Goodbye Mianyang!

Two students giggling during class. The living conditions at the school may have been awful, but I'll miss all the students! They were so much fun.

Left to Right: Me, Martha, Lila (Lee - La, one of the school's teachers), Julia, and Ricki

My host family took me with them to a temple. They were there to pray that Coco might have good grades this upcoming year, and let me join in. My host mom is the most religious Chinese person I've met so far...we burned incense in front of every little outlet and temple.

The surrounding area was very beautiful, covered in trees.

My host mom. I had a hard time getting a photo of her because she kept wanting to use my camera to take photos of me - she likes painting and drawing a lot, so it would make sense that she'd love taking photos as well.

Coco and I. She's not nearly as religious as her mother and honestly thought the whole thing was just a bother. At one point, I saw her shake a big box filled with little sticks - one fell out and she picked it up and brought it over to a man, whom I assumed deciphered its meaning. Huffing slightly as she spoke, she told me that the man foretold that her grades were going to be good. I guess now she has to get good grades...

This sign has a lot of information about the temple...most temples, I can't even really always tell if they're supposed to be Buddhist, Daoist or what - but that's usually because, like this one, they're a mix of several beliefs. The sign's use of English is also just interesting/funny in itself.

They tried kidnapping me again for the night, but I didn't have PJs with me or anything at all really, so I asked if they'd bring me back to the school. Then there was even an offer to drive me into Chengdu but I'd already bought my train ticket. My host mom even offered me a job at the school - but from what I've heard, they're not allowed to higher foreigners (only use volunteers). Besides, I don't think I could take living in Mianyang, although I'll miss my host family and the other volunteers (most of whom have already returned home).

As of now, I'm in Chengdu, with Xie Miao. I'll update more about that later, but so far it's been a lot of fun, although I keep forgetting to stick to Chinese with her - I need to keep using Chinese while I'm still here and am still able to!

Mianyang's Water Pollution

I've been reading a lot lately (in my China Studies book) that pollution is the biggest obstacle that the country has to face right now - and, of course, a couple days ago, we received news from half a dozen different people that Mianyang's water source has been contaminated. We've been told not to drink the tap water (which I never did anyway) and not to eat food at restaurants (only at the school cafeteria). Someone also suggested buying a lot of bottled water because the stores might start running out. We get supplied bottled water from the school anyways, so I'm not too worried.

Anyways, there's a news article here about it.

Mianyang Host Family #2

I went to Chengdu again last weekend. Same old, same old. Just realized even more how much I love it there, and how I wish I had picked a volunteer position there instead...oh well.

Anyways, I came back to Mianyang on Sunday and, within a an hour or two, met my new host family. There were two boys and two adult women - the women were sisters and the boys were their sons, although, of course, the boys referred to each other as brothers. I never met their fathers, who were absent the entire time I was there, and they never told me anything about the absentee fathers.

They did not speak much English, so I spent a lot of the last two days just using Chinese, which is always a good experience but incredibly exhausting. In fact, one of the boys really likes writing and his mom is very proud of his work - so proud that she brought up an essay he wrote on the computer and we read through together, out loud. We read in unison and every time I didn't know a character (which was frequently enough), she would read it and have me repeat after, and then try to explain the meaning if I didn't recognize the word. There were so many words I remember learning, but just. couldn't. remember. I really need to review more.

The boys and I went swimming together at a nearby university, which happens to really close to the Children's Palace, so hopefully I can go back there. The pool was very crowded but filled with a lot of people who didn't actually know how to swim - so they mostly lined the edges (the entire pool was 3 meters deep, so they could not even stand at any part of the pool). My host mom and aunt can't swim either, so they just kind of stood by the pool, talking. It seems to me that leisurely swimming and public pools is very new to China.

Monday morning, I went with the boys for a walk through the university. We stopped to see one of the boys' ping pong instructor, who had me play a bit with him. I've never really played ping pong much before, but it was fun and I held my own. It's a little funny to me how serious people here are about their ping pong. We also stopped to see his Tae Kwon Do instructor (chinese pinyin: Tai Quan Dao), who I talked with a little bit. We watched one of the classes go through exercises.

Ate a home cooked lunch (yum!) that included Mapo Dofu (a Sichuan-style Tofu dish). Took a way long nap. Went swimming again. Had more yummy food (roasted duck, cucumber, pancake things - all so good!). Returned to the school. Lamented the loss of my new family, the comfy bed, and the yummy food...

1 Year Anniversary of the Day I Left the USA!

Hey, today's a big day, because it's exactly today, one year ago, that I left the USA...and never came back. Aha, just kidding. But it has been a full year since I've been there, and, let me tell you, the American food cravings are coming bad.

And I have some photos from Chengdu. Notice the Tex Mex place I found...mmmmmmhhh...

Living the High Life in Chengdu

My trip to Chengdu for the weekend was great – I got to eat Tex Mex, sleep on a mattress, take a hot shower and hang out with Ellie. I took a train on Sunday morning from Mianyang to Chengdu. The ride was about an hour and a half, and for the first half I pretty much just watched the scenery go by and listened to music. However, about half way there, I was approached by a Chinese girl, who sat down next to me. She greeted me in English and started talking, urging me to join her in the seats behind us, where her friends were sitting. They had been to shy to talk to me, until she had gathered the nerve to start talking to me.

I still find it a little funny that Chinese people sometimes find foreigners difficult to approach (yet, other times not at all…) because I’m not exactly sure what they’re afraid of. Maybe that their English is not good enough. Anyways, I talked and played cards with them for the rest of the ride. They were students from Xi’an that were volunteering in the countryside close to Chengdu. I told them about my semester abroad in Xi’an and I had fun talking about the city with them.

I took a bus from the train station to my hostel (Holly’s Hostel in the Tibetan quarter, which I highly suggest), although there was a bit of confusion and wandering as I got off at the wrong stop. I found it eventually, with a little help on the phone from one of Ellie’s coworkers. As it turned out, my hostel was only like a block or so from their offices.

I had lunch with Ellie’s group at a Tibetan restaurant and ate a bunch of momos (Tibetan dumplings with potatoes or meat – mine had meat). Ellie, one of her coworkers (Summi), and I walked around in the People’s Park some too and ended up just sitting at a tea house, talking for hours. It was really relaxing. Then beef noodles at another restaurant (so good!) and a bar, where some people just started jamming out a bit.

I lazed about the next morning, which was really nice. Had a yogurt for breakfast but should have eaten at Holly’s Hostel…I looked at their menu later on and realized they had pancakes. Pancakes! I haven’t had pancakes in…a really long time. I feel like I say that about a lot of things.

Ellie, Summi (btw, I’m guessing at her name’s spelling) and I went to Peter’s Tex Mex for lunch and I had tacos. Amazing tacos. And guacamole. And an oreo flurry (like a mcflurry but better). Afterwards, I took Chengdu’s subway for the first time (there’s only one line and it was just built in 2010). I visited a temple that was on the way to the train station, ran into Ellie and Summi at the station (they were there to pick up the students for their program), and got on my train. Made it back to Mianyang by 8pm…not bad.