Day 6: Learning how to Ride the Subway

Day 6 was my last day before classes started, and it was also a pretty free day.

I relaxed in the morning, skyping a friend, eating a roll or two, trying the dark chocolate I got at Walmart (chocolate is chocolate, no matter where you are, and it tasted the same here to me), and we headed out around 12:30 to catch the 1:00 bus to Campus A to meet the Chinese TAs, who were going to show us around the campus to find the classrooms for tomorrow, show us around the neighborhood, and show us how to ride the subway.

We headed back out to Campus A, excited for the day ahead. We caught a good picture of the exploding car sign this time, which was great! (Later, we found out it meant that there shouldn't be idling, which doesn't make much sense... I preferred the explosions prohibited meaning.)

We got to Campus A, and the other TAs were nowhere to be found. Nick and Dom wandered off to find them, while Jessica and I stayed put. A curious pup came around, and Jessica offered him some of the breakfast biscuit I had given her, but he turned up his nose at it.

 Dom and Nick came back saying that they didn't find them, but Nick (who had an international phone for texting) turned on his data for a moment to find them. Turns out they were at the back of the campus, and we were at the front. We waited a while, but they eventually came up to where we were. Then they took us around the campus, helping us find our classes in several of the academic buildings, as well as the food court and the library. We even stopped for a couple rounds of ping pong.

Campus A library

Inside of library

Campus A food court

 Everything found, we headed down to Sanxia Square, one of the financial capitals of Chongqing to try to get the phones, get something to eat and explore, as well as riding the subway back. We went into the phone store for a while, and haggled with some of the secondhand phone people with the help of Robert, Suri, and Celia, only to find out that the phones wouldn't be good. The Android would only have 2G with the network we're using, and the IPhone was very out of date. Jessica, Nick, and Dom decided to go with the cheapest new phone. I tried to hold off a bit for something cheaper. They only had two, so Dom also decided to wait.
Jessica got a free portable charger thrown in, but we had to wait a bit for Nick's phone. At that point, I was just really tired, and the others were a bit concerned for me. I reassured them that I was just tired and hungry, and that I wouldn't pass out, and they gave me a piece of chocolate to increase my blood sugar.
One of the good things that we

 After the debacle at the phone store, we were all starving, so the JCI TAs decided to take us to get hotpot. If you don't know what hotpot is, it's a Chong Qing specialty with spices floating in a giant soup, and you submerge various types of food, from dates to duck intestines to mushrooms to baloney to pork to corned beef (and even tripe....which was...chewy, to say the least), and other things to absorb the spice.
Jessica and I aren't much for spice, so they got a pot of non spicy broth in the middle. I started off with that, and then alternated back and forth. The spice wasn't too bad (it was helped by the milk), but alternating also helped. The others all ate the spiciest stuff, and said that the burn increased over time.
Toward the end, the waitress made the non spicy broth a soup, which was delicious, and then Dom and Nick (a play on words, get it? Dom n' Nick ? ) wanted to try the spicy stuff as a soup. The Chinese TAs tried to talk them out of it, but they insisted. So they did it, claiming it wasn't bad. A few minutes later though, they said their insides were burning. But the Chinese TAs said that not even their friends would do that. Then Celia and Robert decided to do it, and had similar reactions. All the while, Suri, Jessica and I are all watching and taking videos of them being ridiculous.

 The hotpot completed, we walked back to Shenzhen Square, where we saw the moon and a planet (not sure which planet) through the clouds of pollution, which, coupled with the sun we saw earlier, was a miracle.

Stars we saw on a tree (disclaimer: not actual stars)

 When we got back, we saw a band playing Coldplay's "Yellow", and I had to stop and take a video, because they were REALLY good! Then they took us down into a basement sort of thing, which was strange at first. But then they were telling us it was where people played video games and then we figured out that they meant an arcade. We played different games, from a karaoke booth to a dancing game. I also won a new friend in the claw game, and I found out that I had a strange aptitude for fighting games (even though I was just pushing random buttons) beating all the American TAs as well as Robert.

My new friend

 After we ran out of tokens, we went to get on the subway. Suri, Robert, and Celia showed us how to reload our cards in the machine, and which one to get on as well. They rode with us so that we could find our way back to our apartment from the subway station, which surprisingly wasn't as complicated as I thought it would be. We found a gym named Zoe, which was surprising and ironic (considering I'm not athletic.....). We also found the other entrance of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute. We parted ways, saying good night.

Entrance of Sichuan Art Institute we passed on the way back

Gym named Zoe

 Heading back home, I decided to relax and work on a few things before heading to dreamland for an early morning the next day.

-Zoe

Day 5: Happy New Year!

Day 5 started off as a strange sort of day. It was New Years 2017 over here, while back in Cincy, my friends and family were still in 2016.

I got up, worked on some stuff on my computer, heated up some leftovers with my roommate, and then found out that the water wasn't running... which inhibited washing hands in the restroom, and washing dishes. (Thank goodness there was hand sanitizer.) Jessica theorized that she possibly spent too long in the shower, and that was why the water tank couldn't fill up again. After about 15 minutes, it did come on again and it was confirmed that it was due to the water tank capacity. When brushing my teeth though, I accidentally rinsed my mouth out with the faucet water (not swallowing any, thank goodness) and rinsed my mouth out with the water bottle to make sure I didn't get sick.

We made our way towards campus D to meet the Chinese TAs and some of the freshmen. It was a meet and greet event in the TA office. First and foremost, we found that none of the four of us could get the lock to the door open at all. So in desperation, Nick and Dom opened the windows just to the right of the room, and Nick went in that way. At this point, the Chinese students outside in the booths for studying (actually outside in the air, but even though it's winter, it's still about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, or 10 degrees Celsius) had been somewhat watching us for a while, and really perked up their attention when they saw that.

Outside benches for studying

                                          The office and some decorations in it

Now our boss, Greg Brown, had wanted us to be there by 11:30 because the event was supposed to start at noon. We had gotten there by 11:30, and there was no sign of him. By 11:40, I realized that there was time to kill. I pulled out my poetry notebook and started finishing a poem, but got restless and started wandering around the close areas of campus, taking pictures of a few statues, walkways, and a nearby pond.

When I got back at 11:50, a student was sitting in the room, and I asked him if he was a TA. No, he was the first freshman to show up. So we got to talking to him, finding out his name was Vin and he was an interesting character. Greg showed up a few minutes later, happy to see this. He also brought chocolate New Year's coins for the first freshmen to show up (the largest ones go to the first ones, and then the others got the small ones.....but the TAs ended up eating more of it than we should have.) Right after, the first JCI (Chinese) TA shows up, named Celia.

The New Years coins and their marking (including the Chinese zodiac)

A few more freshmen show up, one of the name Forest, and one named Rex. Rex took a picture with the American TAs, and got a picture with us. I get his WeChat info, and then I found out that he was a class monitor, so I was happy that I got his info. By this time, two other JCI TAs, Robert and Suri had shown up as well. The last one, Alexandra wasn't back to CQU yet from her hometown.

The American TAs and Rex

Then a couple more students showed up, including two more freshmen, and a friend of mine who I was very happy to see. How do you have friends over there, an astute reader might wonder. Well, over the summer, I was a Student Orientation Leader at UC, and every year, CQU's JCI program sends over 4 students to be SOLs with us for a month so they can learn how to be SOLs for CQU. Because of this I met 5 amazing students from CQU, Sam, Apollo, Alex, and Rebecca, as well as Lotus, who was doing research at UC last summer, but was a former SOL.

The friend who I was talking about was Alex, who brought the two freshmen along. He was going to head for co-op the next day, but wanted to stop by and see me first. We caught up like it had been no time at all, and he talked to the other TAs as well. We took a few pictures, and then he had to head out.

The 7 TAs and Alex

2 Freshmen, the TAs, and Alex

(Side note: Apollo and Rebecca are going to be in classes this semester too, and later that day, we made contact and plan to meet up soon. Sam will be on co-op at UC doing research, and sadly, couldn't make it to see me, but we will still get the chance to meet up in our fifth year. Lotus will also be on co-op, but I'll see her next year at UC. )

Greg talked to all of us for a while about classes to pass the time (and I finished a poem in the meantime). Then Greg wanted us to wait even longer for more freshmen, and left the TAs to mingle. I was starving, because I had expected to eat at around 2:30, but we were informed that we weren't going to eat until after 5:30. The TAs ordered food, Korean food, some pizza, and a hot soup with pig intestines and lotus root, and we sat down to wait.

All of the girl TAs there that day, me, Jessica, Suri and Celia, got along right away. We exchanged common interests, and I passed some time drawing while talking to them. Then the food came, and all the Chinese TAs were trying to warn Dom about how spicy the soup was, but he downed it with no problem. I was more wary and stuck to the Korean food, which was really good, especially the egg on top. The pizza took longer to get there. I tried a piece, but it wasn't as good as the stuff I'm used to in America. Their pizza is a lot sweeter, from the dough to the cheese.

The 7 TAs (plus Greg in the top pic), and the food on the right side

We made our way over to the Holiday Inn, where the buffet was. Now, when you hear "Holiday Inn", in America, one thinks of a roadside hotel that's somewhat basic. This couldn't have been farther from that. The reception hall was more like a Hilton or Hyatt, with large entranceways, elaborate decorations, and gorgeous carpets and couches.

They ushered us to a large table in the back, where we started a meeting assigning us to classes for the first few weeks. The way their schedule is set up, they have 3 weeks of classes, and then a spring holiday for Chinese New Year for a month, and then freshman classes start after that. Since I was the only Mechanical Engineering TA (all the Chinese TAs are EE, and the UC TAs are other majors), and that is one of the only two programs that they have at JCI, I was pretty much stuck with all of the Mech Engineering classes during the first three weeks. I have to be a TA for manufacturing processes and statics and particle dynamics (both of which I just finished a couple weeks ago) as well as a fourth year class called Heat Transfer, which is a bit intimidating, but I'm up for the challenge.

Finally, it was time to eat, and we dug in. I got lots of different food. Some of the food (fried chicken, asparagus, potatoes, chicken wings) tasted very American, while others (prawns, rabbit, duck, a pork skewer, an unidentifiable piece of meat with too many bones to eat) were more exotic. I decided to try a mussel, and the first one was shut, which meant it was bad, so I had to get another. Trying it, it was rather flavorless, like tofu, with the faintest fishy flavor. I also got my first cheese that wasn't on the pizza since I was here (cheese is very rare in China), a bunch of different fruit, including a slice of dragonfruit, a marshmallow drenched in chocolate from the chocolate fountain, an egg tart, and a couple pieces of cake (green tea, which was WAY too bitter for my taste, and white chocolate raspberry), as well as both chocolate and mango ice cream. I almost accidentally had a chocolate banana cake, but Jessica let me know it was banana and saved me from an hour or two of being uncomfortable. I am allergic to both bananas and hazelnuts, but only slightly, so that I can eat it, but it will constrict my throat and cause me to itch for an hour or two. So I try to avoid those foods.

Asking where we were supposed to pay, we found out our bosses had already paid, and we gave them a round of applause. We started walking home, the 9 of us happily full (and I grabbed an orange and a pear for the days to come). Prof Wong biked off, and Dr Brown caught a taxi, but the 7 TAs remained talking. We made plans to meet up the next day on Campus A so that we can learn how to use the subway, find the classrooms ahead of time, and explore the area.

Going home,I was a little bit sick, but I'm not sure if it was from the food or the accidental faucet water in my mouth earlier. I recovered quickly, though. I sat down and skyped 2 of my friends for about 40 minutes, worked on my blog, took a shower and headed off to Dreamland. 

Not a bad start for a new year in a new land.
-Zoe

Day 4: SIM Cards and other fun stuff

So Day 4 was a Saturday, and we didn't have any meetings or anything planned, so it was a really relaxed day.

I got up around 9 and worked on my blog and some school stuff, and tried two of the buns that I had gotten the previous day for the first time. It simply tasted like a sweet roll that you would get anywhere in America. I also hung out with my two stuffed animals that I brought along, a red panda and a Totoro plushy (both of which are very appropriate for China).

My companions

Around 12:30, we went out to get brunch. All of us decided to bike down to the campus, which was pretty fun and entertaining, considering Dom's bike decides to scream every time he uses it, so people can hear us coming from a mile away. Lots of the students were very friendly when we greeted them, and I'm always astonished by how many bikes are on campus. Also, you don't have to lock in to a tree or a pole here. Just make sure you put a lock on the wheel so they can't ride it away, but apparently no one bothers to ride it off. And the trees are also a sight to see. They paint the bottoms of the trees with a special white chemical to make sure they stay warm in the winter and bug free.

Rows and rows of bicycles and trees

We went to the upper levels of the food court on Campus D, but a lot of the shops were closed until February for Chinese New Year, so we had to go back downstairs to where we were before.
We also walked into a back part of the food court I hadn't seen before. Prof Wong was showing us some of the options, when, I kid you not, I see a dog run out of the kitchen.

All the stereotypes about Asian meat run through my mind for a second while I absorb that in a silent type of horror. I turn to the others, asking them if they saw that. They confirmed it, but they had made up their mind to try to not let it bother them. I see one of the cooks go after the dog, and I pray a silent vigil for the doomed animal. As we were leaving though, I saw the guy feeding the dog, and the dog eagerly gobbling it up. I tell myself that he's only a pet to reassure myself, to which Jessica replies, "Oh, they're just fattening him up", which causes horrified laughter on my part, because that was exactly what I was trying to tell myself wasn't true.

DISCLAIMER: Although this story was true, I highly doubt that the dog was for food. One of the main reason I believe this is because the restaurants at the food court are required to give a sample of every meal they cook, and if they were to cook a forbidden thing (aka dog or cat meat), they would be shut down faster than you could shake a stick.

The first thing I tried was a breakfast pizza with thin sliced chicken on it. I also tried some of Jessica's breakfast pizza with ham and eggs on it. After that, I was still hungry, so I went up and got a sausage wrap, which was interesting, because both the bread and meat on all the things I had were very sweet. We had a very good discussion over lunch about cultural differences and Chinese pronunciation as well.

Chicken pizza and the breakfast pizza on left, and sausage wrap on the right

Then we went to get the SIM cards for our phones. We found out that the deal on the phones for students are the equivalent of $1.20 per month with 500 MB of data a day, or 15 GB of data a month! We were all shocked by that because a plan like that in America would be over $100 per month.
However, when me and Jessica tried to put new SIM cards into our phones, we found out the phones we thought were unlocked required a unlock code. That, coupled with the fact that our phones wouldn't work until the 3rd caused Greg and Will to decide to wait on getting our phones until then.

Phone store

Then we all pedaled over to the bike shop on campus.... although calling it a bike shop is a stretch, it was more like a do it yourself shop, with tools available, and a crabby guy who didn't help much. We fixed Dom's handlebars, which were completely out of whack, Nick got some air in his tires, and I got my seat lowered. To try to fix Dom's squeaky bike (as well as the squeaky hinges in Jessica's and my room), we went to get some WD-40.

We stopped by the first hardware store, only to find that they weren't much of a hardware store, more of a miscellaneous items store with everything from mops to umbrellas to kids' toys to nail polish.
A few doors down, we found what we needed, as well as better key rings. Outside, there were two children who tried to speak to us in Chinese. Realizing that we didn't speak Chinese, the little boy asked Jessica in English, "What's your name?". She answered and asked him "What's yours?", but he didn't understand and switched back to Chinese. Realizing that our level of Chinese was ridiculously low, so much so that we couldn't even understand a child was a true reality check and very humbling for me. We're pretty lucky that we get all this help here from bilinguals.

Jessica talking with the children in front of the hardware store

We got home, applied the WD-40, got a new shower curtain from Greg (our old one was very moldy), and relaxed for a few hours.

Then we went out for some New Year's Eve fun! We had to go grab the guys, stomping to get the noise sensitive lights to turn on, and shivering at the outdoor hallway on the way over.

We walked down to Sunny Block and looked around. On the way there, we walked by the officers with lights on their shoulders (no joke, red and blue lights like a cop car, but on their shoulders), and lots of three wheeled taxis, as well as an antiquated wheelbarrow I found interesting, and some amazing wall art. There is also a farmer's market at Sunny Block that I find really cool with fresh nuts and spices.

Cool antiquated wheelbarrow

Officers with lights on shoulders (not a great picture, but I couldn't be too obvious about it...)

Farmer's Market at Sunny Block

Neon advertisements on the side of skyscrapers

One of the past TAs, Joe, had given us a guidebook on where to go to eat, and one of his recommendations was the "Blue Light place", which had the neon sign in bright blue. Apparently, their entire menu was also in English, so we went in. At first, the hostess was confused, but she could speak a bit of English, so all was well quickly. There was a lazy susan (a rotating centerpiece to revolve food around) at the table, so we quickly realized this was a place for us all to share food. We ordered banana encrusted tilapia, a tofu dish, Chinese mashed potatoes, some sort of dish that tasted like sausage, spring rolls, and I had milk tea while the guys had beer.

There was also a call button that we were curious about at the end of the meal. Once it was pushed, there was an announcement over the intercom telling the servers to come to our table, which surprised us a lot. Jessica and I took home a lot of leftover tofu and mashed potatoes, which we were going to eat for breakfast the next day.

After that, we walked around Sunny Block for an hour, wandering into various shops, including a shoe store and winter clothing store, in which I almost bought a pair of shoes and a hat, respectively, but decided to think about it first. We also stopped into this bakery, where they had some slices of fancy cake for about $1.50, so I had to get a slice of chocolate cake. We also stopped by the Happy New Year sign and me and Jessica got a roommate pic.

Although the Chinese were excited, New Years Eve didn't seem like such a big deal in China. I realized it was because Chinese New Year was a much bigger deal here, due to the millennia old traditions. So people were partying, but not as much as in the US.

Tired, we headed home. We stopped by the grocery store, where I got off brand Pringles and some orange mango Oreos that looked interesting (still haven't tried them yet though...).  I took a shower, and skyped my best friend, and when the clock struck midnight in China (it was still 11 am the previous day in Cincy though), I was still talking to him.

All my snacks

I talked for another hour or so, and went to sleep, ready for 2017 to start!

-Zoe