Indian Food

Last night Chris, Abhinav, Helen, Caitlin and I went into the city to get Indian food. I have never had Indian food, and since Abhinav is originally from India and knows the food well, what better way to try Indian food than with someone who knows what he is ordering.

The place wasn’t far from a subway stop, about a 5 minute walk. I don’t remember the name of the place but I would be able to find it again J We sat down and the server spoke English in addition to Hindi. Abhinav knows some Hindi so he conversed with him in Hindi rather than English. We left him in charge of ordering everything since he knows the dishes well. Abhinav ordered 5 dishes for all of us to share. I don’t remember the names of any of the things he ordered but they were really good. The chicken we had was extremely tender, and the lamb was great. We had another Chicken dish that was cut up into smaller chuncks with gravy on top of it. We also had a spinach cheese that we dipped the nan in. The last thing we had was just chunks of cheese, this dish wasn’t as good, they cheese was slightly dried out.

Overall I loved the food. There wasn’t spice to it like I was expecting although I am sure most of the dishes are spicy. Even though I thought it was great Abhinav said he only would have rated it a 6 out of 10 for Indian Food.

SJTU students accepted at Purdue

On Wednesday some of the students that were in our class while we were in Xujiahui, found out that they got accepted to Purdue for a 2 year dual Mechanical Engineering degree from Purdue and SJTU. We wanted to go out and celebrate with them so a group of us went out with the intention to get some drinks outside of campus. We ended up staying in campus and went to the outdoor BBQ area. We bought some beers and had a great time joking with our classmates. Everyone is really excited for them to arrive at Purdue in August. They asked us a lot of questions about what to expect and we shared stories about Purdue.

Since we treated them to drinks, they found it necessary to treat us to some food. But some is an understatement…they ordered a ton of food. It was delicious but I was so full. We sat outside and continued to eat, drink and talk for 3 hours or so. Everyone was in such good spirits it was extremely enjoyable.

It is really neat that about 10 of the students we have met at SJTU will be at Purdue next fall. I am excited because we have created friendships with these people and now we don’t have to just maintain these friendships through e-mail, we are actually able to see them in 3 months and then they will be on our campus. When they are at Purdue we will be able to show them around and treat them to some of our favorite things around West Lafayette, the way they have done for us around Shanghai.

an afternoon at a 5 star resort

Our last day in Sanya…I woke up and didn’t wait for the guys, I headed straight to the beach. It was day three and I still did not have a good tan, so I was going to fix that J It was not too humid yet, but that changed very quickly! The sun was hot and the sky was cloudless. I found a great spot on the beach and laid down. I was there by myself for a couple of hours. I had already been in and out of the sea to cool off a handful of times before the guys showed up. The guys laid with me for a while and then we decided we would go back to Yalong Bay for the rest of the day.

We got on the city bus and headed back to Yalong. When we got to the Yalong area the bus goes through the resort streets and makes a few stops before arriving at the public beach area. We were driving along and Abhinav saw the 5 star Sheraton Resort and he said something to the affect of I am sure that place is gorgeous. He then said we should get off and go in there. I agreed and we woke Kean up and quickly got off the bus

The lobby was gorgeous. It was an open-air lobby with cherry wood trip everywhere. We first found the bathrooms; it ended up being the nicest bathroom I have seen in China!! We walked through the garden area, which eventually opened up to the grassy area that overlooked the private beach. We wandered around for a while took some pictures, found the lap pool, kids pool, and the normal pool. The towels were stacked in a hut next to the pool so we grabbed a few, put our stuff down on the chairs and jumped into the pool. It was great to be in a pool rather than the sea. Don’t get me wrong I love the sea but it was a real treat not to be in salt water. The pool was huge and wrapped around many tropical bushes and trees. There were a couple of ledges that you were able to see the sea from. It was magnificent. By this point the sun was covered by the clouds, but that is okay since I was already burnt L

I eventually got out of the pool and just sat around and read. The guys got out a little later. We got dry towels, had the staff take pictures of us and eventually even ordered dinner pool side. We were a little hesitant to do this at first because we assumed you would just have to charge it to your room, and since we didn’t have a room we didn’t think we would be able to. We inquired without letting them know that we were not actually staying at the resort and found out we could pay with cash. It worked out perfectly! So we ate wraps, swam some more. Sat by the beach for a while, swam even more and then decided it was time to go out for the night. So we walked back to the lobby and found another pool on the way! It was even bigger than the one we had spent the afternoon at. We were tempted to jump in but didn’t.

Since we had used everything else the resort had to offer, why not use their concierge too. The concierge desk helped us find the best nightspots in Sanya. They helped us figure out the best way to get there and eventually hailed a cab for us. A very accommodating hotel with extremely friendly staff J

When we got back to our hostel we changed and headed to the bars that the Sheraton told us about. We had some street food and walked around for a while. We found a huge street market that was packed with people. Eventually we found the local dance club, 88 Bar, that we were told about. We went in there and it was just the place to be in Sanya. There were hundreds of Chinese people dancing and having a great time. We sat at the bar for a while, played some jenga, yes we may be losers, and then we went out on to the dance floor. We weren’t out there long before some guy came up to us; eventually we figured out that he was the one that booked our scuba diving for us the previous day. He invited us up to his area by his friends and we had a great night dancing. The only problem was every time he tried talking to us he found it necessary to scream in our ears, I guess he was trying to talk over the music but instead he was screaming so loud we couldn’t understand him. Not only did he scream in our ears but apparently it was necessary to spit while talking…it was very unpleasant and extremely gross. Yuck. It was still a great night and what a coincidence to run into him.

The next morning we almost missed our flight because it took forever to get our boarding passes and then the security line was excessively long for 6am. Thankfully we made it on the plane and made it back to Shanghai with great tans J

Sanya was a great little beach city. Everyone was tan and relaxed without a worry in the world! It was an incredible tropical weekend getaway!

Scuba diving in Yalong Bay

On Saturday morning we decided to head to one of the other beaches in the area. We really wanted to take part in a water activity and most of the websites online recommend going to Yalong Bay for this sort of thing since all of the resorts are in that area. We got on a city bus and had a stunning view through the mountains on the 45minute drive to the other bay.

We arrived at the public beach area to find water that was even more gorgeous than the water at Dadonghai. This water you could see the different gradients of color. The sand was still just as white but only a little finer. Mountains also surrounded this area and you could see a few small islands off of the shore.

We decided we wanted to go scuba diving. We knew a general price range because we had done our research online. We found a place and they quickly had someone that spoke English come out and help us. We were able to talk down the price so we paid and got in our wet suits. We started off by learning the basics in a swimming pool. At first it was difficult to breathe out of my mouth since I usually breathe out of my nose, but the time in the pool really helped me get use to the breathing. I had so much fun diving in the pool I could hardly wait for what was to come out in the sea.

We took our flippers and headed down the pier to a boat. We boarded the boat and headed out. The water was neon blue and extremely clear, we could see straight to the bottom. We were on the boat for about 10 minutes before we had to switch to a smaller speedboat. This was a quick ride over to the raft. When we got to the raft we waited for a few minutes before they were ready for us to get in the water. When we got in the water the ‘dive masters’ helped us get situated with our tanks and all the rest of our gear. Then we were off. At first I struggled with the buoyancy and couldn’t submerge fully under the water, but with a little push from the ‘dive master’ I was good to go. The coral that we saw was gorgeous!! The colors were extremely vibrant. There were Yellows, oranges, purples, blues, blacks, and greens. The water was clear and the sun was shining through. Some of the fish were bigger and some were smaller. It was a completely different world 10m under the water; everything seemed so peaceful.

After scuba diving we went and grabbed some noodles for a late lunch…there really wasn’t too much food around that area. Then we went and layed on the beach for a while. 6:00PM came around and we headed back to the hostel.

The activity for the night was going on a yacht ride around the coast of Sanya. This was something we booked through the hostel. It was an all you can drink with entertainment. We made it back to the hostel a little later than we had hoped. We changed quickly and someone from the hostel took us to the yacht. The yacht was already packed by the time we got there, however, we were able to find a table in the back so we sat down and started enjoying some beer. The entertainment started shortly after leaving the dock. They had some dancing and some games with the audience were played. We didn’t stay downstairs too long because it was getting hot and the speakers were extremely loud. We made our way up to the deck for some fresh air and quickly made friends with a group of older Chinese people. They invited us to sit down and then we ganbei-ed a lot! (ganbei is the Chinese word for cheers, bottoms up…basically you finish what is in your glass). Eventually we started dancing. It was so entertaining. The Chinese guys were spinning me around and everyone was watching and taking pictures. It was a great time!

After the yacht cruise was over we walked back to the hostel and got some noodles and went to bed. We were exhausted! Being in the sun all-day and drinking really gets to you J

Dadonghai Beach

The next morning we woke up and we were still cockroach free J

We all got ready for the beach and headed out to make the 5-minute walk. Along the way we bought some suntan lotion (which ended up not working so well). The beach was gorgeous!!! The sand was white and the shades of blue in the water were unimaginable. The bay was surrounded by mountains, absolutely a breathtaking view. We walked for a short while until we picked a spot. The sand was hot, and the air was even hotter. It was the sort of heat that you are just standing still and dripping sweat. The humidity was almost unbearable but since we had the sea…we were okay J

We laid on the beach for a couple of hours and then walked the boardwalk area and eventually picked a place for lunch. The food was only mediocre but the view was spectacular. Also, it was nice to get out of the intense heat for a while.

After lunch it had cooled off, relative to a tropical climate—I guess I should say the heat became less intense, and we went back down to the beach. I ended up falling asleep and woke up just in time to see the sunset. There wasn’t much of the sunset to see because of the mountains in the way but the colors were still gorgeous. It is interesting to note that around this time is when the beach started to get really busy. All of the locals had come to the beach—they are smarter than sitting out during the intense sun.

As darkness was falling I headed back to the hostel to shower. We all got ready and went out to find some dinner. We ended up eating at a place about a block down from where we were staying. The food ended up being really disappointing. We had heard coconut rice was a very local dish so we tried it….and it was not good. It was eatable but not desirable. The coconut was cut into slivers, as if you were eating a melon, and those slivers were packed with gluttonous sticky rice. There was really no flavor to any of it. It was quite a disappointment. After dinner I grabbed a beer and the guys grabbed some tender coconuts to drink the water. We headed down to the beach and just talked, while listening to the water crash against the beach.

Arriving in Sanya

So it was a Monday night and 3 of us decided we wanted to get away for the weekend we threw around a couple of different destinations but the obvious one prevailed…Sanya, China. It is in southern part of China and it is called ‘The Hawaii of China’. It is on a tropical Island with gorgeous beaches and constantly warm weather. It took us a few days to figure out the cheapest flights and living arrangements but on Thursday night we were headed south for a tropical getaway.

After a three-hour flight we landed in Sanya-It was 12:10AM. The minute we stepped outside we could feel the humidity. We took a shuttle bus, that didn’t have shocks so we were bouncing the whole ride, to the Dadonghai beach area. We got off and we were hoping for the best. We were very fortunate we found where our hostel was very quickly.

We checked into our hostel and went upstairs to checkout our room. When we got upstairs the guys went in first and immediately told me that I can have the middle bed (we had a 3 bed room with our own bathroom). I was wondering why such a quick decision so I entered the room with caution. I take maybe 3 steps in the room and there was a HUGE flying cockroach sitting on the pillow of the middle bed! I was going to have nothing to do with that so I stayed in the doorway. The guys were just as scared by it as I was. After just looking at it for a couple of minutes we went downstairs to tell the lady that checked us in. She told the guys to kill it because she was afraid!! So we went back upstairs. It was no longer on the pillow when we got upstairs so the guys were cautiously looking under the bed and then without any warning Abhinav decides to flip the top pillow to see if it was under it. It was! And it started flying, it flew right on to Keans leg…Ooo it was so gross. We all ran into the hall closing the door behind us. At this point the lady found us another available 3-bed room and brought us the key. We entered our new room with extreme caution. We fearfully looked under the beds and we were all clear…no cockroaches J The last room and this room were actually really nice, I guess you just can’t control the tropical bugs J

We were all sweating so we turned on the a-con and just relaxed for a while. Then we headed out to the streets to get an extremely late dinner and to buy some water. By the time we bought the water and headed down a block by the street food it was close to 2AM and the streets were packed! There were tons of people out without a worry in the world, just drinking a couple of beers and eating. We all ate some food and then headed back to the hostel to get some sleep.

Shanghai Formula 1

While Purdue was starting there Grand Prix week some of us were headed to the Shanghai Formula 1 qualifiers.

We took a shuttle bus from the indoor stadium to the track…it was about 45 minutes away. Then we had to walk ½ way around the track just to get to our gate (the track is over 3 miles long). When we got there it was early and some other races were going on. I don’t remember what type of cars they were but all of the guys seemed really interested!

I knew nothing about car racing, and I actually didn’t think I would enjoy watching it but I ended up loving it. Some of the guys that I went with are really into formula 1; they track it and know all the rules so they were able to explain things. I ended up learning a lot and loving it!

One of the things that surprised me the most was after the practice time…all the information about the cars and how they were driven is collected by the team and sent back to Europe to be analyzed. Then the results and changes that need to be made were sent back to Shanghai so the teams can make the changes; all within a very short time frame…the power of technology is amazing.

We sat right by one of the turns so it was awesome to hear the cars shift down really quickly to make the turn and then shift back up on the straight away. The sound was loud but honestly not as loud as I was expecting.

This is not something I would watch on TV but I would definitively go to another race in person. It was a lot of fun and great learning experience.

Chinese Cookout

On one of our Friday afternoons we headed to the north part of Shanghai. It took close to 3 hours to get there by subway—it was far. Our destination was a park that had grills you can rent for a cookout. We had some Chinese friends with us and our teacher, Weiqi, came with us.

The park was really nice however the grilling area was less than clean, we actually joked that it would be equivalent to cooking out in a dump back home. There was trash everywhere and remnants of food were scattered all around. This would not be someplace I would cookout back home, I would definitely think twice about my location.

A few people went to the store previously so we had a bunch of food with us. When we got there we washed the vegetables and started putting things on cooking sticks…like the street food people. We had mushrooms, onions, eggplant, tomatoes, corn, chicken wings, beef, buns, and a lot of snacks…there was so much food! We covered the tables and the benches with plastic so we had a nice clean surface to lay the food on.

At first the cooking took a while. It took a while to figure out the most efficient way to grill things, but the food was delicious! Everything in China is cooked with oil and there is no exception to that at a cookout.

The cookout was an all day event because it was tiny pieces of things being cooked at a given time, just a taste. There were only two small grills and about 20 of us. We all just hung out and enjoyed each other’s company.

There was a young girl (who all of the American’s thought was a boy, but the Chinese assured us that it was a girl) who was digging through the garbage’s with her mom. She kept watching the guys play Chinese hackey-sack and observing what we were doing. We eventually offered her food and at first she was really resistant to accept it but Weiqi eventually talked her into it. After that she immediately warmed up to everyone and even started playing tag with some of the guys. The mom looked so happy to see her little girl running around and enjoying herself, as if, for a minute she forgot their circumstances.

As we were packing up to go home we realized how much food we had left, there was no point for us to take it all the way home since we don’t cook in the dorms. So, Weiqi talked to the mother of the little girl and we gave them everything we had left. It was a feast for anyone, whether they were poor or not!!! I still cannot get over how much food we had left. The mom was so grateful she even tried handing us a small sum of money, which, we did not accept.

It was a great day. The Chinese style cookout was a ton a fun and a bit of a surprise, I wasn’t exactly sure how it was all going to come together but it did. J

Easter Sunday

Caitlin and I dressed up and went to Church. We had to wait a while to get into the church because the French mass was just being let out. When we finally got in and got settled Church was packed!!! The airflow in that church is awful so it started to get really hot too. The service was nice. The church wasn’t decorated in any special way. Everyone was dressed up but no easter bonnets. It was a nice mass and you could tell everyone was in that happy Easter Sunday mood.

After mass we decided we were going to have our own Easter brunch at City Diner. When we got there and saw the menu we both ended up ordering sandwiches…That is one thing I am craving a lot, just a plain sandwich—like a turkey sandwich…mmmm!!! I had chicken, tomato, bacon with ranch sandwich, which was delicious! And they were giving away free desserts since it was Easter Sunday. I had a carrot cake muffin, with a homemade frosting on the top J It wasn’t brunch like we originally planned but it was a great Easter lunch!

After lunch we headed for the subway to go shopping!!! We were headed out to the science and technology underground mall area. We spent a lot of time walking around and even more time looking at all of the spring knock-off bags. There were some really cute ones! We bargained a lot and of course got the prices we were wanting, not the rip off prices they start us at.

After shopping until it was late, it was time to head home. We got back on the Subway and endured the long ride back to Minhang.

Some Random Things From April

One day a group of us went into the city and went to Madame Tussauds House of Wax. These wax sculptures are definitively a work of art. All of the wax sculptures are life size replicas of famous individuals. It was a good thing our Chinese classmate, Jinni, came with us because there were a lot of famous Chinese people that were replicated and we would have had no idea who they were. There were different sections for different types of people; musicians, actors & actresses, politicians, athletes etc.

After the house of wax we tried finding a sushi place we read about online. We arrived and it wasn’t sushi but a super cute expat area!! They had everything there, including Tex-Mex. Since we have all been craving Mexican we chose that place for dinner. Inside was the cutest restaurant. It was an old house that was transformed into a restaurant. The atmosphere was really warm and welcoming. There were a number of expat families enjoying their meals. The food was excellent, it actually tasted like Mexican food and the margaritas were good too J

I have gone out a little bit, being so far away from the city it has become and inconvenience to go out. In addition, the engineering classes that we are taking don’t really permit us to go out that much anymore. We have been back to Windows and Bulldogs a few times. Always great times at those bars and see some people we know but also continue to meet new people.

The weather in Shanghai has been gorgeous over the last month. We were told that the weather would go from really crappy to really good overnight…and it did. We have consistently been in the 70 degree range, just beautiful outside. There is a small little pond on campus, by the main entrance. There is a lot of green area around that pond. I have gone out there to enjoy the sun a number of times. On the weekends the area is crowded with students and also families. Many people fly kites while others just sit and talk. One day Caitlin and I were sitting out there, trying to get a little bit of color and we saw a little kid get taken out by a kite. The kite came crashing down and the string got wrapped around the kid’s neck, ultimately it threw him to the ground causing him to hit his head. It was scary to watch. The worst part of that situation was those people kept flying the kite in that area, they should have moved to a less crowded area especially since they were struggling to keep the kite in the sky.

The Three Gorges Dam

Monday March 30^th…

I woke up to find out we made it through the rest of the ship locks with success.

I grabbed a quick breakfast (of course it had to be quick because I decided to sleep in J). After breakfast it was time for our excursion to see the Three Gorges Dam. We got off of the ship and loaded onto buses. The buses took us over to the dam.

We had to go through a security check and then we were permitted to go to the lookout area. Seeing the dam was a big disappointment. Yes it is huge…after all it is the largest dam in the world but they didn’t allow us anywhere near the dam. We were only able to go to two different lookout points. I am glad I got to see the Dam in person, however the statistics that go with the dam are much more remarkable. For example, 20 towns were flooded and relocated (about 1.3 million people) to complete this project.

The main dam wall is made from concrete. It is 2,309 m long, 101 m high. The bottom of the wall is 115 m thick and 40 m thick at the top. Overall the project used 27,200,000 cubic meters of concrete, 436,00 tons of steel and moved about 102,600,000 cubic meters of the earth. When all 34 generators are installed the estimated annual electricity generated will be over 100 TWh. 32 of the 34 generators will be main generators, each with a capacity of 700MW. The remaining 2 generators will be plant power generators each with a capacity of 50MW.

A few more generators need to be installed and the ship elevator needs to be built but other than that the Three Gorges Dam Project is virtually complete. They are literally creating a water elevator to have in addition to the ship locks. It is projected that the elevator will be able to move one ship in 45 minutes…the time of one ship lock but it will cover the same height as all 5 of the ship locks put together.

Like I said the statistics that go with the dam are much more exciting to learn about rather than just looking at a big slab of concrete.

After the excursion was over we got back on the ship and headed into the 3^rd gorge, Xiling Gorge. We weren’t able to stay on the sundeck long because lunch was being served but the Gorge was slightly different than the others. This gorge had many more flat faced stone/cliffs at the base of the mountains. It was a different form of beauty but still out of this world to be floating down the river in-between two cliffs.

After lunch was over it was time to get off the ship. Our cruise down the Yangtze was over. We had arranged for a driver to pick us up at the dock. He took us to the airport in Yichang. This airport was the smallest airport I have ever seen. There were cows roaming on the front lawn and there were only 4 gates in the whole airport. Needless to say, with only 4 gates and a small runway, it was the quickest take off ever!! It was nice not to sit on the tarmac for an hour before taking off…I felt like the door to the plane was hardly locked and we were already in the air – it was great.

I loved the cruise. We were very fortunate with the weather and I saw a lot of China I would not have seen any other way besides floating down the Yangtze River. It was unprecedented beauty!

Two of the gorges and the ship lock

Sunday March 29^th…

The morning started with another great breakfast. After breakfast there was an information session on pearls. I learned all the tricks on how to tell if a pearl is real or not. It was informative but I felt bad for the presenter, she was so nervous to give a presentation in English she stumbled over her words a bunch of times and at one point I thought she was going to pass out, she turned so pale. But she made it, and I was able to even learn something from the presentation.

So it was turning out to be a gorgeous day! We went up to the sundeck and laid down to just enjoy the beautiful day. We had some time to kill so Caitlin ended up taking pictures with the Chinese people. She was having her own little photo shoot, all of the Chinese men wanted a picture with her. It was very entertaining to sit back and watch.

About an hour or so passed It was time to enter the first gorge. The first Gorge is Qutang. It was stunningly beautiful!!! There were mountains and rocks along both banks of the river. When we first entered the gorge we were in-between rock walls. Everything was extremely green. Every once in a while we would see a random house or a small village tucked away into the mountainside. We were able to see some farm fields and every once in a while there would be a small waterfall.

There was a short break in-between the first gorge and the second one, so I was able to get a shower in and then head back up to the sundeck. The second gorge (Wu Gorge) was just as beautiful as the first. The mountains were hovering on both sides of the Yangtze. The colors were vibrant and the sun was shining. These gorges are really unlike anything I ever could have imagined. Everything was so remote and it’s hard to imagine all of the families/cities that had to be relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam Project.

We had a quick lunch and then we got off the boat for an excursion. We transferred to smaller boats to go up a tributary of the river. We went to Shennong Stream. First we got on a smaller motorboat. The gorge narrowed and we passed hanging coffins and local hillside villages after about 40 minutes the gorges widened ever so slightly and we transferred to smaller boats pulled by teams of ‘trackers’. The ‘trackers’ took us on a little tour while rowing this small boat. ‘Trackers’ were once the main method of pulling boats along parts of the Yangtze River. After tracking upstream, the boats were released to cruise back down with the current before joining the ferries. The stream that we went through was extremely remote and magnificent; it was one of those things that I never would have experienced on my own, so thank God for going on that cruise!!

After a great excursion we were back on the ship and it was time for dinner. We had another great meal and then went upstairs to enjoy a talent show. Guests of the ship and some of the staff sang and danced and everyone seemed to really enjoy him or herself. Besides Caitlin and I there was only one other American on the ship. He sang karaoke and it was hilarious. If more people on the ship spoke English everyone would have been going crazy. He had a good way of getting the crowd going and personalizing the song to make it fit with our cruise.

Just as the entertainment for the evening concluded we were preparing to enter the first of the 5-step ship lock at the Three Gorges Dam.

The ship locks were incredible. Talk about modern marvels!! We were the first ship in so we had to wait about an hour for the other 4 ships to get set up. Watching these ships get parked so close together was unbelievable. After all of the ships were situated the gate behind us closed and the water level decreased. It was a rather quick process to get down to the water level of the next step…at which point the front gate opened and all of the ships moved as a unit into the next lock. Each lock took about 45 minutes by the time all of the ships got situated and the water was let out and then the ships moved out of it. I stayed on the deck and watched the first 2½ locks but it was getting late and each one took so long that I couldn’t last any longer. I finally decided to call it a night after a gorgeous day surrounded by brilliant beauty.

First Stop - Fengdu, China

Saturday March 28^th…

We started the day with a buffet breakfast, a little mixture of western and Chinese food. It was a rainy day so we were less than excited to watch the view pass by from the sun deck so instead we went to a massage/acupuncture demonstration. They talked about main pressure points, it was interesting to hear but I wouldn’t recommend that anyone rush to hear it. After the demonstration I took a shower and fell asleep watching the view pass by from our open balcony doors.

I was only asleep for a short while before it was time to wake up and eat lunch. Lunches and dinners were Chinese food. They were good. Most of the food was more American Chinese food rather than traditional Chinese food, but it was still delicious.

After lunch we headed out for our first excursion. We stopped in Fengdu. From the dock we could see where the old city of Fengdu was in rubble and mostly under the rising Yangtze waters. The new city was built high on the hill. Many cities just like Fengdu had to be relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam. Most of them were just built higher on the hill but some of them crossed over to the other bank of the Yangtze. Millions of people have been relocated because of the Three Gorges Dam Project, but many have been given better housing accommodations than what they had. The down fall is that most of those people were farmers and now there farm land is underwater and they are not trained in any other profession so they are struggling for jobs.

In Fengdu we climbed many stairs to reach the Temple of the Emperor of Hell, also known as the Ghost City. This is where people were judged to determine if they were going to heaven or hell. The difference in China is that hell is high on top of the mountain and heaven is down low. Also the myth goes that all ghosts from all over the world end up on this mountain area. The weather was rainy so it really obstructed what would have been a great view.

After the excursion we got back on the ship and dried off/warmed up and changed and then headed to the Captains welcome dinner. After dinner there was evening entertainment by the staff. They did a few different dances from around the world and a short skit. It was cute Chinese entertainment. After the entertainment was over we all danced for a short while to songs such as the YMCA, the macaraina, and the chicken dance…it was a lot of fun dancing too all of these songs with the Chinese people on board. It was very entertaining.

After all of the entertainment was over the 5 of us cracked open a few beers and eventually headed to the sundeck since the rain had subsided. It was super cold with the additional wind from the moving ship but we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately there was cloud cover so we were unable to see the stars. We stayed up there just talking, joking and laughing for a few hours; it was a great night!

Chongqing

Friday March 27^th…

Caitlin, Helen, Abhinav, Andry, and myself woke up early to take QQ’s to the Pudong airport; we were headed for Chongqing, but just for the day. After a day in Chongqing we were going to get on a ship to float down the Yangtze River.

After arriving in Chongqing we took the airport bus to the city. On this bus ride we were able to see how different Chongqing was compared to other cities we have seen in China. Chongqing, like most cities in China, is huge! 31 million people! Chongqing is a municipality (The highest level of classification for cities used by Chinese governments with status equal to that of the provinces). Chongqing is built right into the side of the mountains. There is no subway system but the taxi drivers are even crazier than QQ drivers. The city was spectacular, nothing was clean, most buildings were old, and people were everywhere, foreigners really stood out. There was a very laid back feel, to this city with so much character.

So we got to the city and we walked around for a short time and then grabbed some lunch. Lunch was not so great, very oily and a weird sourish taste to it. After lunch we got in a few taxis to head to the zoo. This taxi ride was by far the most intense car ride I have experienced…ever! He was weaving in a out and turning across multiple lanes of traffic…quite frankly I am surprised we made it alive, but that is the thing about China drivers, there seems to be an understanding of looking out for people around you, and being more aware of your surroundings rather than relying on a bazillion laws.

We arrived at the zoo and it was dead. There was no one there. We went through the kids area with rides and things, and there were only old people walking around. It was bizarre. I realize I am not a zoo enthusiast but I thought there would be a few more people there. Later on in the day there were but when we first got there it was dead. After wandering for a little while we made it to the Panda Bears!! Man, were they adorable! They really don’t do anything; they sat and ate bamboo the whole time we were there. But they were so cute. I realize they are bears but they looked so cuddly.

In addition to the Giant Pandas, we saw a Lesser Panda…yes that is actually the name. It was really small…kind of like a raccoon with a red back. Very strange. They were climbing in the trees and down the trunks like squirrels.

We saw all of the other standard zoo animals. It was a beautiful zoo that weaved up and down the hillside. It was very green and I am sure in a couple of months it will be blooming with flowers. The cages where the animals were kept were kind of sad. The worst one was where the black bear was kept. It was literally a cement plateau with a really nasty 4-foot diameter pond in the center. I felt so bad for the little bear. He was a cutie and still wandered around the cement, but looking at the area you couldn’t help but feel bad for the bear.

After we were done at the zoo we headed to the city centre and saw the people’s Liberation Monument. It felt like Times Square being in the middle of everything, with lights and big screens everywhere. We walked around for a while and eventually went to a Sichuan restaurant for dinner. Sichuan province is next to Chongqing and the food is known for being very spicy. I didn’t eat the really spicy food that we ordered since it was Friday, and I was not eating meat, however the others said it was very intense.

After dinner we needed to get down to the river to board the ship. When we got down there we didn’t see our ship, we actually only saw ships that didn’t look like they were going to float. Some of the ships we saw before we saw our ship was what I was expecting. I was expecting some old rusted boat with bugs running around the floors but thankfully that is not what we got. Our Ship was gorgeous!!! It was called President No. 1. There were 5 decks and a sundeck. Carpet and molding throughout the whole ship…just gorgeous. Our room was really nice; two extremely hard twin beds, a bathroom, and a balcony with a fantastic view.

We were all exhausted from an early start so we just had a beer on the balcony and talked for a short while and then went to sleep.

I got a J-Walking ticket in China

Unfortunately this was a very boring week. We had an exam on Thursday the 19^th. And considering I am not spending all day everyday studying, I had a lot to learn before the Exam. In addition there was an Exam on Monday the 23^rd.

On Friday the 20^th, we did end up going into the city for a little while. We met up with some Chinese people that we met a long time ago at Windows. We just hung out and had a few beers than headed home for the night. The bar was fun because two of our Chinese classmates came with us, and when other people started talking in Chinese they would tell us exactly what was just said. Even though it was a short night, it was nice to get out for a while and not think about studying.

After our exam was over on Monday the 23^rd, went went to our last class and then headed into the city. Caitlin and I went and grabbed some cheap burgers and then other people met up with us to blow of some steam and have a night of drinking.

Caitlin and I were the first people in Windows (around 6pm) and we were also the ones to close Windows at 4am. The night was so much fun, we were planning on leaving around 10 to get the subway back to Minhang but someone else was already headed into the city so we decided to stay out. Abhinav, Adam, Caitlin, Matt and I were the ones that stayed out. There were a lot of people there that we were talking to, but we ended up talking to 4 British guys the most. They were traveling China for 5 weeks and only had a few nights left in Shanghai. When windows closed, the 4 guys and us headed over to Tongren Lu. We ended up in some bar. I taught one of the guys a common dice game in China. We stayed there until the subway opened and made it back to campus around 7:30AM.

Tuesday March 24^th…I was able to get a few hours of sleep before waking up to get to class. After class I slept most of the afternoon and then Caitlin and I headed back into the city to meet the british guys. We ended up going to C’s and playing a lot of dice. It was another fun night. The taxi driver that took me back to Minhang was hilarious. I was trying to bargain the price of the Cab ride, he was trying to have me pay exactly what the meter would have been, I got my point across that I knew that wasn’t a deal and he finally agreed on my price. On the way back we had a very broken Chinese conversation. The only English word he knew was ‘okay’. When I didn’t understand something he was saying in Chinese he would just laugh at me. He was so funny; I wish all of the cab drivers were as animated as he was.

Wednesday March 25^th… After class on Wednesday a few of us went back into the city. We stopped in Xujiahui to have our favorite dumplings for lunch! After lunch we went to peoples square and found the Shanghai Urban planning building. This building was really neat. There was a 3-D model of the city of Shanghai. It was fun to pick out places we had been and see how far away they actually were. It is hard to really gage that sort of thing from the subway. They also had a section on transportation in Shanghai and a big area on the development for the 2010 World Expo that will be held in Shanghai. It was neat to see where things would be built and the different designs that were presented originally. I really enjoyed seeing the whole city and getting an idea of how big Shanghai really is!

After the urban planning building we went and walked around Nanjing lu for a while. After a short amount of time we decided to meet up with some of the other guys so we went to catch a cab. The available cabs that we kept seeing were on the other side of the street. Kevin, Eric, Caitlin, I decided to cross the street to get a better shot at a cab. We were in the pedestrian walk and when we get to the other side a police officer comes up to Kevin and says ‘I am Shanghai Police’. We were getting J-Walking tickets!!! Turns out the walk sign was red….but no cars were coming, so that warrants a J-walking ticket. The cop asked for our passports and none of us had them with us. So he started writing a ticket and told us to sign our name…well there was no proof of what our name was or any other contact information so all I put down was Mac. He wrote out 4 different tickets, one for each of us, and it took forever!!! I was laughing so hard as Kevin was getting his. He was the first to get the ticket…and at first I was under the impression that he was just writing one for all 4 of us…wrong he wrote 4 individual ones. The cop understood English so I know he could hear me joking about the situation. It took about 20 minutes and I am sure the amount of paper he went through cost more than what he made off of us. By the way 5 RMB is equivalent to about a $0.70 ticket. Of course while the tickets were being written there were a number of empty taxis that had past, not to mention all of the vehicles that ran red lights, and numerous other J-walkers, but that’s okay, he got the stupid Americans.

After getting in trouble with the Chinese Law we met up with Matt and Joe for a German dinner. It was a great place that Joe had been to before. It was in a very large expat area. The restaurant had live music and a great warm cozy atmosphere. We spent a while there just eating, drinking, and joking around. After dinner we got on the subway and headed back to Minhang.

It was a fun day out in the city and I still cannot believe that I got a J-walking ticket!! Oh China!

Last day in Qingdao = Last day of our makeshift Spring break

Sunday March 15^th…

We started the day with a great breakfast upstairs in the café. I had eggs, sausage, and toast. It was delicious. We were trying to get some nutrients for our long walk on the coast. There were a couple of destinations that I had in mind that I wanted to see so we talked to the guy at the front desk the night before and he told us that we would be able to hit all of those locations if we just walked on the path the follows the coast.

After breakfast we started on our journey down to the coast. It was another gorgeous day, a great day to be by the water. It was about a 30-minute walk for us to reach the Yellow Sea. We first went on the Zhan Bridge/Pier. This pier is 440meters long with the Huilan Pavillion at the end. It was great to just walk out there and watch the waves crash into the side of the pavilion. Turning around to look towards the city was quite the site. First I saw the waves crashing into the very rocky beach. Many people were squatted over the way the Chinese sit for hours on end…it would kill my knees!! Then you see the skyline that is built into the hills of this unique city that you wouldn’t imagine to be in China. It was absolutely gorgeous and extremely relaxing just to be by the water.

After spending some time on the pier we headed to the scenic boardwalk that runs along the coast. Our next stop was Small Qingdao Island. The ironic thing is that it is not an island; I would call it a peninsula. There is an old lighthouse on this ‘island’…and the way the sign read, it is still working and the light can be seen for 13 miles! The whole thing has been turned into a park. It was gorgeous to go out there and just sit. We were able to see the coast and able to see the Sea for miles and miles.

So we kept walking and decided to venture off of the boardwalk onto the rocks. The rocks were filled with people, some people digging in the sand, others having picnics, but most people just sitting and thinking, pondering life perhaps. We hopped between rocks for a while and then sat for a short while and just watched the waves roll in, crash on the rocks, and then roll right back out.

Next stop on our boardwalk adventure was the Number 1 Bathing Beach in Qingdao. This sand was actually soft, not as rocky as the other beaches. We were told it gets packed in the summer. We saw a lot of old men playing volleyball in Speedos. It was like a retired community of old men who didn’t care so they walked around in either their whitie tighties or their Speedos…you just never know what you are going to see in China. We made up a scenario and we decided that this beach was the old people’s Florida; everyone goes down there to retire.

There were some restaurants along the beach and some tables set up on the sand. We stopped at one of the restaurants and the guy was just holding a squid….I knew it was going to be great seafood. The menu was all in Chinese so I asked the worker which one was his favorite on the menu…he pointed to something that was super cheap so I found a few other cheap things and was anxiously waiting to see what I got. I ended up getting some fish and beef on a stick and also a plate full of fried squid, it was so delicious. Super fresh with great flavor. Lunch was wonderful, we just sat and talked, enjoyed the sand, the water, and the sun.

While we were sitting at Lunch a heard of photographers walked by and started taking pictures of us, we just smiled, and let them take our pictures. Very strange but again the only way to describe awkward moments like that is…China.

After a great lunch we continued on our walk. We caught up to all of the photographers that were taking pictures of us. Then a girl that they had been following wanted to take pictures with us, so we did just that. It was insane, these cameras were huge and there were about 10 photographers taking pictures of us. We ended up talking to the photographers and apparently this chick was a model but none of our Chinese friends on campus recognize her picture so we have no idea who she was and what all of these camera men were doing following her.

After our big photo shoot we arrived at another one of the beaches along the way and there were brides and grooms everywhere. There must have been at least 30 couples getting their wedding pictures taken on the beach. Some of these brides were ruining their dresses; laying in the sand, some of the dress dragging in the water, etc. At first we thought maybe it was some photo shoot for a bride magazine or something but we found out that these were legit bride and grooms and they all probably got married that day. It was unbelievable how many couples were getting their photos taken.

We continued to walk a little further and then realized it was time to head back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel we had a pineapple on a stick and then went into the hostel to grab our bags and head to the airport. The flight back to Shanghai was fine, standard procedure. We landed in Shanghai and we had arranged for the QQ’s to pick us up from the airport. Since these cabs are illegal they weren’t able to wait by the arrival area so we had to go upstairs to the drop off area for departures. We called the QQ’s and they came around the corner like the 3 mini coppers in Italian Job, and they were all different colors. It was so funny to watch.

The QQ’s got us back to campus and that concluded our spring break weekend. It was a great adventure and I was thrilled to finally have seen the Terracotta Warriors.

Day 1 in Qingdao, China

Saturday March 14^th…

The morning started with an alarm at 5:30AM. It was so early! We had arranged for the van from the hostel to take us to the airport at 6AM. We had an early flight to Qingdao. Qingdao is on East coast, North of Shanghai. It was once a Germany area and last summer it was the host to the Sailing in the Beijing Summer Olympics. The city is absolutely gorgeous!!!! It is a mixture of San Francisco, CA with the hills and the water and Florence, Italy with the European feel. The streets are narrow and the rooftops are exactly like Florence!! It was a great cit that you could just wander in for days and get lost.

Our hostel was an old observatory, the rooms were nice, Caitlin and I had a room to ourselves.  The view was gorgeous! Looked right over the city straight to the water! They converted the actual observatory part of the building into a lounge/café. The showers were scalding hot one minute and freezing cold the next, which made showering a less than enjoyable experience. The woman at the front desk was no help at all but the man that was there at night was a lot of help.

After getting settled and showered we walked around Qingdao. We weaved in and out of the tiny streets packed with markets and vendors of all sorts. Eventually we made our way over to the Tsingtao brewery. We have enjoyed many Tsingtao beers so we thought we should have a brewery tour. This brewery tour, which the tour books write about, is more of a museum with a quick glimpse at the bottling of some beer. It was still interesting and I am glad we went…after all we did get two free beers and some peanuts out of the ticket purchase. One of the coolest things they showed us was the old brewery and all of the old equipment. It was cool to see how different machines have evolved.

After the tour we wandered around for a while and eventually found a hole in the wall restaurant, which of course was delicious. After dinner a few of us headed back to the hostel to see the sunset from the decks of the observatory…absolutely beautiful! I felt like we were some place tropical, along with everyone from Purdue that is on spring break right now.

The remainder of the night we stayed in the hostel. We made plans for the next day and then just hung out. Eventually Caitlin and I went upstairs to the café and ordered some cappuccino. Some of the guys were up there talking with a girl from England. Her name was Elly and she was super nice. She had just finished teaching English in South Korea and now she is traveling China for a while before returning home to England.

Eventually I went out on the observatory deck and I was able to see stars, and they were gorgeous!!!! It was a beautiful clear night! Qingdao is a big city but all the city lights shut off early so it was perfect...I guess that is why the observatory is there.

It was a very relaxing/early night, which was needed after our late night with an early morning wake up call.

I finally got to see the Terracotta Warriors!!

Friday March 13^th…

Kevin, Caitlin and I were going on a Terracotta warrior tour planned by the hostel. The tour started at 9:30AM so we were up and ready to go by then. There were 8 other people on the tour. A couple from Australia who had been traveling the world since last May; A guy a few years older than us form Canada that had been traveling Asia for 3 years; Two girls from France studying close to Shanghai; And three guys (also a few years older) from Oregon/Washington. One works in South Korea and the other two met up with him to travel for a while. Overall it was a fun group. Everyone had great stories and was really willing to talk and get to know each other.

So we all got in the van and headed to the place where they create the miniature statues that people buy. It wasn’t anything really exciting just a tourist trap…but that is okay. They had some shops to look in and just poke around for a while.

After the factory stop we got back in the van and went to lunch. It was very good. It was nice the tour had set it up for us so we didn’t have to worry about anything, just about getting in and out of the van. It was one of those traditional meals with at least 10 dishes on the lazy suzanne and far to much food for anyone to finish. But we enjoyed what we could before having to get back in the van.

At this point it was finally time to go see the Terracotta warriors. I was so excited it was a beautiful day with blue skies. On the way to the site of the warriors we past The Mausoleum of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It honestly just looked like a little hill that was no covered in grass. We didn’t stop to go inside the tourist area but I am sure that would have been very interesting to see. Emperor Qin Shi Huang was the emperor that spent all of the money and man power to build The Great Wall of China and also to build the elaborate army underground to protect his tomb, this army is know at the Terracotta Army.

We finally made it to the area that is home to the Terracotta Army. After getting our entry tickets we walked through a park area that was gorgeous with Mt. Huashan surrounding us. Things were starting to bloom, it was a perfect spring day. When we finally got inside there are 3 pits. These pits are where the warriors are found and there is one other building with the bronze horse and chariots that were excavated from Emperor Qin’s tomb. We went to see the bronze horses and chariots first. They were ½ size to scale of the real thing. When Emperor Qin was alive he always traveled with 81 sets of horses and chariots. He chose 81 because 9 is a lucky number in China and 9 x 9 = 81. The horses and chariots on display were in cases but still interesting to see. They definitely needed to be polished but looked great for being over 2000 years old. In addition to this display there were some weapons and some equipment that was used back in those days. At the front entrance there was a really huge warrior with a little girl…they were giant puppets and very creepy!!! Apparently they were used in the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, but since I didn’t see the opening ceremony I am just taking everyone’s word on that one. They were supposed to symbolize the coming together of Children/the future with the past…or something like that. I just know they were both creepy…just look at my pictures if you don’t believe me J

After looking at everything in that building, it was finally time to see the warriors. The thing I wanted to see the most since coming to China, so I was very excited. We went into the foyer of pit 1 to look at a map of the area. It was kind of like the map of Purdue’s campus that is in the union but of the Emperor Qin Mausoleum and the mountains. The most interesting thing about it was it showed how far this army was from his tomb so it leads you to believe that there are many more soldiers still buried under ground. At this point we also heard about the man that first discovered the warriors in 1970’s. He found a soldiers head while farming. He only received 10RMB for this discovery that is now making millions everyday!!!! We got to see him (I think his name was yang…but I don’t remember). He lives in the local area and spends most of his days just sitting there watching the tourists, no one is allowed to take pictures of him, so I was unable to document it, but everyone gets the idea.

Our tour guide decided not to show us pit 1 first, so we went into pit 2 instead. When we first got inside it smelled like dirt…and sadly that is all we saw, dirt. This pit had not really be excavated so there wasn’t much to see. They excavation was to the roofing that covers the soldiers…so about 5 meters underground. Some areas had some broken parts of soldiers but not a lot of anything other than what we had smelt…dirt. Along the side of the pit there were some warriors in cases. We were able to see one of only 7 generals that have been found. Up close they really are amazing to see. There is so much detail in their faces and their uniforms. You are abel to tell what rank they are based on what their hairstyle is. They really are full sized (well Chinese full size), very impressive to think how many more are under that dirt.

Next we ventured into pit 3. This pit ended up being more of a corridor and a few meeting rooms. This one was much smaller but much more complete, minus most of the soldiers still missing heads. Since they are about 5 meters below ground they don’t look nearly as big as they were when we saw them in the glass cases. There were horses and many soldiers standing in this pit. Something interesting about the building of the Warriors was that a floor was made for these soldiers. If you look at my pictures you can see the floor is made of clay bricks not just the dirt floor. Emperor Qin really spent so much time and money on this project it is unbelievable the detail that went into all of it.

Finally we made it to pit 1. If anyone is able to go see the Terracotta Warriors in their lifetime, save this one for last. This pit is the one you always see in the pictures with soldiers standing everywhere just rows upon rows of soldiers. Even though there were more standing soldiers than I had seen so far I was slightly disappointed. The pictures and everyone talking about it makes it seem like there are thousands of soldiers, and there aren’t. In the back they had the soldiers on display that were partially put together. So it was neat to see the giant puzzle that excavating this army has turned into.

Overall I am really glad I saw the Terracotta Warriors but I was slightly disappointed. Yes, they are very impressive and a must see but I think the idea of them is way more impressive. The idea of an 8000 clay person army (life size) that is 5 meters below ground for over 2000 years…that’s extraordinary. It would be cool to go back and visit in 30-40 years and see how many more they have discovered. We were told they just found pit 4, and pit 2 will be more excavated by then…It is amazing to think how many soldiers are still buried underground.

After a great day visiting some amazing history I was able to buy something that I have been looking at since I got here…a jade bracelet. The way the Chinese girls wear them is you buy it small so you have to hurt your hand while slipping it onto your wrist but that way it will not fall off and its hard to take off, even if you try. Our tour guide helped me find a good quality one. It is not perfect but for the price I paid it is great.

Then we got back in the van and headed towards the hostel. It was about an hour drive back, so not to far but just far enough to close my eyes for a short while and get some rest.

After arriving back at the hostel I was going to go on a bike ride on the top of the city wall. It would be have been beautiful to see the whole cit and sunset…but they closed 15 minutes before I got over there. I was really disappointed. Instead I went back to the hostel and took advantage of a free Cappuccino that the hostel provided for us when paying for the tour. Caitlin, Kevin and I sat their and enjoyed our drinks, then our tour guide sat down with us for a while and we just talked. She told us about the water/light show and the wild goose pagoda.

The three of us decided to wander around the city and head over to the pagoda to see the show at 8:30PM. The walk was much longer than anticipated but we made it there just in time to see the show. The show ended up being fountains spraying and moving to the music that was being played. It was gorgeous! It was such a clear night and the setting was beautiful with the pagoda in the background. The whole thing was only about 15minutes long. If you would like to see a quick video of what we saw Caitlin has posted one in her China 7 album of her pictures. The link is to the right of this post.

After the pagoda we just walked around and took some pictures then we decided we were hungry for dinner. We ended up in a great restaurant a few blocks from the Pagoda. Since it was late the place was pretty empty but they were happy to serve us. It was such a nice dinner, we ended up staying there for 1.5 hours, just drinking beer and sharing stories amongst ourselves. The food was great, however it was slightly spicy. The lesson learned from that, is don’t trust a Chinese person when they say something is not spicy.

We got back to the hostel and met up with the rest of our group in the basement bar. Caitlin and I ended up spending the night talking to some of the people that were on the tour with us. It was so much fun just sharing stories and getting to know complete strangers. Time flew by and before we knew it, it was time for bed.

Xi’an was a great city. Very old, you could just see the history all around you. It would be great to go back and stay in Xi’an for an extended period of time, and really get to know the area.

So we made our own 4 day spring break...

Thursday March 12^th…

As everyone back home was getting ready to leave for sunny destinations on their spring break we decided to travel North to Xi’an and then east to Qingdao to take a 4-day Spring Break…and surprisingly the weather was gorgeous!

We left rainy Shanghai after our Exam was over…I think by the time the QQ’s showed up to take us to the airport it was about 10:30AM. So what is a QQ…A QQ is an illegal taxi. Some might call them black Taxi’s but in Shanghai they are called QQ’s because that is the type of car they are. It is a very compact 4 door car, that I am sure would not pass any crash test…but they are much cheaper than normal taxis so we had 3 of them pick us up at the dorms to take us to the Pudong airport. They got us there in an hour, which is really fast. They didn’t sit and wait for anything. The ride was like a roller coaster, one minute we were weaving between cars and the next we were just driving on the sidewalk to get away from the cars altogether and before we knew it we were sitting in the terminal waiting for our flight.

Pudong airport is HUGE!!!!! We were in Terminal one, just in the C concourse and there were over 200 gates!! It was insane. And of course, our gate was the second to last one J we boarded the plane and made it to Xi’an. We arranged for someone from our hostel to pick us up at the airport so they were waiting for us when we go there…It was extremely nice not to worry about finding cabs and figuring out where to go.

We stayed at Shauna International Youth Hostel. It was just inside of the city walls by the main South Gate. This hostel was adorable!!! There was so much character and such a Chinese feel to it with many great common areas. There were little courtyards through the hostel with couches and tables; a lot of space to just sit down and relax. The hostel had a cute restaurant area and a fun bar in the basement. Our rooms were on the roof. The hostel was extremely accommodating. Originally the 11 of us were going to be split up all over the hostel but they arranged it so we could have two rooms to ourselves for both nights in Xi’an. The community showers/bathrooms were really clean.  Upon checking in we received a free beer card to be redeemed at the bar downstairs for each night that we were spending in the hostel and we also received a free cup of coffee/tea at the little restaurant. The people at the front desk were all very helpful and spoke English very well.

So after getting checked in to our perfect little hostel we decided to walk around and explore Xi’an. We walked up to the bell tower (At the center of the city walls) and found some pineapple on a stick. For those of you who don’t know me well I usually only eat pineapple two ways…one being on a Hawaiian pizza, and two being from my mom’s pineapple glazed baked ham….mmm that is so delicious!!! In any case, I ate this pineapple it was fantastic. Super sweet and delicious…and only 1RMB. Shortly after the pineapple we stopped in a restaurant and had a nice dinner.

After dinner we continued on our adventure walking around the city and we found a little roller-skating area. People had skates that could be rented. At first I wasn’t going to go roller-skating because I didn’t like the idea of where all of those roller-skates had been. But as the guys started picking out their roller-skates the guy gave them plastic bags to wrap their feet in before putting the roller skates on…when I saw the bags I decided to go roller-skating. The skating area was around a circular fountain (that wasn’t turned on) super small and something that would never survive in America but it was one of those great China things. We had a good time skating around. After we got tired we returned the skates and our shoes were still there…which we weren’t entirely sure they would be, and continued walking around the city.

The City of Xi’an is a great city from what I saw. Being inside the city walls was cool. It is really mind boggling to think that is the same wall that surrounded the city back when Xi’an was the capital of China during the first Dynasty (around 2000 years ago).

After walking around for a while we jumped in a taxi and headed back to the hostel’s bar. I had a few beers (including my free one J) and then headed up stairs to go to bed.

Big Ten Champs!!!

Before I start telling you all about a great weekend of traveling...

I am so happy to tell all of you that the Boilermakers are Big Ten Tourney Champs!!! wow i miss going to the basketball games. But ESPN.com gives a pretty good play by play which doesn't end up reloading every 30 seconds but more like every 2 minutes because of China's super fast internet...haha

BOILER UP!!!!

Hail Purdue!!!

I can't believe it's already March!

It has been so long since I have written, I don't even know what dates thing happened on.

I haven't written lately because during the day I pretty much do the same old, well that is when it was raining.  Last week it was gorgeous and for the first time in at least a week it was not gray and I could actually enjoy a blue sky and warmer weather. But first I will back up a little bit and share some things that have happened in the last few weeks.

One day a couple of weeks ago Caitlin and I went into the city with the French guys. It was a chilly night but a very clear night (after a day of on and off rain). We went to The Bund area and went to a bar called Bar Rouge. This Place would have been awesome on a warm night. They have a big rooftop patio that overlooks The Bund and PuDong. We were able to go out there for some pictures and to just take some time to enjoy the gorgeous skyline, however it was too cold to enjoy our drinks outside. We didn’t stay long but it was nice to get out and be back in the city with great company.

A few weekends ago was filled with homework, a little bit of running, some euchre and being lazy.

One Friday night some people went to a Korean restaurant to eat dog. That’s right, puppy! I have heard a lot of mixed reviews about the dog meat. I would like to try it before I leave China in May. I didn’t go with on Friday because Catholicism is in the Lenten season now, which, among other things, means I am not eating meat on Fridays. So I decided not to go to the restaurant because I knew I would want to try the dog if I went. Instead I stayed in and had a pretty crazy Friday night filled with laundry, homework, and watching the show Friends. Since I bought the complete set a while ago I wanted to start the series from season one…I forgot how many funny episodes there are right at the beginning of the series. It was a quite night but very relaxing.

The next Saturday night, Caitlin and I went out to dinner with a couple of girls that we met on campus. They took us to a place outside of campus with delicious dumplings. In instances like this, it is good that I am not a picky eater because the girls just ordered a few dishes they liked and the four of us shared them. They were delicious!!! One of the dishes was a new type of dumpling that I don’t think I had tried before…very tasty. Another one of the dishes looked/tasted like a sweet potato...I am not sure if that is what it was. But for the sake of this post I will call it a sweet potato. So there were chunks of this sweet potato on a plate caramelized in a sugary goodness. The girls told us they had to be eaten fast because they would harden. So you pick one of the chunks up and you dip it in water. Yes water. As first I was a little hesitant, thinking that it would make the potato soggy but it made the caramelized top from sticking all over the inside of your mouth. They were very yummy!!! And after a short amount of time had passed they were in fact very hard. Eventually these little potatoes got to the point where they couldn’t even be pulled apart. But they were great while they lasted. The dinner was a lot of fun. The girls spoke English very well and they were easy to talk to. It was a wonderful evening. Later that night we went upstairs and just hung out with the guys. Nothing really exciting just some dorm life.

Sunday was filled with homework and an adventure to the post office. The woman that lives in the dorm, the IE, came to our door and told us in Chinese that Caitlin had a package at the post office. I wasn’t able to pick up on too many full sentences but I picked up on enough Chinese words to know that’s what she was telling us. It was a gorgeous afternoon so we headed out to the north side of campus, where the IE told us the post office was. After making it out to the north side of campus, which took us about 45 minutes, we couldn’t find the post office. We received some help from someone on the street and he pointed us in the right direction. Turns out the post office is only about a 15 minute walk from our dorm…The IE was way off in her directions. It is not like this was even lost in translation because we had her point to our campus map for us. Thankfully the weather was great and we now know where the post office is on campus.

During the week Caitlin and I met a Liu Yanchen for lunch. We went to a restaurant outside of campus. It was a really cute restaurant…it didn’t feel like a Chinese restaurant at all. I don’t remember the type of food that we had but it is the common style of food served in northern China. The dishes were spicy but thankfully I have grown to enjoy some spice. Liu Yanchen ordered so much food for the three of us. She ordered two types of meet dishes, one with beef, one with lamb. Two types of vegetables, eggplant and corn, and she ordered a soup! There was so much food on the table it was ridiculous. The meet dishes were mixed with vegetables and potatoes and one of them even had noodles mixed in.  The soup was good, a meat broth with noodles, but it was one of the last things to get to the table so we were pretty full by the time that came out, and didn’t eat a whole lot of it. The eggplant was amazing!!! I don’t know what type of sauce was on it but very good and not spicy J the corn was more of a dessert…it was a thin layer of corn and pea kernels held together by sugar and cut in pie shape pieces. The food was delicious and very different from a lot of things we have eaten already. I love going out to eat with people that know the language; they always order such great meals!!!!

The remainder of last week was spent studying for a Heat & Mass Transfer exam that we had on Thursday morning. After the exam we headed out for another weekend trip. This time we were headed to Xi’an and Qingdao.

Back in a routine

Feb. 23^rd – Feb 26^th

This week all runs together. Because there wasn’t a lot that happened. It rained all week and it was cold (in the 40’s). We went to classes, did homework, watched the episodes or Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice from last week since we missed them while we were in Harbin. Did I mention that it rained all week. I hate the rain. It makes me want to do nothing productive.

On Tuesday we thought we needed to celebrate Mardi Gras a little bit so we bought a couple of cases and drank and played card games in the guys room.

On Wednesday, after class and homework, I went into the city for an Ash Wednesday mass. I went to an English service because those were the only mass times I could find online. It took about an hour to get into the city taking the subway. I took a taxi to the subway station and got on line 5. Line 5 is slow and aboveground. Then I switched to line 1 and took that to the church. The church was very large, not a pretty church but it looked old. The service was pleasant; a lot of people were there.

On Thursday a few of us ate dinner with one of the Chinese students in our materials class. He is such a sweetheart. It was fun to talk to him.  After dinner and wasting some time on the computer we went over to a building on campus, which is similar to a rec-center. We were going to try and go bowling but the wait was too long so we went upstairs to look at the KTV on campus and they said that they did not have English songs.  At this point we ran into some French exchange students. I had met one of them previously but we all started talking and we found out that it was one of their birthdays. So we had to celebrate some how. We again went and bought some cases and started by drinking in the conference room that is on the first floor of our dorm. This didn’t last long. The woman that was working in the dorm told us that room was for studying so we moved the party up to the 5^th floor (the guys floor) and we all gathered in the floor kitchen. It was wonderful to meet more exchange students. They were from all over France but they all go to school together at the same college. They too are engineers. Something that they kept doing that was just cracking me up was that they would talk in English with a really strong French accent. It was absolutely hilarious because they were doing it on purpose and they were slightly mocking themselves. They also taught us a French song that they sing on birthdays…among a group of friends. We butchered it but everyone had fun with that.  Everyone was so happy to meet other people. It was a great night.

On Friday Caitlin and I went to a forum that the SJTU students were having. The girl that I had met in the canteen asked us to go. It was SJTU students talking about their experiences studying abroad. When I got there Liu Yancheng asked me to say something about my experience. It was very informal but it lasted forever, people kept talking and talking. After we left there all of us went into the city for a night at a club. We went to a place on the Bund called de la coast. It was really crowded but a lot of fun. One of our Chinese classmates came with us. We all danced and had a great time. It was a great to be back in the city, there was just one slight problem. The subways close at 11PM and don’t open again until 6AM so we had to stay in the city all night. We did not want to pay for a taxi back to Minhang because it would have been close to 150RMB. The club closed around 3AM so we still had a lot of time to kill. We knew of a great American Diner in downtown that we had no been to yet so we decided to head over there for some breakfast. It is called City Diner on Tongren Lu, and it was fantastic!!! The portions were bigger than a traditional American big breakfast portion, and it was comparable to American prices. After breakfast we just went into a couple of different bars that were still open on Tongren lu. One of which had a foosball table so we played that for a while and then realized that the subway was going to open soon so some of us left and started our hour-long journey back to Minhang. At first the subway was completely empty and then we got to People’s square to make our first line change and it was already packed it was only about 6:30AM on a Saturday and there were people everywhere! I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t really start to feel tired until we got onto the subway…and then it hit me, so I napped a little on the way back to Minhang. We made it back to campus around 7:30AM and I immediately crawled into bed.