So we had quite an eventful weekend and I want to write about it before I forget. First, I want to see if I can upload a picture, though (we are in Starbucks using their wireless connection right now).
Yesssssssssssss, I think that worked- now the only question is if anyone can see it? I'm going to try to test that, too.
Yay, I can also download to itunes on this network. Thank you, Starbucks.
According to Hesom, you can see this picture so I'm going to post more. ;)
On Saturday morning, we caught a bus at 8 AM to go to the Chengdu Giant Panda Breeding Center (or something like that). Janell, Egg (picture above, in the middle of us), Julie, Connie and I all went. The bus ride took about an hour and half. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there so it was kind of gross, but it turned out that the pandas like rain (apparently) so a lot of them were out. They were so cute! Unfortunately the little ones (under age 4ish?) couldn't go outside in the rain, but we saw them playing inside with one another. I was pretty excited because there was a sign about Zoo Atlanta there. :)
It's Tuesday now- I didn't get to finish this yesterday. So, back to this weekend. After we saw the pandas, we went to Jackie's mother's house for dumplings. It was interesting to see how Chinese people interact with their guests. They are extremely polite and welcoming- they want you to try everything first, your glass is never empty, etc. I particularly liked the mushroom dumplings, and I think everyone enjoyed watching my attempts to pick them up with chopsticks. They lived in what they call a "house", but it's really more like an apartment in a large building. I guess because there's not enough land space for all the people here? Her mother and 2 uncles were there, and long with Janell, Egg and I. One of the uncles spoke English but the other didn't at all, and the mother spoke very, very little (but was eager to try!). We interacted for a little while but mostly they spoke to each other in Chinese and occasionally told us what they were talking about. This was fine because we were tired after the pandas and Harry Potter was on TV. We were there a few hours and at the end we started talking about what places in Sichuan province we should visit. Turns out Jackie had a couple of books from the tourism place so we looked at all the pictures and the uncles told us about the experiences they'd had there...for example, at Mt. Emie, monkeys are everywhere and apparently they get angry if you don't feed them! They were very cautious about telling us where we should go and kept mentioning how things were dangerous -such as altitude problems. We have noticed that they are very cautious about us in general. For example, today is a dragon festival and we didn't find out until this afternoon because the grad students had decided that it would be too crowded and unsafe for us. ;) I think it's sweet that they care, but I find it hilarious that they really don't think we can fend for ourselves, haha.
OK, so that night we went to a restaurant with the uncles, mother, etc. I am going to post pictures of the food here....ok, apparently I don't know how to put the picture in the right place but it is the very first picture. Jackie told us to go up and pick out what we wanted and I was asking her what things were. They had duck stomach, pig's ear, pig's tail, some kind of intestines, chicken feet, etc. I don't even remember what I ended up saying I wanted...maybe some cold noodles? Anyway, they ordered a ton of food which was SO sweet because they were trying to treat us, but let's just say that I'm not quite used to this kind of food. ;) I tried so hard, though- I ate some kind of fried thing that is inside a water animal? And a hundred year egg, which I think is pretty important in China. It's some type of fermented egg in gelatin, or something, and Jackie's mother really wanted us to try it. So I did. Bad, bad, bad idea. Very bad idea. This may be something you want to pass up if you ever visit China! I felt bad because I know we were the guests and they were trying to be so good to us (our beer glasses were NEVER more than half empty...but they were shot-size glasses, which was interesting) but I just couldn't do it. I got by on peanuts and edamame, though! All in all it turned out to be a great day and I think we learned a lot (despite probably making 438210724398721 cultural mistakes!).
Sunday, Janell and I went to our "usual" breakfast (we've only been twice, haha, but we say it's a must for Sunday mornings) at Grandma's Kitchen. Yum yum yum. We walked around a lot after that...there are so many stores on the street here. So, so many. I can't even explain it. So you could never really get bored. Then we went to lunch at a vegetarian restaurant with Tom's (from Carolina Asia Center) friend Janette who works at the US Consulate and after got a 2 hour massage, compliments of Janette. How nice is that? For 68 yuan, you can get a 2 hour massage and "foot wash"...one hour of foot massage and one of body massage. All four of us got to go in one room with four beds and get them at the same time (you keep your clothes on for this!) and watched "The Holiday". Wonderful. THEN Janell and I went and had chips and dip at Peter's Tex-Mex so all was good in the world. Quite the splurge-ful day!
Last night we had our first workshop with the undergraduate students. The topic was supposed to be American and Chinese culture, but it ended up that they just asked us questions the entire time. Seriously, the first 2 questions had to do with Americans' views on homosexuality and abortion. Wow. At the end, they REALLY wanted to talk about religion because there is very little religion in China. Janell and I thought you weren't supposed to talk about that here but they said it was ok. They had so many questions, many of which we couldn't really answer. They feel a lot of pressure from the American "English teachers" (missionaries?) that come here and they don't understand how they can be so sure of their beliefs. I was really amazed to hear all this...I didn't know they had so much curiosity about it. One of the grad students actually IM'd me afterwards to talk more about it. Overall, the workshop was a success and Janell and I left really excited because they were so friendly and eager to talk to us. We have another one tomorrow with grad students. I'm interested to see if that goes a lot differently than the one with the undergrads or not. The undergrads had a lot of questions about graduate school in America. Oh oh oh- and Janell asked them how they felt about foreigners coming to China to "help" them with things- if they were offended by that because it implied that they couldn't do things on their own. They overwhelmingly said no, but one girl talked about how they'll see American doctors but foreigners in Chengdu won't usually see Chinese doctors. To me, that's a familiarity thing- I don't necessarily want to go to a doctor when I'm in a foreign country when I can't speak the language! I'd have no problem going to a Chinese doctor in America just like they are okay going to American doctors here. It was really interesting! Anyway, one other girl described America as a "developed" country and China as a "developing" country. Janell was really trying to find out more about that from her because...I don't know...just hearing their opinions really gave us some insight into their culture.
Sorry this is SO long and I apologize to people who I have not responded to by email. :( We're usually so busy that in the little time I get to get on the internet, I want to write things here before I forget them. I'm working on it, though!
Edited: Nifong got disbarred?!?!?!??
