It's definitely starting to get warm here in Chengdu! It's probably hotter in Chapel Hill or Atlanta, but we get the added pleasure of walking everywhere. ;) I really actually enjoy the walking, though, because we can see everything- things you might miss if you were speeding by in a car. It also offers me the opportunity to go in many shoe stores. Have I mentioned how amazingly well the girls/women here in Chengdu dress? Their clothes are beautiful. Janell and I are the "typical Americans" walking down the street in our shorts and tennis shoes while they are wearing dresses and high heels. Seriously, sometimes it looks like they're wearing cocktail dresses during the day. I must take pictures of this phenomenon. It seems that they really love adornments, too...almost all of the compliments I have gotten are about jewelry that I am wearing. There are sparkly hair accessories, lots of jewelry, decorated toenails, etc. Anyway, they are quite fashionable and I spend at least a couple minutes a day being jealous of their outfits! It is actually quite inexpensive for us to get clothes here, but I get really, really tired of going in stores because the salespeople follow behind you really closely and it's quite nerve-wracking. I've only managed to get one dress and one shirt so far. Oh, and the shoes- they have shoes in every color and style imaginable. They are shoe stores everywhere! I got a teal colored pair of sandals today for about $10...now I can fit in in China, haha. The women/girls wear high heels everywhere! They also use "whitening cream" to try to bleach their skin...they think we're crazy because they walk under umbrellas when the sun is out so they won't get tan but Janell and I are trying to catch every ray we can!
I had the first Sichuan food that I've really, really liked tonight. Our friend Julie wrote out some names of different foods for us in Chinese so we can just so them to the waitress/waiter and one of them is "fried noodles". They don't often have them close to campus but we were farther down Renmin ("the people") street today and I was able to get them. Delicious. I literally think it's the first time I've almost finished my plate of Chinese food since I've been here. The family and workers at the restaurant were so cute!!! We were having a conversation with them where no one understood what the other said. We were speaking in English or just saying "I don't understand" in Chinese, but everyone just kept on talking. For some reason they thought we were German? They were so sweet and we're definitely going back- 10 yuan for both of our dinners? Nice. I'll try and post of picture of Janell and the owner of the store above. Speaking of pictures, today was the first time that I've had random people want to take a picture with me!!! It was so funny...Janell and I were sitting on a bench and this group of 3 people walked over to us and said something while they were handing out a camera. I thought they just wanted me to take a picture of them, so in an effort to be helpful I jumped up and said "Sure"! Nope, they wanted a picture with me, the waiguoren (foreigner). Janell was just laughing (quietly!) the whole time...
Speaking of helpful (I have SO much I want to say and can't get it all out) the Chinese people are incredibly helpful. I've been asking a lot of young people to help us, since they typically speak a little more English, and they go out of their way to help. Some people even stop us on the street if we look confused and ask us if we need anything.Last night, I asked a young girl to order movie tickets for us for "Pirates of the Caribbean". She came back with my money and kept saying, "Talk, talk, talk!" Trying to remember the English words, she finally said, "Only talk Chinese!" So there was no English version of the movie, and we were disappointed, haha. It's so encouraging that they really want to help us, though. THEN- we were really missing popcorn so we decided to just get some from the theater without seeing a movie. We were so excited until we tasted it and it was sweet!!! We found it hilarious that we were sitting on a bench in a movie theater eating popcorn we hated and not even seeing a movie. ;) Then we had adventures with getting lost and not being able to find a cab...it's always funny and a little anxiety-provoking when you're lost in a city where you can't speak the language. We've managed to get back every time, though! We can't figure out what our grad student friends think we do during the day while they're in class...several times we've mentioned going somewhere and they've been shocked that we were able to get around. :)
Janell and I were a little dejected 2 nights ago. We had a GREAT workshop- only 2 students came compared to the 20 or so that came last week, though. Turns out they're all studying for finals now and even those two (who have been to every one so far) said that they wouldn't be able to come again. The students are everywhere studying, and finals don't even start until July 3! So our workshops are canceled indefinitely. It was quite sad as we felt like that was one contribution that we were able to make and we don't really have set plans for many things in the upcoming weeks. I was definitely better by the next morning and I feel like I'm learning so much just by BEING here that it's all worth it. And I think they're learning a lot about the American health care system, culture, etc. I definitely think if we're just patient we'll get a lot of opportunities. We went to a meeting yesterday at the CDC (they have local CDCs that I think are kind of like our health departments). The entire meeting was in Chinese, of course, so it was really funny (and a little frustrating, of course) watching and having no idea what anyone was saying. Connie explained a lot of it to Janell during the meeting, though, and Janell wrote it down so I'd know what was going on. Jackie, Dr. Zhang and some other students are starting a peer education program for the "waitresses" (sex workers) at some "bars" (these may actually be masquerading as something else, like a hair salon where no one knows how to cut hair). I really, really wished we could have heard what was going on, though, because after the meeting I learned that the women sitting across from us were the administrators/bosses in these "bars". Anyway, they are going to choose some women from their bar to be peer educators for the other "waitresses". It's really for AIDS prevention, but AIDS is a sensitive subject so they're not going to call it that/tell them that. Instead, it will be focused on their allover health but will discuss safer sex practices, etc. I reaaaaaaaaaally hope we get to go to one of these bars but no one has mentioned this as a possibility yet.
Oh, at the workshop the other night, the students started discussing politics. We definitely do not bring these things up! It was so interesting, though, because the 2 undergraduate students there were being very critical of the government while Connie (grad student friend) was being very defensive about it. The students (rightfully so, I think- but then, I'm American) were saying that they really have no choice in elections. There ARE other parties besides the Communist party, but they are really small and never win. So basically the Party appoints people to run (from what I could understand), then they have an "election" where that person almost always (always?) wins. They were saying that a lot of people don't vote or even care about politics because they don't feel there is nothing they can do to change anything. Connie, on the other hand, said that the most qualified people are in the Communist party, so why does anything need to change? She said that the Communists are the ones with the most experience dealing with other governments so they should be in charge. I asked her how other people were supposed to get experience when they couldn't get elected in the first place, and she laughed and said that was a problem. She also said that because of the history of China, a non-communist candidate would not win. This was DEFINITELY interesting to Janell and I as Janell pointed out that the Communist Party has only been in China since 1949...very little time in their centuries-old existence. It seems that most of the grad students that we hang out with (I'm not speaking for all students) have very little interest in the history of China and instead, are looking more to the future- perhaps because China is changing so quickly? I hear that things are really different in the rural areas, though, and I think we're going to go on 2 site visits where we might get to see conditions there.
We have a bit of the same problem in America with only 2 problems, but when we started talking about it I realized what a HUGE difference it is. We have the opportunity to express our approval or disapproval (as a country) for parties or individual candidates through elections, so I think it makes them much more accountable to us and makes them more eager to please us (this is over-simplified, but it really is a major difference). They have to worry about getting elected or re-elected. However, the Chinese have very little leverage in this way because the Communist appointee is most likely going to win anyway. It was so interesting to me to hear their differing opinions on the subject. They also said that (for most of the same reasons listed above) corruption is rampant in the government and the leader of their nation's version of the FDA was recently sentenced to death for corruption. Also (so much I want to remember!) they discussed the poor health care of peasants in China, and how the Chinese people pretty much go to the hospital for everything because (one of the student's words) they "are not developed enough to have doctors offices, etc. yet". Peasants often have to travel to big cities in order to get "good" health care and the city hospitals tend to charge much more. Explaining the American health care system to them was SO hard because we have such a complicated system! There are government agencies under DHHS, private companies, physician practice groups, local health departments, charities, etc. We could have had a summer long discussion just about that, I think.
One more difference between China and America: According to the students, the nicest ("most beautiful") buildings in China are government buildings, while private industry buildings are not that nice. In my opinion, it's often the other way around in America. Most of the public health students want to work for the CDC, except for one guy I met yesterday who said that is "boring" and that he wants to work for an international firm.
We really thought when were coming here that you really weren't supposed to talk about religion or politics, but apparently that's not true! We still let them initiate those conversations, though. And I think this younger generation of Chinese are very different from their elders (understandable since they are growing up in such a different time). They are more comfortable with foreigners and outside influences, ideas, etc. The older people often just stare and stare and stare at us like they've never seen Americans before! This very nice older woman that let me play with her dog today, though. :) I was trying to ask her if her dog was a boy or a girl but I think I accidentally asked her if her dog was a boy or a man!!!!!!!! I tried to tell her that I missed my dog but I couldn't find the words so I just pointed at myself then said the word for "dog"! That was definitely not effective.
We are in the process of visiting the departments of the school, and I think tomorrow night we MAY (some things get lost in translation) be going to a bar for some kind of public health service thing? I really don't know what's going on but I'm excited whenever they take us along for the ride and anyway, it has something to do with a study they're doing. We're also going with Crystal in the afternoon to get our nails done. :)
Connie wants to play "truth or dare" with us (although they spin a bottle like you would in our traditional "spin the bottle" game) sometime so she can ask us "personal questions". I can't WAIT for this because I have no idea what kinds of questions they would even ask! It's going to be so interesting. And of course we'll get to ask them questions, too, but I don't think we'll even have a clue where to start unless they go first.
I blew the fuse, or something, on my only adapter that works with the types of electric things where one prong is bigger than the other (hairdryer, etc.). :( It is quite sad. If someone will mail me one, I'll be your best friend. And THAT is exciting, I know.
