The next few days were relatively uneventful. We went to the Hangzhou airport to fly out to Chong Qing after we checked out of the hotel at noon.
Getting out of the taxi, we decided to check in and get our tickets right away, even though we had a several hour wait. We split up, because we had booked two different flights, since we couldn't get 4 seats on the same flight. Jessica and I went to check in at our airline (called Loong Airlines) and headed back to the designated meeting spot in front of McDonalds.
Jessica and I went into McDonalds to grab some food while we waited. I got a Mc Nugget meal (which came with sweet and sour sauce), and decided to try a rose flavored macaron. I had never tried one before, and it was very sweet, with a sweet cream in the middle. Nick decided to get some McDonalds too, and Dom got some coffee.
Rose macaron
Beautiful architecture of the airport
After going through security, we looked for a place to settle down and wait. Dom had forgotten his backpack due to them double checking it in the scanner, and had to run back to get it. The rest of us went upstairs to sit in a restaurant area, admiring some more of the architecture. Nick and Dom got some food at one of the more high class restaurants, and we sat down, reading and messing around on our phones. After a bit, the guys found out that their flight had been delayed due to the weather. The fog was pretty thick in Hangzhou, and apparently it was even thicker wherever their flight was coming from. They had to go back out past security to check in for that flight and come back. After about 45 minutes, they were back. To kill time, I started working on my blog, and Dom started playing "I Spy" and a question game with us for us to get to know each other.
After a while, we all headed down to the gate where Jessica and I were supposed to board the plane, and we continued the game. After a bit, it was time for us to board, and we bid the guys farewell. After a relatively uneventful flight (although our seatmate tried to talk to us a bit in English, but she was too shy to do so), we got into Chong Qing. Getting off the plane reminded us of our first touchdown in Chong Qing the night we got there, and how confused we were. Confidently making our way to the subway, we were reassured by how much we had grown since then. We had to take 2 different subways, and along the way, I connected a friend of mine who was co-oping in Japan with Jessica's boyfriend who is also co-oping in Japan. Let's hear it for the power of technology, folks!
We took the 10 quai taxi back from the subway station to our home, and got in about 11:30. I took a shower and video called a friend for a bit.
The next two days were very lazy days. I got up the morning after the flight and video called a friend for a few hours, worked on my philosophy homework, and just kind of lazed around.
Around 2 o clock, Jessica, Dom, and I went to get a bite to eat. Apparently the guys' flight had been delayed even further the night before, and they hadn't gotten into Chong Qing until 1:30 am and didn't get to the apartment until 3:30 am, so Nick was too tired to come out with us.
We walked a bit out of the apartment and then just decided to go to a place just a few doors down from the apartment complex. We sat down and the lady started speaking to us in Chinese. We nodded as if we understood, and looked at the menu. It had no pictures, so we just pointed randomly at the menu. She had left a pad for us to write our selections on, but none of us were good at writing Chinese characters, and she ended up doing it for us. I noted on the menu that the wifi password was 8 8s (88888888), which is a common wifi password here, since the Chinese lucky number is 8.
The food quickly came out. There was a pork and bean dish, which was a bit spicy and still had the fat on it, a vegetable and tofu dish, and a sweet oily meat dish that tasted familiar, which we had with rice and the characteristic Chinese hot water (since the water in and of itself isn't clean).
After that, we went to the convenience store to get some milk, yogurt, orange juice, Pepsi, and chips to make sure we had some food in the apartment. Getting back, I finished up my philosophy homework, finished the book I had started on the plane, and graded some of the Heat Transfer homework before going to bed.
The next morning was much of the same. I worked on my philosophy paper, and read for a while. Around noon, Jessica and I went down to Sunny Block, enjoying the blossoms on the trees heralding the start of spring. We were attempting to get the photos taken for our phone service to stay on (which was a strange necessity of Chinese phone companies), but the one on campus was closed. We went inside the phone area in Sunny Block only to find the desks that might have worked were also closed. We didn't know where else to go, so I asked my friend Apollo, who was back in Chong Qing, if he could help us tomorrow, when we were meeting him, and he said he'd be happy to.
We headed toward the grocery store to get something to eat. I wanted to try something new and substantial, but we decided to pick up groceries first so we could just go home after eating. I noted some of the many cartoon characters on the floor (just like the ones in some of the crosswalks). We ended up getting a multi pack of yogurt, eggs, some bread, lunch meat, two 5 packs of ramen and jam to make sure we had enough to eat for the next few days before we headed out to Xi'an.
We decided to go to the dumpling place where Jessica had been before, and we got two plates of potstickers, one of which had spinach and some sort of meat, and the other having mushrooms and some sort of meat. We split both, taking a few of each home. While we were eating, the Chinese cook (and only other person in the restaurant) tried to start a conversation in Chinese, which obviously didn't work out well. While eating, we saw that the restaurant had a low safety rating....but we weren't deterred from eating, since (speaking for myself here), we were very hungry and the food did taste really good.
Exiting Sunny Block, I looked back at how huge it was, and how it was still relatively deserted.
Entrance of Sunny Block
We headed back, and I worked on updating my website, working on this blog, more philosophy homework, grading a bit, watching anime, reading, and just relaxing in general.
The next day, Apollo had promised to take us on a boat on Jiefangbei, so I was really looking forward to it.
-Zoe
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