I really can't tell if I am doing any of this correctly because all of the instructions are written in Chinese! Blogger.com is not a Chinese website, but because I'm in China they have translated it that way and there's no "English" link to click that I can find.
I'm starting this so that people who want to know what's going on can do so and those who are busy, etc., don't have to get a million emails. I just got a little worried, though, that when I send this it's going to translate it into Chinese which will not be helpful at all!
Last night was wonderful because we went to "Dave's Oasis". It's by a river in Chengdu and their clientele is probably 99% Western foreigners. We were there from about 6:30 to 10:00 and there was 1 girl from Nepal, 1 guy from Australia, 1 Dutch guy, 1 Canadian guy, and 1 American (California) guy. We had grilled cheese and french fries which was amazing, and we tried Chinese beer which was just like American beer. It was so relaxing to be able to talk without having to speak really slowly and strain to understand everything. PLUS- the guy from America told us about a Western market (kind of the equivalent to an Asian market you may see in an American city) where we can get peanut butter and cereal!! He also told us about a pool that we can go to that's kind of private and about 50% western foreigners. It's not that we don't want to be immersed in Chinese culture, because we do, but we spend 75% of our time doing that and sometimes we just need a break. Janell calls things like last night our "staying power" because if we know we have an outlet like that we can stay the whole summer. ;) I really can't explain how nice it was. Janell's dinner, my dinner and one beer each cost only 69 yuan, which is about $9. I love the exchange rate here! I think as China gets more economically stable, though, the exchange rate will be more equal and less favorable towards us, which is good for their economy of course.
It's a strange mix of modern and undeveloped things here. There are these huge hotels and these extravagant shopping centers but the apartments that the Chinese live in are extremely run-down and the average person's working conditions are not so good. I can tell that there's a big difference between those who are professionals or work for the government and those who own a small store that is basically on the sidewalk. Apparently our dorms are much nicer than the native Chinese dorms which I'm sure is partially based on the fact that we can pay more because of the exchange rate (for better or worse).
My favorite thing here is the DOGS! They are sooooooooo many of them running around (not many are on leashes but they seem to stay near their owners) and they are so cute and mostly little dogs. I've seen a lot of Pekingese and Pomeranians. Half of my pictures so far are of dogs. Yesterday this girl let us pet her tiny pomeranian puppy and it was sooooooooooo cute and sweet. It made me miss Riley even more! Oh, and by the way, Janell and I were really proud of ourselves because we had no "babysitters" yesterday and we managed to get around the city and even buy some things (yay, bread!). We also sat outside this pond on campus and did some reading and played with this man's poodle. ;) We have to do a lot of pointing and showing them words in our Chinese-English dictionary, but it's working out kind of ok so far.
Today we are meeting Crystal (all the grad students have English names- I'm thinking we need to get some Chinese names!) at 8:35 to go introduce ourselves to an undergraduate class. They are going to plan some workshops between the undergrads and ourselves so this is their time to meet us and decide if they want to participate. After that, Fung is taking us to the main undergrad campus of Sichuan University. We are at the Huaxi (Washi, kind of- means west) campus. Then, Janell and I are determined to go buy DVDs and I need a clock so she doesn't have to wake me up every day. Actually, she hasn't had to yet because I always wake up but I'm sure that will not be true as the summer continues. Today I slept until 6:40, which was really nice.
Off to get ready- hope everyone's doing well!
