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.