciting things to report from this week. The Transformers movie was actually pretty good! We met a few new people there, so that's always nice. On Thursday and Saturday we went to the English salon thing again- where a group of Chinese people and foreigners go so they can practice their English (or meet Chinese people, like us). This is different from the English Corner where there are over a hundred people all trying to talk at once...this is organized by a guy we know named Tony and there have never been more than 20 people there. We play games, watch Friends, have debates in English, speeches, etc. There is one picture above. On Thursday afternoon we went to the training for the bar waitresses at the CDC. It was about nutrition, but we only had very limited translation so we didn't get as much information as usual. The bar waitresses usually work really late and then sleep all day, and they drink a lot and are around smoke often. They typically only have about 1 meal a day so the lecture was about how to get more vitamins/nutrients throughout their day. David (they guy giving the lecture) spoke about how the street food is really unsafe because sometimes they use paper instead of meat...we had no idea what he was talking about until David C. sent me this article from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/07/12/cardboard.food.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch
This Tuesday I am giving a lecture/discussion on communication to them...I'm excited but a little nervous. It will be interesting to see how it goes with translation, etc. I really don't like speaking in front of groups, but I know that I'll have to do it in my future career so it will be good for me.
On Friday, we went to DuFu's Thatched Cottage. Here is some information about DuFu:
http://www.poetrymagic.co.uk/poets/dufu.html
The cottage area was beautiful and we learned a lot about Chinese poetry and arts during the Tang Dynasty period. Actually, I don't know if we learned a LOT, but considering that I knew nothing about that time period before I went, it was really interesting. We saw a lot of artifacts from the period that had been excavated there...it's amazing how things like bowls really haven't changed over thousands of years! The picture of the pagoda above is from the cottage area.
I had an experience with my email being blocked after I accidentally put a forbidden word, which I definitely won't put here since I don't want the same thing happening to my blog! I could get onto my email after about 5 minutes but I couldn't click on the email that had that word. Strange. Janell and I were talking about this and how most (not all) of the Chinese people we have talked to are okay with this. It seems as if the most important thing is the end result, regardless of the means. So, for example, if people died during Mao's ruling period because of decisions he made, that wasn't a great thing but "China wouldn't be where it is today without him". Also, if the government feels the need to censor things, it's ok because they have the best interests of the public in mind and it will be best in the end. It's an interesting perspective that I think is similar in SOME ways to how we typically think in America and very, very different in other ways.
You can also see a picture of my room above and a picture of the dragon candy I won from the sugar blower at Jingli street!!! I had to spin a wheel and when it landed on the dragon, everyone around me was so excited because it means I will be lucky. :)
2007年7月11日星期三
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