Panda Bears and Hot Pot

Sooo, I spent most of today with my only dorm roomie, Jin Rong (otherwise known as Cherry). She is super nice, but doesn't speak very much English so our conversations are mostly in Chinese. Which is really good practice for me, but also a little exhausting, especially since I spent all day with her (and she is very talkative!). But I'm also learning so much Chinese from talking with her. She said she's from Wudang in Hubei. I wonder if it's like Wudang mountain in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon? She did say something about kungfu...

We had lunch together at the hostel and then took the bus to go see the pandas. They were adorable, of course. I mean you can't go to Sichuan without seeing the pandas, I guess... Near the end, there were a group of them that were just sprawled out on the ground, eating bamboo. They looked like a bunch of lazy old men with beer bellies, lol.

Then we went to get huo guo (Hot Pot!) and it was soooo good and sooo spicy. Also, the first thing they served to us were the fish that Jin Rong had ordered. They were skewered like shish kebobs except they were still moving! Still alive! I looked at it and was like oh my god, I can't eat that. I told her I don't eat fish, making it sound like I was allergic or something. Ugh. But the mushrooms, lamb, beef, tofu, lettuce, and potatoes were good.

Also, I just found out that DT is in Chengdu! Yay, it'll be my first SIT-related reunion! I'm very excited. Tomorrow is also New Years Eve and I'll be hanging out at the hostel with Jin Rong. She was excited at first because she thought they'd organized an event there for making dumplings (and then eating them, yum) but apparently it's only the eating them part that's happening, which she was kind of depressed about. She wants to do something more exciting for New Years Eve, but doesn't know what to do and is kind of sad about it (I feel so bad! But everything will be closed - this is normally family time in China). Anyway, I've seen so many fireworks and stuff for sale around the city that I kind of feel like everything is going to explode tomorrow. I can't wait... :)

UPDATE: I'm just sitting here on my bunk on my computer and Jin Rong started playing Neil Young. Haha, I sat up was like "这是Neil Young吗? 你喜欢Neil Young吗?" Love this! lol, speaking of music, there was a little girl who we randomly started talking too (Jin Rong finds a way of starting a conversation with EVERY stranger we see) and she started saying stuff in English that she knew: "Hello! My name is Anna. Nice to meet you. Justin Beiber!" lol, just Justin Beiber, thrown into the mix...I saw him on a cover of a Chinese magazine. Why, God?

UPDATE 2: Just talked with Jin Rong about tomorrow - apparently we're going wandering through the countryside in search a nice family to celebrate New Year's with. lol. This is should be interesting...also, I really need to visit this place.