chengdu

hey everyone,
i am not going to say much in this entry...mostly because i am using my roommate's computer and i have an entry that i made at the airport on my computer. so....following the posting of that...i will tell you all about my pretty frightening start here at chengdu. in the meantime...i'm doing fine. I have moved into a temporary on-campus housing and is pretty like a hotel room. There are two of us...me and Sarah. I went and got a cell phone today...but because the school had us do a couple of things such as getting a physical, taking a chinese exam to test our language proficiency, and a meeting with our research advitors, i didnt get the chance to purchase a sim card to use in my phone nor the opportunity to complete my bank of china account so that i can purchase minutes. once i have everything in order...i will post my contact info.
i will be leaving with Steve (my professor from UW) and 3 other students to yangjuan this coming friday evening. we are going to be taking the train to a city near the village and then take a car the rest of the way there. I will be there for about a week...until sept. 2 or 3. So....during this time...i probably will not have internet access and cant post...but i will definitely be posting about my time there once i get back to the city.
currently, me and song li yun (my SU friend who i met at UW when she came as a exchange student last year) are looking at apartments near the school. she was telling me about one that she went and looked at...and she said it looks pretty good. I am going to go check it out with her on friday...along with my other UW buddies cause they are also looking for a place to move out to. the rate for each night here in the room i am now in is outrageous...for students especially. we are currently paying 135 RMB for each night we are here...thats equal to about $17 US dollars. the place song li yun and i are looking at is about 1500 RMB a month....so that would be about 750 RMB for me...thats almost $100 a month....compare that to having to pay around $550 a month living in the place we are now. crazy! and that apartment complex has a elevator...something they dont have here. so...i had quite the time lugging all of my stuff up four flights of stairs.
:) i said i was going to keep this short...but it ended up being longer than i had expected. Ill leave details for my first night here in my next blog...so i guess im just about done with this one. oh...courses offered by SU are out. so many classes i want to take! currently...thinking about:
(1) Chinese Government and Politics
(2) The Historical Roots of Chinese Culture
(3) Modern Chinese History: 1911-Present
(4) Chinese Philosophy and Religion
(5) Major Historical Events of China Before the Yuan Dynasty
(6) Contemporary Chinese Culture and Society
(7) Chinese Politics: From Historical Ideas to Contemporary Realities
(8) Hydraulic Engineering in China: 2000 years of Water Resource Management
(9) Panda Research and Preservation
(10) Chinese Arts and Culture
(11) Intro. to Chinese Calligraphy
(12) Taiji Chuan

Of course...I'm not going to take these all at once...and they are in the order of what i want to take the most or least. we'll see how everything works out. IPE at UW requires us to do 36 UW credits in a given year...thats equal to 24 SU credits here...most of the classes i listed are 3 credits....actually all but the last three. so...decisions! decisions! decisions! I have to decide by Sept. 6...so....maybe ill use the time when im in yangjuan to decide. i also have to do research at the same time...so....we'll see how things work out. oh...to add to the list:

(13) Chinese

the only problem right now is that i cant read or write....especially simplified chinese. as a kid...i grew up going to chinese school learning traditional chinese...so some of the characters here are pretty odd looking. song li yun has said she'll help me with the chinese....but you know what? i can honestly say that i am looking forward to this school year! classes i actually have alot of interest in. i was also looking at their departments...and i think i might talk to our international students coordinator about sitting into some of their graduate level classes....i was thinking the medical classes and public health classes. im really interested to see what the chinese approach is. well...we have to get up early tomorrow for two field trips.

the first is to Mt Qingcheng. there are alot of taoist temples here.
the second is dujiangyan. ill post more info and pictures later once i have been there and have photos to show.

hope everyone is doing well!!