Day 87, 88, and 89: Barbeque Buffet and KTV Round 2

Friday started out with getting up early and going to Heat Transfer on campus A. Afterwards, I had missed the bus, so I decided to take my time at Walmart getting some peanut butter, and the barbecue sauce for the barbecue that we were planning on getting this weekend.

When I was about halfway there, Pablo messaged me saying that Wei Wei had asked him if we wanted to go to a Chinese barbecue place for lunch. I said I was down, because my only other lunch plans were eating leftovers. I said that I'd meet them on campus after their classes, and he agreed.

At Wal-mart, I got some peanut butter, barbecue, and bars of soap (although I had to go back in and get another jar of peanut butter for Dom). Afterwards, I wandered out the wrong exit, and saw the pet store.

To my surprise, there was a small pig in one of the cages. The cage was entirely too small for it, and I felt very bad, but there was no way to get it out. There were also entirely too many rabbits in the same cage up above (about 15), and the turtle basin was as crowded as ever, with 50 small turtles.

I was hungry, and didn't want to wait forever until the barbecue, so I decided to get some bread at one of the roadside bread places that had caught my eye several times. I tried to get 3 small pieces of bread and two muffins, but the guy selling it shook his head at the odd number, so I got four of the small ones, and two muffins.

I started going back to campus, munching on the bread as I went. The small loafs had some sort of apple jelly inside, which was a pleasant surprise, and the muffin tasted like a sweet cornbread. I sat outside for a few moments, but decided to go inside because it was lightly raining.

I was disappointed that I couldn't draw outside, but getting encouragement, I decided to draw a view from the sixth floor, trying to capture some of the rain while chatting online and finishing all of the sweet breads.

I met up with Pablo and Wei Wei, since they had just gotten out of class, and Wei Wei directed us towards the barbecue place. It turned out that Wei Wei also needed to get some stuff from Wal Mart, so we waited on him. It turned out that the others, on Campus D, went for Indian food, and were trying to make us jealous, but we figured that we could make them jealous with the barbecue.

We walked out, and I pointed out the pig to them, and we made our way to Sanxia Square, where we went upstairs and through a few halls to get there. We tried to pay using Alipay, but since I didn't have it, I tried to pay using cash. The lady said something to me when I tried to give her a hundred, which I thought was strange, because it was only supposed to cost 57 quai. Wei Wei quickly straightened it out, and we were able to go in. He had to pay a small deposit fee to make sure that we didn't waste food, which was an interesting (but pretty good) policy.

It was similar to the Korean barbecue, with a variety of different meats to put on the grill at the center, as well as some appetizers, like an oyster, some sweet fried tofu I didn't like much, some rice with purple stuff in the middle, etc.

There were also a couple of pre cooked meats, such as the item on the right, which also had some wraps with it, and a somewhat sweet sauce that was a mix  of barbecue sauce and soy sauce. Wei Wei brought it out, and I split it with Pablo, and Pablo brought a couple steaks over to share as well.

The variety of meats to choose from on the right

Eggs boiled in CaOH (calcium hydroxide)- they tasted like jelly

There were also drinks galore, from juice boxes (I ended up taking two home with me) to a soda fountain, to juice and coffee machines, to alcoholic drinks, all up for the taking. I got some pepsi, mango juice, an Icee, and I decided to try some of the blueberry wine.....which turned out to be (surprise, surprise) liquor yet again. But it was interesting to try, for sure.

Only a fraction of the different drinks available

I also decided to try a snail, since I've never had escargot before. It was pretty interesting, chewy, and just tasted like the spices it was cooked in.

Blueberry wine

Plate of desserts (less selection than last time, but still good)

We took our time eating, enjoying every bite. After Wei Wei got his deposit back, Pablo went back to Campus B, and Wei Wei and I went to find the subway.

ventilations system at the restaurant

We went down a new downstairs pathway, which Wei Wei checked with a passerby to make sure it led to the subway. Once we got down there though, it was an entirely different story. We kept going in circles, not able to find the mysterious exit that they were telling us about. I was glad that I was with him, as I would definitely be in a worse state down there by myself. We eventually found it (and I realized we had to have walked past it at least once before). We came out at one of the escalators into the subway, and it made a lot more sense seeing the connection.

On the way back, we chatted about various things, and we got off at the stop before my usual stop. Wei Wei said that we got free bus rides within 30 minutes of riding the subway with your card, so we took the bus the rest of the way to the apartment. He mentioned that he wouldn't need dinner now, and I agreed. We headed in, and I graded for some of the night, and got some other work done as well.

Saturday started off with working on various things, including philosophy, and just sleeping in.

Then Jessica and I went to our English conversation hour together. We weren't really sure what to do, but we decided to wing it. We pulled up the conversation questions that Alexandra had sent us, and we wanted for students to show up. The first student who showed up was Randy, who had gone with us to the Wolverine movie, and we looked through the list of questions. We posed a question to him from the list, sticking with the TOEFL rules of 15 seconds to prepare an answer, and 45 seconds to give an answer. (If you don't know what the TOEFL is, it's an English as a second language test that all international students have to take before they get to the US, and so we were trying to help these students prepare. This idea had been thrown around for a few years, but never implemented until now, due to all the bureaucratic things we had to go through for it.)

After the first question, Rebecca, and Amanda, one of her friends who was a former SOL and who was in Dom's C++ class came in to talk. We decided to just talk amongst ourselves, and they started asking us about our various motivations, as well as our lives in the US. They were impressed at my reasons and passion behind my studies in engineering and astronomy, saying that not many students had that here. I said it wasn't completely common in the US either, but it was more common.

We got to talking about space, and Randy thought that virtual reality would limit human ambition, especially to go to space. I argued that it wouldn't (using some examples from my philosophy class to back me up). I argued that doing the things themselves had inherent value, and that a life that wasn't based in reality lost most of its value since we are unable to leave our mark on the world through our own actions and values. Using the example of climbing a mountain and actually doing the work for it versus just having the experience of it, the others got my point (although Randy still didn't agree).

Jessica called the mandatory students who were very late at this point, only to have a couple of them be really confused and one of them hang up on her. We started talking about fun elective classes that we had taken at UC, including piano, philosophy, and honors classes, including Jessica's one about bees, and mine about UAVs.

Soon after, one of the girls Jessica had called came in. Her name was Jenny, and she was friends with Rebecca. She helped us put the other mandatory students in the groupchat, and we continued conversation. Jessica had brought some candies that Michael had brought her from Japan (green tea flavored Kit Kats, and sake flavored Kit Kats). I tried the latter, and liked it a lot. We talked about our significant others to the others a little bit. One last student came in as well. His name was Bismarck, and he joined the conversation.

At this point, the conversation hour was almost over, and remembering that Nick wanted to have KTV that night, I invited them to it. Everyone except for Jessica and Bismarck wanted to go, but we went to lunch altogether as the time concluded. We talked for a while, and Rebecca and Amanda helped us book a room for the KTV at Sunny Block for 6 pm.

I had heard Jessica talking about me to Bismarck, and when we were alone and I asked her about it, she said that he had asked if I was from California because I sounded like his friend that was from California. I found that pretty interesting, but realized that it was probably just my pattern of speech. We went our separate ways, and I went to get some snacks for KTV later at the campus store.

After that, I went back to the TA office to grab the sign in sheet to give to Hemia on Monday in the JCI office. Then I settled in, doing some grading, and working on philosophy homework for a while.

one of my students in heat transfer

Around 5:25, I headed out toward the West Gate to meet the others. I was the first one there, even though it was almost 5:40 by the time I got there. Amanda messaged me to make sure I knew where I was going, but I said I was already there. She came running out, apologizing, saying that she was waiting inside the gate, while I was outside it. By that point, Jenny had come to meet me. We waited on the others. Sean came next, followed by Nick, who had brought around 20 beers with him to share! We had to figure out a way to smuggle in the beer, as well as the snacks that Jenny had brought. We used my coat pockets for two drinks, as well as Amanda's backpack for most of the rest of the stuff.

Rebecca was taking a shower, and Greg was going to be late, picking up Darryl, so we headed down to KTV. There was lots of alcohol for sale, but it was relatively expensive, so it was good that Nick had bought some in advance for everyone.

We whiled the night away, singing songs, and enjoying each other's company. Rebecca came in with her friend, named Lisa, who claimed she didn't speak very good English, but sang an English song or two throughout the night.

When I was singing "I Will Always Love You" by Whitney Houston, Greg came in with Darryl, and immediately came over to me. I was kind of weirded out (especially because I was recording it) and I jumped away, laughing.

Three SOLs in a picture

About an hour in, I went to the restroom, with Amanda guiding me there. Coming back, I went out the wrong exit, and I had to get redirected by one of the staff members. To my surprise, they were gathering Nick's beer (although they left our snacks alone). Outside food wasn't allowed, so they were confiscating it until we left.

There was a game where you spun a wheel and whatever it landed on, you had to do. We tried to do that a couple times throughout the night, but no one took it seriously.

At 9 o clock, Rebecca, Lisa and Jenny left for dinner, but we still had an hour left on the reservation, so we stayed a bit longer. Summer sang the Chinese National Anthem that the others had put on the playlist before they left, hitting the high notes flawlessly. At the end, we were trying to sing American Pie, but the first version was incorrect, and the second version got cut off, telling us our time was up.

Nick got his beer back, and we headed out. I walked home with Nick, Dom, and Amanda, because Greg and Sean had gone out for drinks, and we joked the whole way about the others. Getting home, I chatted with Jessica about her night, made a short video call, and went to sleep, ready for the next day.

Sunday morning, I was feeling homesick again, so I decided to go for a bike ride around the neighborhood, intending to get lost to get my mind off of things. I made my way towards the area where I had been one of the first days I was in Chong Qing, but I never managed to get there.

I got distracted by the sight of the small mountains in the background, and decided to see if I could find the path up there myself. The weather was gorgeous, and it was so warm out, I figured a hike would be enjoyable.

I biked for a while, passing many curious citizens on bikes, but found out that there was a wall preventing me from going up the mountain. There was an opening in the wall, but it looked as if it was a private farm, so I didn't want to trespass.

About halfway back down the street, there was a side street that I decided to go down. Making my way around, I saw a side street with lots of stores and markets that was so congested, I could barely get my bike through!

Eventually, I made my way back out to the street right by the shortcut to the subway station. My plans of getting lost were foiled, so I decided to enjoy the beautiful flowering trees, and go to campus to relax out in the sunshine.

I used a different entrance, and made my way back towards the area where I had sat the previous weekend. The pond was gorgeous, and since there were people on the hill, I decided to lounge on a rock instead. I chatted online for a while, and relaxed. Eventually, I read some of my book, and I graded too.

the view from my rock

• While I was sitting there, someone called my name, and it was Will! I turned around and talked to him for a minute. Apparently he had just eaten at the nearby dining hall, and was walking around enjoying the weather. He went his way, and I continued to sit there, enjoying the sunshine.

I was getting hungry, and it was almost time to go back, so I decided to go to the third dining hall to eat. I got the fried chicken meal with tomatoes and lettuce that I had gotten before, and ate a bit before biking back.

Jessica and I went for groceries, and there were so many people out enjoying the weather, it was ridiculous! They even had the trolleys running for the first time this year.

Gorgeous purple flowers

We went in and got groceries, and went to get a coffee ice cream float afterwards. The line was very long, but worth it. Since my bracelet had broken, we stopped by the nearby art stores to try to find the elastic cord to try to fix the beads. The translator didn't get my point across at the first store (although we got to pet the majestic dog outside), and at the second store, when I pulled my hair band too show what I meant, she shook her head no. At the third store though, we found a bunch of string (about 20 yards) for 5 quai. I had no qualms in buying it, so I went ahead and did so.

We went down the road, and there was a girl taking pictures with the statue of two hands together. We took a few pictures as well, indulging our inner child.

There was an outside sale at a nearby store, and I saw a cute vest that I liked, as well as a bag with a rooster on it (which I later realized was a phoenix). It had a small hole in it, but it was fine, as I could always repair it, and it was worth 10 quai.  There were also slightly damaged leather bags, one of which Jessica got for her brother. The total for the vest and the bag would be 40 quai. I tried to negotiate down to 30, but ended up at 35.

My new vest

My new bag

After getting home, we had bible study and dinner. Later that night, I called a friend that I haven't called in a while, and headed to sleep to get some rest.