The dirty yet beautiful streets of Wenjiang and Chengdu

I had a moment of realization today that I had somewhat assimilated pretty well into the Chinese culture. I was in a back alley street of Wenjiang (our suburb where our school resides) hanging out on my second hand bike, eating some local street food that cost about 40 cents, wearing my fake nikes that cost about 8 bucks, and I pulled out my flip phone with some panda bling hanging off of it to check the time. I don't even get phased by the squatty anymore and I can almost use chopsticks like a complete champ. Oh yeah, almost 100% Chinese.

I really do dig China and Asia in general. Something about this place. Like I have mentioned numerous times it can get dirty and smelly, especially my suburb but it still holds some sort of charm over me. At night it is absolutely beautiful in its own way. The street vendors are out selling all sorts of specialties, there are people everywhere yelling and screaming out there and the bright lights tie it all together and make it beautiful. I have always been one for big crowds, excitement, and loudness. I love people watching and don't really care about my personal bubble being non-existent. I guess China just suits me. I have been getting stressed out lately though, because I am not sure if everyone realizes this but China is a HUGE Country! From Tibet, to the Northwest which holds Mongolians, and an interesting middle eastern nomadic mix, to the north with all the important cities and somewhat influenced by Russia and north korea, from the scenic middle and the tropical south. There are so many places to see and just not enough time that I have here! This weekend we are taking a trip to Xi'an so that will be exciting. I just wish that we didn't have any classes so we could spend all day in Chengdu and other places!

Speaking of class, our Finance professor from WSU finally got in so for the next three weeks I will have class for over 8 hours a day! Barely enough time to grab some street food but I really can't complain that I am getting a semesters worth of Finance in three weeks. It's nice being with a bunch of WSU students, and since almost everyone is an accounting major we have lots to talk about and a lot of similar plans for the future. Most people on the trip with me plan on getting their master's degree in Accounting, studying for the CPA exam, hopefully passing, and working their asses off for the Big Four. After experiencing the cube life this summer and part of this winter I am not sure if I want to go down that same path right away. I want to explore and see more parts of Asia and the rest of the world. I am completely addicted to any sort of traveling, I feel like a junkie who is chasing the dragon. I need to see and explore more and more to feel satisfied! The only problem would be trying to find some adventurous souls who would like to come with me…

Kara and I have been doing a lot more exploring on our own. There isn't too much around Wenjiang but we work with what we have got. We vowed that we would try to only eat the food in the cafeteria once a day and eat street food for everything else. We gave it a try on Thursday and were pretty successful! Between classes we wandered into a random shop and I saw something that looked like a smoothie. Since all I know how to say is strawberry I just repeated that and got some sort of strawberry snow cone. I am surprised they didn't bring us out the whole menu! They were falling all over themselves with excitement that we were there! They didn't speak much English but insisted that we sit down and enjoy ourselves. We noticed that once we sat down the restaurant got progressively more busy…and that the employees and customers were taking pictures of us! Eventually we started posing and one of the employees hopped in a picture. I'm going to miss feeling like a celebrity everywhere I go! After leaving the shop and saying our thousandth goodbye we ventured further down the crowded streets of Wenjiang and checked out the food and people. Well, mainly the people checked us out. The old people are the best here, they always seem to have a complete look of shock and interest when we ride or walk past them. They will often keep walking with their heads turned and often will trip or run into something. Quite entertaining and I shouldn't be that surprised since China just started to be open to the public in the 80's! We stopped at a random stand that a couple of ladies were making some fried dough thing. We paid our 20 cents and rode back off with both the pastries and a smile. As much as I complain about missing meat I am going to miss the local dirty cheap Chinese food. It won't compare to anything in the states.

Friday night was…a complete blast. Seriously I don't think that I have ever had a more fun night in my life! We decided to go out and try Karaoke with the help of our favorite Caribbean friend Eamon, and our other favorite Chinese friend Lisa! Lisa is so sweet. She is an English major so she is completely fluent and very helpful. We all felt very comfortable with her right away as she is one of those people who is very naturally calm and maternal. You kind of need to feel comfortable with Chinese people right away in general though, because they are very grabby. Lisa would often hold my hand or grab onto my arm at random, and I had just met her! American girls can be somewhat touchy with each other (more when we are under the influence and need each other for physical support) but most of the time we aren't just mobbing down the streets holding hands. I guess Chinese people are all helpful in general anyway. I know I keep saying it but sometimes it's ridiculous. Today we got a group of Chinese people that followed us to class just to say hi and shake our hands! They are always inviting us over for dinner and trying to take us shopping. I don't think anyone at WSU would ever take such an interest in foreign students.

Anyway, Karaoke! Ah it was so fun! We had to wait around for a while, Eamon and Lisa bargained the price down for us so we got a huge room with three fifths of skyy for pretty cheap! While we were waiting some drunk Chinese men came out and were slurring their words pretty bad. One guy straight up sounded like Long Duck Dong and said to me "ahhhhh isss okay! I werrry sorry we had much funn!!! Okay!!" I didn't know what else to do so I just snapped a picture of him. We clambered into the elevator and got into our room and got real excited. It was huge and fancy, and they had a pretty decent selection of American tunes. The night started off pretty chill but then the shots started flowing and before I knew it I was up on the stage belting Dancing Queen with Scott. I am pretty sure we thought we were Abba at that point. Soon everyone was up dancing and screaming into the microphone. As the night (and shots) progressed I guess we got somewhat loud even for Karaoke and some employees came in to make sure everything was ok. I took this as that they wanted to dance with us. I grabbed one and started screaming "beautiful girl!" "handsome boy!" and started to dance. I think he was a little shocked at first but he quickly got over it when we all started to dance with him. We sang one last song (I'm so paid) and stumbled home still singing. I guess for some reason I thought it would be a good idea to skype my parents in my state so I hopped on Kara's computer, grabbed my rabbit Simba and babbled some nonsense at my stepmom. I'm sure she was pleased to hear from me. Then I called my mom, which I now regret because she had some bad news about my Diamond-Dog (RIP). According to Craig I was pretty upset about because I spent the next two hours crying (with a brief intermission in which I called my dad and left him a message singing three little birds).

Before I knew it I was being woken up at Kara at 9 AM because we had to make it to the bus by 10 so we could get out to Chengdu. It's a miracle I made it because I was definitely first class on the struggle bus. We were all in the same boat but luckily we were still pretty drunk and not hungover. The rough part was when we had to take a taxi ride and though we told the drivers all the same McDonald's we ended up at different McDonald's all over the city. It was unfortunate but I wasn't too concerned at the time because I knew French fries and a cheeseburger were in my future. My hangover hit hard after the food. It lasted until about 6 PM that day so struggling around Chengdu for   the morning was not fun. We went to a huge mall full of the same Chinese stuff they sell everywhere so I don't think I missed out on too much. Eventually half of the group split up and my part headed to Pizza Hut. I ended up taking a two hour nap there since I couldn't eat the food anyway, but everyone was raving about it. Pizza Hut is comparable with a three star restaurant here and not the normal one. They have more gourmet Pizzas and Salads. And Western Toilets!

After Pizza Hut we trudged on to The People's Garden of Chengdu and saw a couple interesting things among the way. Not as interesting as the Garden turned out to be. When we entered there was a huge exercise class going on outside! Mainly old people but man were they workin it! Even though I still wasn't feeling that great I joined in and started  kicking with the rest of them. It reminded me of something that my mom would absolutely love to do! We continued on from there and saw some cool booths to buy cheap Chinese trinkets but those did not interest me. No, no, what interested me was the bubbles these booths were selling! I bought two tubes and started to twirl around and blow bubbles. It was a pretty nice day and the smog was under control. I almost forgot about my hangover and was drifting off into Taylor zone. All of the sudden my bubble burst (ha…ha) and I heard an excited child scream. I looked up and the cutest Chinese baby in the world ran over and tried to pop my bubbles. So I played with him and before I knew it more screams and more Chinese children came to play! I was so distracted by them I was shocked to look up a couple of minutes later to see that almost a complete circle of Chinese people had formed around me. There were almost 60 people watching me blow bubbles for the kids and most of them were taking pictures, and a couple of them were taping it. Eventually some old people joined in on the fun! I was pretty happy in that moment, and I will probably always remember that Saturday in the Park! Eventually I had to move on with the rest of my group and I was sad to see the group go. I kept blowing bubbles and since we were still some of the only white people there Mal pointed out that we had a discreet following of ten people throughout the whole way. There were a couple more interesting things, like watching a bunch of old men play Chinese checkers in the park and some people doing water calligraphy.

After the Park we headed down to check out what I personally think is the coolest area of Chengdu. It's called Wide and Narrow road and it is awesome! It's got ancient Chinese Architecture and a bunch of nice restaurants and shops. I bought a couple of souvenirs and I hope to go back when I am feeling a little better and can enjoy it more! The best part (as usual) was the Starbucks! It was crazy architecture and probably the coolest Starbucks I have ever been to. They of course had western toilets. It's pretty funny though, when I went to go into the bathroom I noticed the toilet seat was a dirty brown. Gross! I though, Did the Chinese people just completely miss? But then I realized they were foot marks! The Chinese still climb on these toilets like Squatty Potties. Judging by the smell they didn't understand you could flush the toilet paper down the toilet as well! Can't teach an old dogs new tricks I guess. I also met a woman from Seattle who was in Chengdu training the baristas how to make coffee. I was so jealous, she has the best job I could think of! Starbucks and she gets to travel all over the world!

Sunday was a pretty relaxing day for us and we kind of lazed around and finished some HW. We were all excited for dinner though because a Chinese girl in one of our classes invited us over for dinner! Her name is Winnie and we ate with her roommates Spring (or was it Summer?) and Zoe. I seriously love the American names they give themselves. I no joke heard a girl introduce herself as Doris. Seriously? Anyway, we bought Winnie a cake to thank her for inviting us over so we carried it to her apartment. Her apartment is amazing and nothing like our communist style dorms. They even had a western toilet and modern amenities! She made us amazing Chinese food with lots of meat (one dish had chicken feet and it remained untouched by me…I'm not quite there yet!) and we all enjoyed ourselves in general. It was funny as we showed them the cake. There was lots of fruit on top of it and they were kind of confused. They thought you ate the fruit and maybe the cake later. Zoe told us she didn’t want any cake because she thought she was fat! If this girl was fat, I would be grossly, morbidly obese.

I found my stomach growling late at night so Shoji and I headed to East Gate to grab some more street food. I got the most delicious noodles I have ever tasted in my life. The streets of Wenjiang would be drunk person's dream after the bars. Well, enough of my rambling for now. Unfortunately I have two exams this week. One of them is in Finance and we haven’t even had our first class yet! Dell still hasn't contacted me but hopefully they do soon cause I need a computer! Mom, since I know you will be the first person reading my blog I need you to keep harassing Dell! Thanks!

All the light that touches the kingdom shall be yours

I woke up yesterday morning and realized I didn't feel well. Everyone in our group kind of has a cold and despite my best efforts I think I may have finally caught it. I gracefully fell off my bunk bed and wandered into my  favorite Japanese man's room to see if he had anything to cure my troubles. He didn't offer me any medicine but he did offer me a present. He handed me a bundled up shirt and told me to bring it to my room and not freak out when I opened it. Knowing Shoji I figured it was some weird Japanese sex toy. I didn't think much when I brought it back to my room with Shoji closely following behind until I realized whatever he handed me was warm and...MOVING! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I screamed! Shoji wanted me to open it on the floor but I didn't make it that far. Out hopped a live bunny! At first I freaked out because how responsible is that to just buy a random bunny off the street and where were we going to keep it, does it have rabies, how were we supposed to feed it? Then Shoji told me it was a present for me and I looked back down at it. It looked back at me with its little bunny eyes and I fell in love. I don't know how old it is but it fits in two hands. I went into my maternal mode that I try and keep secret from everyone. I googled how to take care of bunnies and what they eat (Shoji had tried to feed it a banana) and we set out to the nasty streets of Wenjiang and bought some leafy greens for the little guy.

We decided to name it Simba because for some reason we were thinking of the Lion King in our most boring, three hour long class (mgtops 491). To christen it properly I held it above the sink Rafiki style and then told it that "all the light that touches the kingdom shall be yours". It fell asleep. We don't have a cage for Simba yet so we made it a nice little nest area in one of Shoji's cupboards. I know he gave it to me as a present but I don't want it shitting all over my stuff. The girls are all in love with it but the boys don't quite seem to see the appeal. Craig keeps threatening to drop it down the squatty potty hole. Nice. Having Simba around made me have a tiny pang of homesickness as I thought about Lemur (RIP) and Mia, who I haven't met but Taylor says is lovely so I will go with that. He is a happy little creature. Currently he is hopping around and nibbling at my boots. he is all white with brown ears and I am not quite sure what we are planning on doing with him when we have to leave...

Class is going okay so far. I am going to be receiving 18 credits for 8 weeks so I can't complain about that! The Chinese seem to enjoy trying to learn in a second language and we enjoy them giggling all the time. Our least favorite class is 3 hours long and kind of like pulling teeth. Even the Chinese are bored in class. Our prof is nice but we never really know what she is trying to talk about unless she brings up cars or Mcdonalds. We get excited when she brings up American food and German cars. I really like my accounting classes because Bernie teaches them and he usually has food examples as well. I can't get over that the Chinese want to take classes from a foreign professor. At WSU if we see a foreign name for our class list we usually try and drop that as fast as possible, and usually roll our eyes if we have a large number of Asians in our classes. Here they love it! Speaking of languages, I have the opportunity to teach English to the Chinese. It would be 4.5 hours a week and you get paid but I am not sure yet. I am sure it would be completely rewarding but I want to focus on learning Chinese! I don't know, does anyone have opinions on teaching English as a second language?

Today in class Bernie told us to try a Chinese restaurant that would be more like the Chinese food we were used to in America (General Tsao's, Mongolian Beef, Orange Chicken) and gave us a card. We still can't read so we rode our bikes into Wenjiang and tried to match the Hieroglyphs on the card with those on the restaurants. We rode past the restaurant a couple times and most Chinese kept coming out to try and get us in their restaurants. We finally found the one. There were dogs everywhere. Outside, inside, on the roof...etc. They don't seem to care about any health codes or requirements at the restaurants. That's why I usually don't look at the food while I eat it. We sat down and after lots of debates and us just repeating "gi" "gi" !! (chicken, chicken) they brought us out some dishes. Definitely not what we were used to. I have no idea what I ate and we tried to not eat too much because none of it was good. It was more traditional Chinese food than anything. Dan said that one of the dishes tasted like a urinal. I don't know about that but it is definitely something we are  not trying to eat again. We paid our 80 cents or whatever it cost to eat there (honestly I think they end up paying us money to eat at places most of the time) and we headed off to get "chicken burgers" a couple of shops down. My stomach wasn't feeling the best but I ordered a burger and fries for a grand total of 50 cents.  I wasn't feeling the chicken and I made the huge mistake of looking at what I was eating. Oh no, I was not gonna finish that burger after I saw it's innards. I bid adieu to everyone and hopped on my bike and rode back to campus.

I ran all the way up to the second floor of the Cafeteria (where all the rich SWUFE kids eat because it costs about 90 cents a meal) and ran over to my favorite station, The noodle station. The woman who always serves me my food (noodle beezy as I affectionately refer to her as) was there and I couldn't have been more happy to see her. As she handed me my Chow Mien or something that resembles it I looked her dead in the eye and said "noodle beezy, I will never leave you again. I love you". She just nodded and smiled. I might take her and the rabbit home with me.

I think tonight we all realized whenever things don't go our way it's not the Chinese fault. Things are different here and we get frustrated when things don't go our way and they can't understand us but we we're the ones that came into their country not knowing a word of Chinese. This seems like a simple concept to think about but you would be surprised at how often we forget that not everything is up to American standards nor is everything going to be. I mean, it would be nice if they just all spoke English. Hmm. I might just teach that English class after all..

Niiiii Haoooooo Shumaoooooo!!

Finally getting into the city of Chengdu during the day was fun. We arrived in the city after a bumpy couple of taxi and bus rides. I really wish that I could communicate with the people here. My vocabulary is slowly starting to expand but I wouldn't call anything I know useful. For example, I sat down next to a nice Chinese man on the bus. He stared at my eyes, smiled, and offered me an orange. I could say no thank you but I also wanted to ask him things. Past yes, no, thank you, hello, strawberry, panda, cat, dog, beautiful girl, handsome boy, and beer I can't communicate anything. It's quite frustrating so I am constantly just sort of smiling and waving my hands. Mal  and Audra always have lots of excitement when we go into the city. Everyone LOVES their blond hair. Men will tap their shoulders and say "herrroooo!!!" almost every other step it seems. As flattering as it sounds it's actually kind of scary to have random Chinese grabbing at you. I don't get as much attention because of my dark lots but what I get is plenty for me. Well, my hair used to be dark but now it is a sort of shade of purple due to a somewhat unfortunate incident with Chinese hair dye. But that is neither here nor there and I can definitely rock it in Asia with my feathers!

Anyway, we were on a mission in the city of Chengdu. We got there at 3:30 PM and all the bargaining shops closed at 6:30 so we had to book it through the super crowded streets. There were tons of people. More people than in Tokyo, and most of them would try and discreetly take pictures of us! We responded by taking pictures back but they still didn't pick up on it. It seemed like every other store was a Nike store (a real one) and we saw the Golden Arches for the first time since Tokyo! We begged Emon to let us go but he said he would take us someone better for dinner. We all had a longing look as we passed by..

We arrived at this huge five story shopping mall type place. It looked nice from the outside but in the inside it was one huge (excuse my language) clusterfuck of people, trash, and cheap clothes, accessories and anything else you could imagine. Looking through all of the shops was like looking out over the Tokyo Tower into the Tokyo Skyline. It didn't end. I split up from the group and tried to do some solo shopping but with little success. It was just too overwhelming and I was still tired and hungover from getting in at 5 AM. They had plenty of cute, cheap stuff and I find myself fantasizing about all the things I am going to buy almost as much as I fantasize about how much meat I am going to eat when I get back to the US. Remember the spitting I mentioned in my last post? It's not limited to outside. They do it right in the shops. The best part of the whole experience was walking past a booth where she offered a bunch of fake colored contacts. Now, I think white people wearing colored contacts is kind of creepy because it just looks super fake. But it is even creepier when Asian people have huge blue eyes. Anyway, I was walking past the booth and the woman was smiling at me. I smiled back and said "creepy". She smiled back and said "yeah, creepy!!!". That is reason #172638713 why I love China. You can get away with saying lots.

After the mall came the best part....AMERICAN FOOD!!!!! We stopped at STARBUCKS and they had a WESTERN TOILET!!!!! I didn't even have to go but I used it because it is such a luxury around here. After Starbs we headed to Eamon's favorite restaurant called Grandma's Kitchen. It was like America threw up in a cramped Chinese Restaurant. Upon entering we found where all the Americans in Chengdu congregated! There were American newspapers so I finally saw what was going on in the world! I guess there was an earthquake in New Zealand and there was an awesome article about Kate and William. But oh, the menu, the menu! Sandwiches, pizza, burgers, spaghetti, meat meat meat meat meaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat!!!!! It took us a half hour to order. I got deep fried spaghetti with meat sauce. It looked so delicious and I was in awe of all the protein but alas, my stomach has shrunk so much I couldn't even finish it! Oh it pained me so to leave 3/4 of my dish untouched. Seriously. I know I said this on my facebook but listen to your parents when they tell you there are starving children in China that would love to eat your dinner. I am one of them.

After dinner we headed back for an early night. The taxi ride was the best yet. The driver literally flipped a bitch in the middle of oncoming traffic and no one died. Marvelous, really. We started off the night with our usual hall parties and it turned into a full on power shower to ring in Mal's 21st (for a second time). It was fun but not the best idea because I guess the dorms are not made for power showering as it basically flooded our whole hall! The best part was explaining to Tao and Vince what powershowering was. They think we are clinically insane.

The next morning we awoke early for an adventure out in Chengdu with Bernie! We rode in a posh gang bus and our first stop was Mcdonalds. I got two cheeseburgers and fries and I savored every bite. I could have had four cheeseburgers. Actually honestly I felt a little sick after but it was amazing. Next we saw some Shumao. It was cool...I guess. The first couple pandas were cool but I quickly got bored because honestly they are not that exciting. They just lick each other and eat bamboo. I could do that. We ended our excursion with some classy hot pot and had a cake..to celebrate Mal's birthday for the third time!!

China is getting better and better everyday. Except for the public restrooms. I almost vom every time I walk in but I know it is going by way too fast and I am going to be sad to leave this place! Hopefully the dell man comes soon so I can upload all my thousands of pictures I have been taking. They are gonna be great :)

Oh, and another thing I love about the Chinese..Tao Vince and New Yearrrrr!!! They wear the same clothes everyday and they love to sing the most random American songs. They will often break into "eeevverrry night in myyyy dreaaammmsss I seeee you I feeelll youuuuuu" or "You raaaaaaaaaaiiiiiiseeee me upppppppppppp!!!!"

I am not dead

Hey guys! Sorry I haven't made a post since the Shanghai airport. I have overcome quite a bit of adversity just to sneak a couple minutes on the internet a week! My faithful Dell XPS 16 just decided to completely stop working on me. Therefor I don't have access to any of the wonderful and exciting pictures that I have been taking since my arrival in Chengdu! Among the many things we are lacking in our dorms, internet is one of them. If we want internet we have to head to an international room (which is on par with dial up internet) or to a cafe where we have to pay 9 yuan for some milk tea to gather access. Although everything is made in China (besides meat and real food) it seems that they can't get a little Chinese man out here from Dell to fix my comp for another week so posting is going to be sketchy till then. I can't believe I have already spent a whole week here! It has gone by wayyyyy tooo fast and so much has happened. So I'll start with the beginning.

If I was nervous on any of the plane rides over my flight from Shanghai to Chengdu topped it. This was it. I was about to be at a place where I was going to call home for the next couple of months. If I didn't like it I was completely screwed. I was the only white person on the plane and everything kept staring into my eyes like they couldn't even understand why they were such an odd shape and color. I tried a "ni hao" but they just kept staring. Unblinking. Seriously it is a constant staring contest here. I got off the plane and was so nervous as to how I was going to get picked up and get to SWUFE as Bernie had given me very limited details. There I was lugging my now 73 pound bag (Thanks Tokyo) through the airport starting to freak out and then I saw it. A boy my age in a funny looking Christmas sweater holding a sign with a giant Cougar head on it. Awwww yeah I was in business.


Now, most people can attest to the fact that I have done some pretty stupid, downright reckless things in my life. My mom constantly badgered me about being safe in China, and for the love of God not doing anything stupid over here. My Stepdad told me to think before I walk outside. My dad patted me on the back and said have fun (which is definitely what I am doing). Let me just state right here that if I am going to die in China it is going to be from either A. Starvation or B. A taxi. Seriously. I can't even describe how effing crazy they drive over here. That's coming from me who had to pass my drive test three times. I'm not even sure why they have painted lanes on the roads. They don't obey any traffic laws whatsoever. No speed limit signs. Red light means speed up. Someone in your way? Rickshaw, moped, bike, person? Just honk and speed up. I actually took a video and will post it when I am able.

So I get to the dorm. Our place is called Shensi Garden (magic garden). I had to stand around a couple minutes while everyone pointed at me, stared at my eyes, and spoke in tongues (chinese). It was very cold, very gray, and I couldn't see out past three buildings. Finally another Chinese boy came out and grabbed my bags (His name is Tao) and led me to my room. I met Scott in the hall, we gave each other a quick hug and he said "uhh...so I don't think the rooms are what you quite expected". I took a step in mine. It was colder and grayer than outside if possible. The beds were raised up high with a desk underneath. There was literally a layer of cotton balls for a mattress. No mirror. No heat. I don't even want to go in depth about the "bathroom" which is literally a squattty potty with a shower head. I head a voice ask "is there anything we can do for you now?". I turned around. I forgot Tao and Vince were there. I looked at Scott. He looked back. My heart started beating and I knew I was entering fight or flight mode and I knew what was about to come next. I couldn't help it, I completely went into Princess Taylor mode. "Um we need to go to Wal Mart. Right now." Tao and Vince didn't quite understand because I guess they wanted to wait for the whole group. They shook their heads and were a little confused.

40 minutes later, and one crazy taxi ride we were at Carrefour. Which is a french sort of Wal Mart on par with Shopko. A shopko that's out of stock in everything you need. I quickly stocked up on as many essentials as I could. I was with Sam, Scott, and Dayton. It was an interesting experience. No one spoke English except for our trusty translators Tao and Vince. This one employee kept following me around the store and if she didn't think the quality of stuff I was picking out was good enough she would grab it out of my hand, put it back and grab me a different one. That is service. A different style, but definitely some service. We had an interesting check out experience (people kept trying to cut us. Lines and meat don't exist here). We all then went out to dinner in our little college district. It was a great little restaurant EXCEPT FOR THE FACT THAT THE DOOR AND WALL WERE MISSING TO THE ENTRANCE SO IT WAS FREEZING. Seriously. These Chinese are tough. I kept asking Tao what they do and he just responds "we get used to it". I just want to tell them that really, they don't need to torture themselves anymore. They can get toilets were they can sit down and relax and get some sort of heat. We have that available now. The only Chinese I have ever really liked was Kung Pao chicken so Vince and Tao got some for us. Well, there was plenty of kung pao but barely any chicken. Little did I know that would be the theme for the rest of my trip here.

I climbed into "bed" and waited for the boys and the rest of the Tokyo crew to get there and see what we had to work with. I dozed off and woke up to them a couple hours later. They came in my room and we all just started laughing. Because hey, what else can you really do in this situation? That would be our tool of bonding for the next week, discussing our exact techniques of the squatty potties. The girls have embraced it and it's actually starting to grow on me at this point. I mean, come on, think about it. It is pretty convenient to have a bathroom in the shower. The boys on the other hand, have not. There are western toilets in the handicapped stalls in the H building (where we have most of our classes) so if one of them has to go they often say "well I am about to head to the H building, anyone need to join me?) Very entertaining.

The next morning (Sunday) we went back to Carrefour to get everyone else things to make their dorm room livable. But before that we went to a large cafeteria style building (which Brett has named the Meat Locker) to get our meal cards. It was again colder than outside. It looked like a middle school cafeteria. We got our cards and grabbed the most intense looking metal trays and got served some nice, warm, chinese style slop. The lunch ladies love us. It was okay but it reminded me of a prison. In fact, American prisons might be a little nicer.

Okay I am going to take a break from my long winded story blog and just point out that although I am discussing how cold and depressing it seems here I don't ever remember the last time I was this happy in my life. My cheeks hurt from smiling so much. We are having so much fun here it is unreal. Yes, it is different than the Tokyo kind of fun but we have a solid group and we are all getting through the culture shock together. It also has gotten quite a bit warmer.

Anyway, after our meal of slop we headed off to do more shopping. The Chinese were shocked when they saw how much stuff we were putting in our carts. I guess they don't do Costco style shopping here. I got bored and started to ask Tao how to say some essentials in Chinese. Like cat, and panda. So there I was, minding my own business standing on the bus to get back to SWUFE and the bus driver turned around and asked me something in Chinese. I tested out my new skills by saying Shumao (Panda). The whole bus cracked up. Vince explained to me that he had asked me what my major was. oh well. It doesn't really matter what you say here the Chinese always seem to be laughing at you. Everywhere I go. It's like they are all in on some big inside joke and I was not invited to the slumber party of which it was made at. I like it though. They are all very friendly and love to compliment you. They all want to come up and talk to us and give us their phone numbers and eat and hang out with us. They get super excited whenever we show up in class and always stare and giggle. I am starting to not notice it as much now but it was slightly overwhelming at first.

We got some pretty sweet ghetto flip phones and grabbed a couple tsingtaos and headed back to our dorm to have a little hall party. This next part of the adventure gets good. You see, for some reason there are no white people here, but there are quite a few black people from the Carribean or warm parts of Africa (what are they doing in freezing Chengdu? I don't know). Anyway, Scott made a friend named Emon, who has been a huge help to us. He generally likes us and just wants to show us around. He was really surprised to hear that we didn't have heat in our rooms so he grabbed is remote and turned on all of our heat. OMG WAAAAAAAAAAARMMMMTTHHHHHHHHHHHHH you have no idea how awesome it was to feel heat again. I thought we were going to have to get used to wearing six layers everyday. We still aren't sure why SWUFE didn't want us to have heat but Bernie told us to keep it hush hush so as to not have it turned off. Seems a little sketch but we are in China and I would rather have heat than question it.

Class the next day was a little rough after a two month break. It was also freezing. You could see your breath. I had to wear gloves, even to write. I wish we had less class time but I guess we have to put in some hours since we are getting so much credit. It's really funny here. They have this happy upbeat jangle every forty five minutes when it is time to switch classes or take a break. I need to upload an audio file of it it is quite enjoyable. The next week everything got progressively better. We learned that we can actually flush the toilets, we got second hand bikes (EVERYONE has a bike here), the weather got nicer, we discovered that there was a place in the cafeteria where they serve bomb PF Chang style dishes, Chinese keep calling us beautiful, and we got to try hot pot (kind of like melting pot buy spicier and with monkey brains and shit like that) and we met a new friend whose name is New Year! We are slowly starting to adjust to our new lifestyle here. It's not easy, and particularly hard on me with my lack of computer but I do love China. Yes, people are pushy and a little grabby, they do spit everywhere, the streets smell like shit and they refuse to eat more than a bite of meat at a time but it is very fun and the people and very friendly. The shopping is also amazing.

Finally, after endless nights of having hall parties between the thirteen of us it was Friday and it was time to hit the city. It was going to be a special night because we were celebrating Mal's birthday! We got the the clubs and we were all speechless. There was just a row of them everywhere, like in Cabo but much brighter, bigger, weirder clothes, and probably better music and more lights. We were completely starving so we hit up the KFC first. Finally some american food! It was a little different than the KFC we were used to as they served whole crab and shrimp but hey you take what you can get here. The meat was slightly sketchy so we didn't look at our chicken burgers and I wolfed mine down in about a minute. I couldn't help it. I haven't had something like that in so long. I've definitely lost a couple pounds since being here as my pants hang kind of low even after washing and drying. I don't know if it's the lack of protein or all the walking but I might recommend the China diet to overweight Americans. If I don't find some protein soon I am gonna come back looking like a nasty little refugee.

But back to the club scene! We went in and it was kind of a bust at first cause we were kind of late and it was super crowded. It was good to dance to some music but trying to get a drink in there was as hard as trying to find some meat over here. We tried a couple different clubs but eventually went to a smaller bar type place to get our drink on. We danced to some crazy techno music with some very interesting locals but then cabbed back the main strip of bars. It was a little less crowded and I guess we ran into the right people because before we knew it they wouldn't stop shoving henessey (diluted with water) down our throats. The guys were very surprised that they were getting offered drinks too. I think besides the toilets the biggest culture shock for the guys is how touchy the males are here. Dan kept thinking every guy was gay in the club when they offered him drinks. But really they just liked him cause of his hair color and eyes! One thing led to another and the ten of us were ferried to some back VIP room with this one Chinese guy who was getting us all the drinks. He spoke Japanese so Shoji could translate for us. He took out his black card. Oh yeah, now that night was getting good. He ordered more whiskey and beer, and Shoji told us that him and his brother were both karate champions or something ridiculous like that. He wanted to drink with us because we were American and mainly just wanted us to watch him dance. He would keep pulling us up at random and teaching us his moves and we were all doing this weird hand holding thing. Then some ladies rolled in.

They were wearing sweaters in converse so we really didn't think of it. Later we found out they were prostitutes! I definitely wasn't expecting that one but the Chinese boss man told us to tell him if we wanted any of them. Hmmm. We kind of stayed our distance and just enjoyed ourselves in the VIP. This slightly scary looking chinese mafia man walked in wearing furs and glasses and sat in the corner and watched the festivities. I noticed that they all had some knives in their pockets. Around 3:20 AM the guy wanted us to sing us a Japanese song and then wanted us to all leave and part our separate ways. One of the prostitutes sat down next to me and held my hand. Then started to stroke my thigh. Oh no woman, I thought. I don't swing that way so it was bathroom time! I'm sad I missed his song he sang but he gave us his business card if we needed or wanted anything (hmmmm...) and let us take two bottles of henney! All in all a successful, late night. I will try and upload pictures a little later but now it is time to head back into Chengdu. We are going to go shopping and tomorrow maybe see some pandas! I'll update again when I can!!

Shanghai Nights!

I have no idea what I am eating right now but it is absolutely delicious. It could be dog for all I care, but let me tell you: Chinese Food> American Chinese Food. Anyway, I am really just updating this for my mom's sake to let her know that surprisingly I acted like a big girl getting through a foreign country all by myself and I am surprisingly still alive!

The Shanghai airport has definitely tested my patience. I had to throw all my nail polish away (she let me keep one cause she felt bad) but of course I had a lighter in my pocket that got through just fine! And oh don't even get me started on the stares. I try to stare back but it justs gets a little too awkward. I will work on it though. I can definitely tell the difference between the Chinese and Japanese. The Chinese seem to be very loud and passionate and they have no concept of personal space. I constantly get grabbed and pushed. Kind of like being at a frat but not as douchy? 

The flight was nice last night, I was nervous once again so I downed four glasses of champagne and successfully passed out for the duration of the flight. These seats were nicer than my last business class and I had no neighbor so I was in a little pod all by myself! Getting off the flight was another story. As I mentioned yesterday Shoji wrote out the name of my hotel and the address in Chinese. When I left customs there was a huge mob of Chinese trying to get me to take their taxis. One was persistent and kept stalking me so I gave in and gave him my paper. He, and a group of other Chinese people all laughed. "Oh ha ha no all airport speak English!!!" Well excccccccccuuuse me. To save face I quickly gave him a confused blank look and said "Pardon? Desole, Parle pas anglais.." His face fell pretty fast. He then led me to the shuttle and spoke to me with exaggerated  gestures and a loud voice since I told him I didn't speak his second language. I wish someone could have been there to see it. Taylor- 1, Chinese airport workers - 0.

The hotel was really nice last night as well! It was nice to have someone carry my bags and sleep in a nice big bed. The best part was the two Chinese girls singing "bleeding love" in the corner of the hotel to all the English Businessmen. The second best part was when we had to hold the elevator for a man and when he squeezed in he looked around, smiled, and said "hahah solly!!!! It's a his fart! All hiss fart!!!" Oh yeah, I'm in China. Time to head to Chengdu!!!

You'll get mixed up of course, as you already know, you'll get mixed up with many strange birds as you go!

They don't have full length mirror here at the hostel. This is difficult because I, like many girls prefer to check myself out from all possible angles before going out. To remedy this situation I will often stand on chairs in our bathroom common area. Normally I do it alone because checking yourself out can be very personal, but unfortunately I did not have that luxury two nights ago. A Caucasian female had some weird face mask on and was staring at herself in the mirror. Feeling self conscious as I was checking my outfit outfit I yammered to her in English about how it's hard to check yourself out and then nervously giggled. She then looked at me and I realized she wasn't a she. She was a he and he yammered back at me in rapid Swedish and did my same nervous giggle than walked off. Hmmm. Anyway, this is my last couple hours here in Tokyo! The boys left early this morning and it is so weird to be without them since we have probably spent four hours apart in the past week! The girls and Shoji all went to Tokyo Disney today so I am all alone in the hostel. I must say though I do love it here I am excited to get to a place I can call home. One with closets, hangers, dressers, etc. I have been living like a complete slob this past week (okay I am a slob, more slobby than usual) and I am excited to not have wrinkled clothes!

Slept with my suitcase on my bed. Brett said I slept like a psycho.

A little cramped

The Girls! Minus Audra

Me passed out and Brett shoving a sandwich in my face

So for my final hours I am going to try and soak in as much of the city as possible. That means stocking up on milk tea, eating sukiya one last time and wandering around Shibuya and walking back and forth through the crazy intersection. Just when I finally have a grasp on where I am going around the city and how to act in public I have to get up and leave and learn a whole new set of customs. I can also order food pretty well now! All you do is point to what you want, bow, say "hai" and "arigatooo!!!". Brilliant. I just said goodbye to all my German and Australian friends so that was pretty sad :( Hopefully I run into them again someday in the near future!

Shoji wrote down the directions to get to my hotel in Shanghai in Chinese so hopefully I won't have any problems when I get off the plane. I can't wait to experience a part of Shanghai tonight even though I am only staying a grand total of 14 hours. I just bought a subscription to a solid proxy so I will be able to access just about everything in China. I didn't realize how much they have blocked. Not only do they have Foreign news blocked but half of their own isn't accessible at times as well! My stomach is rumbling so I believe it is about time to head off to Sukiya. I hope my flight goes smoothly and there isn't much turbulence. Wish me luck going out on my own and I will let everyone know when I get their safely! (Mainly my mom and Dad) Arigatou gozaimasu and Sayanora Tokyo!!! Ni Haoooo China!

Cheers to Tokyo and Chinnaaaa

Ahhh no Brett just skyped me and the boys missed their flight so they have to come back to the Hostel! Scratch everything else I am headed to Narita early. Keep it skyblue :)

My last night in Tokyo

Mom: Sorry I didn't properly update yesterday. To make up for it this will be a ridiculously long post because I have got lots of ground to cover.

First of all I can't believe that this is my last night in Tokyo! I have to say that I have completely fallen in love with this City. It's beautiful. Absolutely amazing and I have mixed feelings about leaving Japan to head to China. I know I'm going to come back here someday, and hopefully soon. I don't know exactly what it is - it could have been the food, the fashion, the adventure, or maybe the amazing people that I was with on this trip but Tokyo will always have a nice spot in my heart. I encourage anyone who "just can't see themselves in Asia" to come to Tokyo. It is a perfect mix of Asian culture with a westernized feel. I could be here for at least another month because I am not completely satisfied, I feel like I just haven't seen enough. In fact, I encourage everyone who is reading my blog to stop, get up, and go somewhere. I don't think I have ever been happier in my life than when I am traveling and experiencing something foreign and new.

I am not denying that there aren't some oddities here. It's just a part of the charm and experience!

So Yesterday: We got up pretty early to head the the Tokyo Fish Market, which is one of the largest in the world. As usual the boys rolled their eyes and complained that I took a whole whopping hour to shower and get ready (what? A girl's gotta look good in a fashion capital!) but then we grabbed our bags and grabbed the train to the market. We got on the train right at the high point of commute time. We were packed like sardines. As usual it was pretty quiet and despite our tight quarters no one was touching or pushing. We are the American Tourists so we had to take a couple pics. I was trying to get a picture of a girl CURLING HER EYELASHES on the train while standing up but unfortunately it didn't quite work out. Two things I have learned here: Everything comes in a vending machine and trains are used for catching up on sleep. 

Before we could sneak in some shut eye we could smell the fish market. Mmmmm nothing like fresh fish at 7:00 AM! As per usual in Tokyo everyone was hustle and bustle. Instead of the fashionable slim fitting business suits and Italian made shoes the men were wearing some overalls and rainboot. They were riding around on these enormous scooters and I am quite certain I would have gotten ran over if I didn't move out of the way. They even had a conductor type guy to control the scooter traffic!

I wanted to sorority pose it soooo bad with this guy. I was real tempted but I could have caused accidents and Shoji would have for sure ninja star'd me.

The Market was as you would expect. Lots and lots of fish. Huge fish. Fish heads just hanging out on the floor, things oozing and moving everywhere. Half the stuff was alive, some were hacked to pieces and some were only halfway hacked to pieces. Yum. I was thankful for once that we skipped breakfast. I am sure my parents would have liked it a lot more than I did as both sets of my parents enjoy seafood. I enjoy sea creatures when they are alive. So naturally I was attracted to the lobster tank. I kept pretending to snap my claws at the lobsters as the Japanese salesman smiled at me nervously.

We spent as much time as we could handle at the market and then mobbed down the streets towards the Imperial Palace. I wasn't that excited to go because I just dad a strange feeling that The Japanese Prince was not gonna come out and invite me in. I did get excited, however, when we took a detour through a park and I saw not one but two Neko's!!!! They were both sleeping and one had his tongue hanging out like Hans, the Tougas's cat. Dan and I enjoyed ourselves taking some snap shots! But the good part didn't end there - we also found an awesome park with three little Japanese boys playing in it, and an old man warming up for a tennis match? I think this was the best part of the day it was beautiful weather. I know I seem to take a lot of pictures of Japanese children but they are so cute I can't help it. If I could go back to re-interview for the Japanese magazine I would definitely put down that a Japanese souvenir that I really want is a small child. Probably wouldn't have made it in the magazine though.

It was a short walk from there to the Imperial Palace. The Palace itself wasn't that cool..probably because you could only see a quarter of it! The garden surrounding it was pretty impressive and there was just a lot of space. I guess they had a pretty nice bridge as well. I could just be biased however as the Prince never invited me in and he knew I was in Tokyo. We did get there right in time to see the Changing of the Guards! That was cool...I guess. I saw it in London too it's not too long and they don't do that exciting of poses. I am sure my mom and Walt would have eaten it up cause they live for stuff like that. I live for completely different stuff, like the places that we visited next...

No camping or setting fire to the imperial palace!

We headed to Akihabara next, which Shoji called the Geek District. Anime upon anime upon anime. I was one of about ten females in 10,000 walking around the area. They didn't even have a girls bathroom in one of the huge malls...It was interesting to see everyone there. Definitely a different style of dress. The best part was heading into a 7 story sex shop...seriously it just kept going on and on and I was definitely the only female present. Mainly older businessmen. There were all sorts of oddities in there, most of it I am not quite sure what it would be used for! Many disturbing things as well and I would recommend not going there before eating! The Japanese seem to be pretty open about odd fetishes and the like but they have the least amount of sex of anyone! Interesting, no? We stopped at a somewhat normal mall and I bought some Japanese style patterned tights and some more knee socks. I love how they wear them here!

Finally it was time to go out and experience the Tokyo nightlife. I had no idea what to expect but I did know that I would be in for a long night. I was excited to finally get dressed up and I got my Japanese girl on! I wore a short leather skirt, my patterned tights, boots and a top. It was freezing and reminded me of walking around in Pullman! We all downed a Chu Hi (Sort of like a mix between smirnoff and four loko) and hit the road. We replaced Shoji with Andreas, our German roommate who we thought at the time was completely fluent in Japanese. We walked around with our open beers and drank loudly and openly on the train. Pullman was definitely brought to Tokyo last night! The first club we went to was slightly disappointing. I mean it was a Wednesday night but it just consisted of 8 Japanese guys bobbing their head to some semi-decent techno. We downed a couple drinks and got out of there. We were trying to get to some good bars and turns out Andreas really isn't fluent in Japanese. At all. He wasn't getting us anywhere that even remotely resembled a good time and it was at that point it dawned on me that if anyone was going to find the fun it was gonna be me. As if a sign from God, I looked to the right and three guys got out of a cab. One was a 6'11 black man, one was a carbon copy of P-Diddy and the other was a nice tall Asian guy in a sweater vest. Oh yeah, I thought. Party is here.

Andreas!

We got a couple stares..

The whole club.

I went right up to the tall guy (who I later found out was a 20 year old playing basketball in Japan who was from the states..his first name was Jeremy) and asked him where the clubs were and if they were going. Before I knew it we were mobbing through the streets of Tokyo with three ridiculously tall guys, a German, the three boys and me. They all started talking sports with the basketball players and I calculated what our next move would be: free drinks. (Hey..I go to school in Pullman and am used to plenty of booze a flowing even if it is busch light and monarch). I'm not going to go into all the dirty details of the night on here but let's just say my mission was accomplished. We got into all the clubs, found some good night life and got plenty of free drinks! At one point it became pretty clear that Jeremy was trying was trying to take a more private party back to his place on Takeshita so that was my cue to leave. With the help of Craig I executed a perfect drink and dash maneuver that made me nostalgic for ditching out on creepy dates on date dashes. We stumbled to the train and made it back in our beds by 6:00 AM. The best part of the night was Andreas stumbling around saying to me "Oh jah Taylor, you are ze key! you are ze key Taylor!" I'll say it again. Germans. 

Me and a passed out Japanese businessman at the bar

Jeremy. 6'll.

Some Mongolian girl and the Diddy copy

It never felt so good to be in bed! And it never felt so bad to be woken up by Craig six hours later to say we had an hour to meet up with the girls and Shoji in Shibuya. The rest of the group finally arrived and it was fun to have some female companionship to go shopping! Audra, Mallory, Kara, Collette, Ana 

and I all headed to 109 for some Japanese Digs! It was fine but we only ended up getting more knee high socks and funky patterned tights. I found a bunch of acid washed jeans that I wanted but there was no way they were going to fit. I tried on the LARGE and could barely get it buttoned and after I asked the sales lady if they possibly had a size larger. To that I got a giggle and a "not here!!" So embarrassing. All's well that end's well however because on our way to Harajuku we went shopping in the five story forever 21. This trip made me feel a lot better about myself because they sizes are universal and I ended up getting a lot of good finds, nothing too crazy though!

We had lots of funning mobbing through the streets 12 deep! We got a lot more stares and probably embarrassed Shoji-san a lot more! We headed to some boring Government building and looked out at the view. It was prettier than Tokyo Tower because it was sunset. The views were indescribable! I didn't last long however because all I could think about was that I hadn't yet eaten all day and I really wanted to wear my new threads! My first wish came true and we headed to a another all you can eat/drink restaurant. I tried to consume as much meat as possible as I am feeling very deprived of it still, but I tried to shy away from the all you can drink alcohol. The rest of the group didn't quite have the same idea and everyone got prettyyyy toasty. I must say we were every bit the ugly Americans, screaming, chanting, drinking, demanding more food and alcohol but the wait staff loved us! We would tell them we loved them and we loved pokemon and other nonsense in Japanese and they would smile and bring us more beer. I am really gonna miss Tokyo.

haha happiest moment of Brett's life

Kara Ana and Collete and our drannkks!

They sell inflatable boobs at the dollar store here in Tokyo. So naturally the best place to whip them out was the restaurant! The staff didn't seem to mind. Too much..

B double fisting!

Walking through the station causing a bit of a scene..

Wow. I fly off to China tomorrow. After sitting here blogging next to Audra and reflecting on my past week I can't believe how much I saw and experienced and how much fun I had along the way! We get along perfectly well as a group and I can tell that we are going to be a fun, tight knit family. Like I said I am really sad to leave the beautiful Tokyo but I am excited and anxiously awaiting what China will bring. The boys leave super early on their flight and the girls and Shoji are headed to Tokyo Disney tomorrow so that leaves me at the hostel all alone! I might try to explore and get lost in Tokyo for a while before I head off to my flight. I will try and update one more time before Shanghai. Both Facebook and BlogSpot are blocked in China right now, but I have found a way to get around it! :)