Day 17 was a good day overall, starting with classes, going to the police station to get registered, and ending with a 6 hour karaoke night. (I also found out that the square we went to near Campus A was Sanxia Square, not Shenzhen Square, and I have corrected it in past blog posts.)
In the morning, I had to go to statics instead of my normal Heat Transfer because the police station was closer to Campus D than Campus A. I had spent a bit of time in the morning prepping for the class, and was surprised at how much more quickly the answers were coming to me than they did when I was actually taking the class....
We got a bit lost, because the Friday class for Statics was in a different building, but I got a new view of my Campus D pond from a new height.
After another successfully taught statics problem in class (with some help for Manufacturing Processes as well for a student), we headed out to get registered at the police station. All of us took our first ride in a three wheeled taxi! Two words to describe them: extremely dangerous.
They were extremely bumpy (read:no shock absorbers), no seat belts, smelled of gasoline, and no trunk, so if we were rear-ended, Nick and I would have flown into the driver and Greg's seats in front of us.
At the police station, we were waiting in line for a long time. I was also messaging two of my friends who were at CQU before. One was Sam, the CQU EE student who I was a SOL with who was co oping at UC doing research, and the other was Yang, a Chinese student who attends UC and had this same co-op last semester. I was trying to get plans made for Friday night escapades, and they were both giving me suggestions for downtown mostly, but I was having issues solidifying plans with the other TAs. When we got to talking, a couple of us (me more than anyone else) were talking somewhat loudly, and we got told to quiet down a bit by the others because we were attracting unwanted attention. Finally, we got to fill out a form, and then the people at the desk filled out the typed form for JCI's records.
Form we received to give to the JCI office
After the police station, Greg and I went back in a taxi, but thankfully it was a four wheeled taxi with a comfortable leather interior rather than a three wheeled taxi. (It turns out a police officer who talked to Greg outside warned him about those, but couldn't think of a better solution....so Dom, Jessica and Nick went back in one. )
Greg and I then went to have our meeting and we talked for about an hour and a half about my co op expectations, as well as some of our backstories and both of our expectations and experiences of the program.
Afterwards, I headed to the cafeteria, grabbing lunch and learning more Python. I lost my appetite though, so I ended up taking most of it back home with me.
I went back home, and we all decided to go out to KTV, which is the Chinese version of karaoke, where you can reserve a room with your friends and sing as much as your hearts desire accompanied by music videos with speakers blasting music at you all night . All the 8 TAs were going, as well as Pablo, Greg, and three freshmen students that the boys met at Sanxia Square. So, the 5 of us who lived in Huxi Gardens got on the 5:55 bus to Campus A. The traffic was horrendous, so we ended up staying on the bus for about an hour and a half.
Once we got there, Alexandra was waiting for us, and we walked down toward the KTV. We found out it was above a more.....questionable....type of club (I'll let you deduce what I mean),, and we were all a bit amused. As the others got there, we decided to go to dinner for chestnut chicken upon Robert's request. We also met a 4th year EE named Shory, who was a SOL with Jack and Lotus in the 1st year of JCI SOLs.
Getting there, we found out it was similar to a hotpot restaurant, where things are placed in a large soup, and you get bowls of oil to dunk things in as well. The appetizers, including spiced peanuts, and a little pastry that reminded me and Pablo of Japanese mochi and even pig's ear (which I discovered was really chewy), were pretty good, and the protein milk (bean milk) was the same as the hotpot restaurant as well. The Chinese chestnuts in the chicken soup were very interesting, and not like nuts that we know at home. They were yellow and tasted like a "very smooth potato" in Jessica's words. The chicken soup was strange to a Westerner in the fact that it used every part of the chicken, including bones, and several people were even eating the chicken feet!
Pig's ear (very chewy)
Chinese chestnuts
Soon after, however, we realized that we were going to be late for our reservation at KTV, and we had to take several of the things that were supposed to be dunked in the soup for later. However, as a lot of them are cooked by the boiling water in the soup, we will end up having to cook them later. We also took the protein drinks with us as snacks during karaoke.
Above is a picture of the full moon, which was very momentous, because there were many preparations for Chinese New Year in a couple weeks, and Greg said that he thought the full moon marked the beginning of celebrations. (And also, I found 2017 is the year of the rooster, which explained all the chickens I'd been seeing everywhere for Chinese New Year.) The traditional gift giving of red envelopes with money from elders to children, according to Greg, has evolved to digital envelopes (think e cards) on WeChat, which I found interesting.
Finally, we got to KTV, and Dom and Nick were astounded at everything! We came up the elevator (all 13 of us in one try), and came out to blaring pop music and a wish tree for people to put slips of paper with wishes on in the lobby. We met the three freshman girls, who were named Vivian, Cloris, and Eva, and made our way to the karaoke room.
As soon as we got to the room, a few ladies brought out a crate of beer, some snacks, and we quickly got settled in. Now, if you know me personally, you know that I'm not a big partier, but I do love to sing (and everyone always tells me that I have a very powerful and beautiful voice as well), so over the course of the almost 6 hours that we were there, I ended up singing about 15 songs, give or take a couple. I sang everything from Adele to "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, to Beyoncé to "If I Die Young" to Taylor Swift, Scarbourough Fair as per request from Celia, "I Will Survive" and a few others including some that weren't on one of the two mics.
As the night wrapped up, the freshman girls ended up heading out when I went to the restroom. To finish off the night, we ended up singing "My Heart Will Go On", the theme song from Titanic, and "Viva La Vida" by Coldplay as a group, which was a great bonding moment for all of us. (Sidenote: Coldplay seems to be one of the most famous western bands in China.)
At this point, it was about 2 am, so we had to take taxis back, and the driver dropped us off down the street at campus, but we got there a little bit ahead of the other taxi, so we caught up with them as well. I went in, and decided to head to sleep immediately, exhausted from the night out on the town.
-Zoe
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