Day 3: Seeing Downtown Chong Qing and Campus A

Day 3 started off as a very nerve wracking day for me.

I woke up a bit early, so I decided to go for a bike ride for 30 or 40 minutes. I biked down towards the area where we had explored the day before, but I went too far and ended up in a business district of Chong Qing. Coming back, I made it ok, but when I got back to the apartment complex was when I got lost.

My trusty steed and where I ended up, with some of the cars on the street

We were staying in building #88, and with over 90 buildings in the complex, it is very easy to get lost. For some reason, at first, I thought it was building #82, and that only added to the confusion. Once I figured it out though, I asked a lot of people, but still couldn't find the building I needed.

I ran into one guy on a bike twice, and when he saw I was still lost, he drew me a map. Apparently 78, 79, and then 88 are in a row. When I found my way back after about an hour biking around, I told my roommate Jessica what had happened. She told me that she had seen a Ted talk talking about how westerners number their buildings linearly (from left to right) but the Chinese number them by what order they were built in....which would explain a lot of confusion.

About that time, our boss, Greg, came down and helped us learn how to get a new water jug. Since water isn't always very clean here, we can't drink from the faucets, we have to only use water bottles and pre packaged water jugs. It was 12 quai for each large bottle (with each quai being equivalent to about 15 cents) , and we simply have to exchange water bottles at the landlady's apartment downstairs.

I also asked Greg if 8 was the Chinese lucky number, which I remembered reading somewhere, and he confirmed it, and said that was why they put us into building #88. I told him that my lucky number was also 8, and that's why I remembered that fact. And good thing it is my lucky number...it may have helped me get back safely (that and a lot of praying....).

After that, we were free until 12:30. I ate a granola bar and had some orange juice and rested for a bit.To my surprise, even though the orange juice was Minute Maid brand, it tastes like Sunny D with pulp. Both juices I have had so far in China (orange and mango) are much sweeter than American juice, interestingly.

At 11, me and the other TAs went around and looked at some of the area restaurants. All of us, Nick, Jessica, Dom, and me, went down the street and found an Internet café as well. Dom, who has an Italian family, is obsessed with coffee, so he had to grab a coffee there. Luckily, between the four of us, we knew the word for coffee, but we ran into some trouble when the employee tried to ask him how he wanted his coffee. He ended up getting cream and sugar in it by accident, which he wasn't exactly happy about....

Internet cafe

Then we went to the grocery store so I could get some more breakfast. I ended up deciding on some sweet rolls, soy milk, and breakfast biscuits. The breakfast biscuits had the same sort of flavor you might expect with breakfast biscuits in America. The soy milk tasted really strange though, with hints of green tea...which caused a slightly unpleasant grassy flavor.
At that moment, I was really glad that a lot of signs and packaging were in both English and Chinese, which made it easier to find out what I was eating.

While wandering around, we found a dog wandering around in the cutest sweater. Why does this matter, you might ask. Well, in China, I've found that dogs wander the streets without any one caring, unlike in America, where the dog catcher would be called. It was an interesting cultural difference that I just wanted to note.

One of the puppers wandering free

Then, walking around the back of the shopping area, we saw the incredible mountain range that Chong Qing has to offer, and took a bunch of pictures. We all agreed that we had to do a day trip up the mountains at some point here. There were several gardens near the base, so we have to find another way up, but I'm sure it's doable.

Walking even further, we ran into a little boy who was probably less than 2 years old and his mother playing soccer down the street. To our delight, he kicked the ball to each of us several times. Once we played a bit, we said our goodbyes, and headed back home.

Around 12:40, we headed down to the bus stop and went to get on the bus to Campus A. It was about a 45 minute ride out there to downtown, which apparently is the fastest it will ever be, with traffic being heavy at times. There were several amusing sights, including signs which I didn't get the chance to get a picture of, one of which appeared to be an exploding car with an X through it (explosions are prohibited, perhaps?), and a building with police lights on both sides. This reminded me and Jessica of a policeman at the Beijing airport that we saw with the iconic red and blue lights on his shoulders, and we both found that hilarious.

Bus schedule and map of Huxi Gardens, our apartment complex

Soon, we were at Campus A, we found another Bank of China where we could get more money if we needed it. We walked around, finding some trees reminsicient of bonsais, a random Quidditch broom next to the soccer field (no joke), some great statues, and lots of friendly people when we said, "Hey, Ni Hao", especially the elderly folks.

We also got to see the other JCI office. We met two Chinese TAs from the fall semester, Tom and Vivi, and we chatted for a bit. We still didn't know our exact schedules, but we had faith that things were going to work out.  Then we went to a dumpling place down the street, and we had delicious pork dumplings thanks to their help. Although we didn't know much Chinese, all the bilingual people helped us really saved our butts (and stomachs) many times.

After that, they took us to the Chinese-style Walmart, which was a lot different from an American one. When we went down the flat escalator (think a conveyor belt downward, but for people), it was reminiscent of a bazaar at first, with lots of little shops. They were playing somewhat traditional Chinese music in the actual Walmart, and there was a lot of stuff that you would see in an American Walmart, but there were also lots of Chinese decorations for sale. I was surprised at the way you scoop your own rice and flour in bulk and you get it weighed in the back with the produce. Apparently their cash registers don't have scales. We ended up getting some gel air freshener, some fruit (apples, a dragonfruit, which I love, and Asian pears), and I got a couple Chinese style Dove chocolate bars. We also had to pay 30 cents for a plastic bag, but it is a very high quality bag, and we plan to reuse it.

Some sausages we saw outside

Afterwards, we headed back home, getting off at Campus D, because we weren't sure if this shuttle made it all the way back to Huxi Gardens (our apartment complex). Walking across campus, we saw a New Year's Celebration and walked around to check it out. Nick saw something that looked like a karaoke stage, and asked to see if it was. Finding out it was, and that the event started at 7:30, we decided to come back soon. And if you all know me well (and you should), you should know that I love to sing, and I promised that I would sing if Nick sung too.

When we got home, we had to take pictures next to the Christmas lights, and in all the commotion, another English speaker heard us and made his way over to us. His name was Chris, and he was a professor from Alabama who was eager to meet us. The guys offered to take him with us for a night out on the town (which shocked me, to be honest) and Chris said he'd love to, but he was already late for a party with some friends. We exchanged WeChat info and went on our way.

So we rested for an hour and a half, and then went over to Dom's and Nick's apartment to head out. Turns out Dom was dead asleep, and when we woke him up, just wanted to sleep. So the three of us went to the party anyway.

We found out that you needed tickets to play the games or sing, and a random student stopped Jessica and gave her two free tickets. Nick decided not to sing, and although I wanted to, I decided against it because the line would take a couple hours to get through. The games all had super long lines as well, and we just decided to go explore Sunny Block again.

We walked down to Sunny Block, and found that it was a lot larger than we realized. We must have passed at least 100 stores, restaurants, and even a movie theatre and karaoke place where you can rent a room with your friends, and we still didn't think we saw them all. Some of the stores had....amusing names, to say the least (see the pictures below), and we enjoyed the Chinese creativity with their store names. There was also a climbing wall on the side of a building!

We stopped at a little bistro place that served pizza (yes, we did the stereotypical American thing and went to get pizza), and ordered the meat and cheese pizza. Jessica got warm water, which is a Chinese tradition, most likely due to the lack of clean water at one point, which she found strange at first, but quickly said she could get used to. After a short wait for them to cook it, we were surprised when it came out with vegetables on top, but we enjoyed it nevertheless. Walking back home, we ran into a store called "Don't Give a Shit", and we were so thrown off by it, we had to go in. (Guess that marketing campaign worked, huh?)

Going in, we found it was a clothing and gift store, and the hats and scarves were under $10. There were also a lot of Totoro water bottles there, which I was tempted to get to match the Totoro plush that I brought with me to China...but decided to come back another day after I feel more comfortable spending money here.

We made our way home, satisfied for the night, taking note of some of the shops on our way back.
We had to walk through campus, and go past the military officials which are always at the gate, but they sit in the box next to the entrance and let people go through 24/7 no problem. We got back in about 45 minutes and then went to rest.

And that was my third day in China.
-Zoe