Full Moons, Foreign Affairs, and Grandpa's Old Cough Medicne

Last Sunday was the Moon Festival celebration here in China and was the first time that this holiday was a public holiday in China. Because they use the lunar calender it always lands on a night with a full moon. It was also the first full day I spent with my host family...

The Original plan was to meet around 9 am at the East Gate. According to my recent sleep schedule that wasn't going to work; we adjusted the time to 10. When I arrived at the East Gate (about a 3 minute walk from our room) they were already waiting for me but they said they hadn't been waiting long. My host sister, her friend, and my host sister's mother came to pick me up and we were on our way! but I was not sure where as all they had told me thus far was that dinner was around 7 with the extended family.

They asked me if I had been to a park I could not pronounce and I told them that I hadn't, turns out the one park I have been to in all of Chengdu was the same one that we were going to this mornging. When we arrived the mother (I can't remember her name... not that I could write or pronounce it anyway) simply dropped us off and I must have given her the "scared dear in the headlights" look because she shooed me away from the car with a smile so she could drive off. 

The park is actually an amazing place and would be a great place to unwind... Unwinding was not in the plans that day. My hosts, not knowing I had been here already, decided we needed to see as much of the park as we could in our two hours before lunch time. Finally we stumbled upon a couple of solid wood chairs made of tree trunks, they were massive. It was great to sit and not really do anything for about 30 seconds when a woman came along and sat next to me and somehow indicated that she wanted her picture with me. She held out her hand and I wasn't sure what to do with it so I slowly put out my hand and she grabbed it quickly and told her husband to take the picture. There we were, in two wooden chairs made of tree trunks, two foriegners holding hands, the husband taking the picture. When she got up to leave she touched her nose and said somthing in Chinese that I obviously didn't understand, I looked at my host sister and she said that the woman said to remember her forever. I figured it was one of those times it was just best to nod and say okay...

We left the park around 12 pm and made our way to the dumpling restaurant that was supposedly famous for its dumplings. Dumplings came in a bowl with the spices underneath them. "Perfect!" I thought to myself, "I'll just eat the dumplings and on top where there are no spices and no one will be the wiser!" Boy was I wrong. The friend was sitting across from me decided I didn't know what I was doing, took the bowl from me, and proceeded to stir all of it together. I watched in horror. My host sister apparently ordered me the least spicy thing she could find and soon found out that she was accidently given that bowl so we switched soon after the tragedy of my orignaly dumplings but I was still sweating bullets by the end of the meal.

We visited a street designed to look similar to one that would be found in China hundreds of years ago then headed home. When we finally arrived to her house her friend had gone home on another bus but her mother and father were home. My host siter, her mom, and I talked for a long time while I showed them pictures, told them where I lived in the US, and gave them wild rice from MN. Her father never left the computer room because he was too busy playing video games... it was a little awkward. I still had a little cough so my host mother gave me some of their medicine and explained to me that in China their medicine takes a lot longer to fix the problem but there are no side affects. My host sister told me it tasted like Starbucks and you had two ways to take the medicine: 1, put the crystals in hot water or 2. eat it and then drink water. They put it in hot water for me and although I've never had a Starbuck's coffee I am convinced that no coffee chain (much less one as popular as Starbucks) would make any money selling this stuff. I couldn't finish it and hid it by placing another cup over my used, partially full, cup.

Around 6:30 my sister told me it her mom wanted to go out and buy me some flower peppers and fruit. (flower pepper is a seasoning that you're apparently not really supposed to eat, not knowing that a couple of us popped some in our mouth. A few seconds later our lips and tongue were numb... it's kinda fun.) We eventually found to bags of flower peppers, 2 mangos, and a bag of a fruit that looks a lot like minauture apples. I told them that they certainitly didn't need to buy me this stuff but they told me it was custom so I was forced to go with it. ;)

Soon we left to go to dinner at a resturant about 5 minutes away by car. It was a nice restaurant and all of my host dad's extended family would be at the restuarnt. There was our family, an aunt, her husband, an uncle, his wife, their one year old, grandma, and two teenage girls. After spending 10 minutes and almost switcing rooms because of the air conditioner, although I was comfortable, it was time to eat. My host sister asked me if I could drink wine, I told her yes and soon found out that "wine" really means 52% rice wine. Horrible stuff. She told me it was father's favorite drink and that it burns all the way down. Spectacular. Turn out it was only the men at the table drinking (although the related uncle's wife often snuck some of his "wine"). They also told me that it would cure my cough. I don't know how much of that was true. We drank it everytime they made a toast, which they decided they needed to do often. One to welcome me, one for the festival, one just to say cheers and at least one more for the festival. I felt like I should participate in the toasting so I asked my sister if I could toast them. Before I could finsih my sentence everyone had stopped talking and was staring at me. I looked at them awkwardly, raised my shot/wine glass and said "Cheers!" Luckly they responded with "Cheers!" and I think they were glad that I at least tried.

Soon it was time to leave and while in the parking lot I was fortunate enough to experience a common occurance in Chinese life. A child being suspended in the air by one of their parents about a foot off the ground. The child was wearing his usual cowboy stirrup style pants without anything underneath peeing in the parking lot. 

When I finally got back we lit paper lanterns and set them off into the sky... it was incredibly bueatful.

It was a very interesting day, long, but very interesting. Highlight- Lanterns. Lowlight- a lot of downtime before dinner and after the park. 

They Peddle Good Bikes

Walking around a campus that is big enough for 60,000 students can be quite exhausting. This is why a vast majority set off one day on an adventure that I will not soon forget, a trip to the "stolen bike shop." The stolen bike shop is a shop you can't get to unless you know someone who's been there already. For all of you who might be coming to Chengdu in the next few years here are directions:

1. Cross the bridge

2. Go to the right side of the road at the stoplight

3. Look around and pretend to be looking for something

4. Wait for someone to come up to you and grab you by the hand

5. Follow them down a dark ally

6. Look at all of the bikes they've stolen 

7. Pick one you like for only 20 American dollars

It's that simple! and very sketchy. There are pictures below of some of the bikes and some of the surroundings. Let me describe them to you...

Along with the many puddles that we walked through that the children freely urinated in, there were many tanks filled with many interesting things. Some included fish that would be then cleaned and gutted on the concrete that we would later ride our bikes on then splash the puddle water onto the now "cleaned" fish. Other tanks had snakes. Some of us on our trip don't deal well with snakes and weren't able to even look at them.

After about 10 minutes I decided that I had found my noble steed for the next 4 months, a bicycle that's about 3 feet too small and bright magenta. After Emily and I had found our companions for the next semester we decided we had to test them and ride back to our dormitory on them. Mind you this is a city of 3 million people inside the city limits and a city where no one follows and driving guidelines. An example, people will see that they're not supposed to turn or that they don't have the right of way but if the stick the nose of their car out far enough people will be forced to stop for them. It's extremely nerve racking to ever sit in the front seat of a taxi. Anyway, Emily and I had to ride through 4 lanes of traffic, cross a bridge, and avoid hitting old men in tricycles. A scary affair to say the least.

Two days after my tire was flat so I brought it to "the bike man." He filled it with air for .50 RBM (equal to 7.5 cents). Since then I've had to get my airs filled about 6 times, a bell put on, the inner tube replaced in the front tire, the inner tube checked in the back tire, my back brakes doesn't work, and my entire peddle fell off so I had to scoot around for 2 days by pushing myself with my legs (not an easy task with flip-flops). 

All that being said the bike man was able to fix all of my problems (besides the brakes which I didn't ask him to fix, but probably should have been fixed) so I decided I'd try and befriend him on Moon Cake Day by giving him a moon cake. However he doesn't speak any English and was completely unresponsive to the whole idea but took the moon cake anyway. It turned out be an awkward event.

I'm going to go to bed now so if any of this is unreadable you can either deal with it or wait until I edit it next time.

Starbucks Run

It was the first time we had free time since we arrived in Hong Kong and Troy Moore and I decided we should hit up the pool in the hotel. Unfortunately because the hotel was a YMCA that has about 20 stories it cost about 7 American dollars to get in so instead we decided to run around Hong Kong in the rain. 

I was still sick and knew better than to run around in the rain but I thought to myself, "Self, you only are going to be here once. Go run around!" So I listened and ran around anyways.

We found a nearby park and on the way we found a Starbucks! (that was a shout-out to all of the Starbucks addicts who might be reading this and that is really the sole purpose of this entry)

Update: We learned how to say "Starbucks" today in Chinese 101. I can't write it though but it literally means Star Bucks.

Hong Kong Sun, Chinese Volleyball, and French Rugby

Quick Update: Hey everyone! We arrived in Chengdu a couple of days ago and everything is going well. (well= everyone is still alive and no one has any incurable diseases) It has been a very interesting trip but nonetheless a great one!

This is a picture from my favorite day thus far. About a week ago a couple of my friends and I decided that on our free day in Hong Kong we would try to master both the subway and the public bus system in one day and head for the beach.  An adventure not for the faint at heart! About an hour later we arrived on the salty shores of Repulse Bay. After playing catch with a frisbee and swimming for a while Dylan and I noticed two Chinese peers playing volleyball and we were soon playing with them on the sand that would later burn our feet.

 After searching through a construction site filled with rusty nails and broken glass for our volleyball we finished our first game. The two Chinese girls left immediately afterwards to hide from the sun under a palm tree but allowed us to keep playing with their ball. After we played around for only about 3 minutes a French father and his 14 year old son came over and asked if they could join us. Of course we said "yes" but we soon needed a break from the 95 degree heat with humidity that sucked the life out of you and jumped into the ocean for relief. When we came back they were gone and the Chinese took their volleyball back and we were left with nothing to do. 

Soon the French came back but this time with their rugby ball. Being curious I soon left the comfort from the shade to learn how to throw this awkwardly shaped ball. (although similar to a football it is not the same, nor thrown the same) Ten minutes later we had an intense game of rugby going although only half the people on the field knew how to play. When we were done it was time for us to leave to insure that we did not miss our flight to inner China.  

What a crazy day: mastering public transportation in Hong Kong, getting sunburned to a new extreme on a near-tropical beach only an hour bus ride from the heart of Hong Kong, playing volleyball with two Chinese ladies that spoke little English, learning to play rugby with a crazy French family, and realizing you're not in Kansas anymore. A priceless day.