Quick entry (?) before heading to bed...school on a saturday (tomorrow!)

*Sigh* Finally got a few minutes to try to catch up on blogging...I am only, what? a week behind? Not to mention all of the Yangjuan stuff. There was also a personal entry I wanted to post...personal meaning that this topic has alot of meaning to me...and that my writing will contain alot of my own reflections. I will get to that later. As to how to catch up...I feel like what is usually holding me back from finishing my entries is the amount to time it takes for my pictures to load. So...tell you what. I will post, in words, as much as I can to catch up. Over the moments I have around my apartment...I will start to multitask and upload pictures while doing other things like reading. I am hoping to calm this "I-will-never-catch-up" feeling.

Let's being where I last left off. That would be the night of the 22nd. That Friday, my roommate, Li Yun, finished taking the first part of her GREs. To celebrate, we wanted to eat out. Haha...and we ended going to the most unlikely place: KFC. See usually I wouldnt want to eat at a fast food resturant in a place like China...but I am curious about what they cater to the Chinese. So, we headed over. I had seen KFC commericials and one of the things I had been dying to order were their egg tarts. I would have to say that they are one of my upper top ten favorite desserts. And KFC did not disappoint! Yeah...it was a bit expensive...6 egg tarts for 20 RMB...but they were damn good egg tarts. The rest of the food wasnt as great...at least I didnt think so. China doesnt really do juice. Everything here either tastes like its punch...or its a version of Sunny Delight. We had some kind of "juice" drink, some Beijing styled chicken legs and wings, and some chicken wraps. I feel like the first thing we noticed when we first arrived was how different food can be here. I'm not really talking about the food itself...but rather...what's considered classy and what's considered fast food. Our connotation of fast food in the States is that its fast, its not so good for you but tastes good, and its cheap. Well here in China...it's exactly the opposite. The food is expensive, mostly the more well off citizens eat there, and the food doesnt really taste all that great...yeah...it tastes the same as it does in the US...almost. But, at least for me, I feel like I like Chinese food here alot better. Just compare. I think the total price for our meal at KFC was about...90 RMB. If you divide that by 8...yeah. That's about right. Compare that price with the price of, say, a bowl of noodles at the shop right beneath our apartment. 10 RMB for the both of us. That's a bit over 60 cents for a meal for a single person. Big difference. Anyways...it was an experience...and I think my adventures for food brands imported from America will stop there.
What was the most interesting part of our meal was not so much the food but rather our 2 hour long conversation after dinner. We talked about alot of things...from the one child policy to what *if we can even find a place to begin* are some of the things that makes our *American and Chinese* culture so different. I wont go much into the details...but I do have to say that this conversation gave me alot of insight into what it's like being a teenager/young adult here in China. It has made me rethink some things...made me wonder whether some of the things we talked about is applicable to an Chinese-American. :) I will stop going around the subject...and move on to our tape finding adventure.

After dinner...I wanted to stop by some *any* store to pick up some tape. I have so far gotten two huge maps...one of China and one of Chengdu. The walls here arent made like the ones in America. Rather than sheet rock....they are all cement. I tried sticking a pin through the wall to keep my maps up...nope. Didnt work. So...I needed tape. We didnt find any at the store we were at...but we did end up buying to bottles of beer. Since I turned 21...I realized I hadnt utilized my privledges and bought myself alcohol. :) So...that night, I bought my first 2 bottles of beer. It was also to celebrate Li Yun's completion of her section 1 of her GREs. Funny thing though. When we got back to our apartment...we forgot we didnt have a beer opener. And the beers we got, Heinekin and Carlsberg, well, you cant open them simply by twisting. Man...imagine this. 2 girls who never really drink trying to open 2 beers without a beer opener. Inexperienced people are funny people. For the next hour...we tried everything. Teeth? Nope...didnt work. I tried whacking it open on my desk, that didnt do anything by damage my desk. We tried sticking the cap part into the hinge part of our bathroom door...didnt work either. We then tried using a knife...but that looked a bit dangerous. Lets see...we tried getting it open with our kitchen table top, tried sticking it in between the wires of our cutting board/utensils basket, tried sticking it into our metal rimmed, push around drawer, tried the handle bars of our kitchen cabinets, even tried getting a beer bottle opener from our neighbors. All without success. Yes...it was pitiful. VERY pitiful. I ended up giving up...mostly cause my parents called. Eventually..after 2 hours...Li Yun got it open. How? With a scissors...slowing prying loose the sides of the bottle cap and then getting the last bit with her teeth. Should drinking a single beer on a Friday night be that hard? I should think not...but maybe for us. So yes...that was my experience. Man. So embarassing.

On Saturday, we went to Carefore and picked up some necessities. Oh, the beer story goes on. I guess it was drinking an entire beer or something...but it did something to my stomach. I ended up not doing much shopping...but instead, met Li Yun at the front. We headed back to our apartment just in time to meet two for her friends. We went out to Lao Ya Tang. It's much like Hot Pot...without the whole ma la part. We ordered a bunch of side dishes to add to our duck broth and made sort of a stew...with alot of vegetables, and...yeah...other Chinese specialities like liver and duck blood. They then came over to our apartment and we chatted about American music. Alot of people here seem to really like Mariah Carey. *Shrugs* She's okay. That evening at 7, Sarah had her birthday celebration. After they had their Sichuan cooking class, we all headed over to ATT to karoke. The place was really nice...more fancy than the karoke places I have been to in the States. Man...we sang on through the night....Michael Jackson, Christina, Spears, Chinese songs, Carey, the Spice Girls, Eminem, and more. I ended up going home around 12. Tiring...but fun.

Sunday, I met up with Laura and we headed on over to a church gathering she had been going to recently. The entire time there, I felt like I was back in the States. The weirdest feeling was walking outside to find myself back in China. There were quite a few people there...mostly Americans and Europeans. Prior to entering, there are a few people outside checking your passports. They wont allow any non-foreigners in. That afternoon, Sean, Jack, and Chole came over and we had quite a night telling each other stories. Sean, Jack, and Chole are SU students who, like Li Yun, came to UW last year as exchange students. These people crack me up. It wasnt until around 11 that they left.

On the 25th, a couple of us, Sarah, Matt, Tabitha, Ben, Andrea and I, sat in on an American Culture class taught by our history teacher. It was really interesting, mostly because...I really dont even know what is classified as American Culture. Ok...maybe I do have some clue...but I dont usually notice what is American and what's not. Perhaps on a shallow, outter understand, yes, but...I mean, American Culture isnt defined in America. What did we know? The class was pretty much full. Chinese students, we were told, were really interesting in learning more about America and I guess our culture. So...that night, we learned that Americans have 3 characteristics. Of course these are generalizations...but 1. we are self-independent. There isnt a strong emphasis on what the Chinese usually call guan xi or relationships/connections. 2. we emphasis freedom...all sorts. We regard fairness to be extremely important. 3. Americans are hardworking...and seek wealth. The American Dream. After hearing the lecture...I started to remember the subtle teaching of these concepts back in middle school under the school subject of Civics. Half way through the class...we were asked by both the professor and the students in the class to give a lecture on American Culture. Haha...it ended up being more of a Q&A session. What did we know about giving lectures on American Culture? We figured...Q&A was probably more worth their time...especially if they had specific questions they were wanting to ask. We got questions from...why are you studying in China? to Are you happy that Osama BinLaden is dead? to What do you think about the war in Iraq? Honestly...most of them were tough questions. Some were difficult to answer cause..well...they are hotly debated topics within themselves...i mean Iraq? How long have people been talking about that? Most of the time, we just ended up giving them personal opinions. The class was really interesting...and I would love to hear more about what the Professor has to say about American Culture.

On Tuesday, the international students headed on out to visit Chengdu's pandas. What can I say about pandas except that they are cute and I would love to hold one. We did get the chance to see 3 baby pandas...2 that were 90 days old...and one that was 20 days old. Absolutely adorable. We also had the opportunity to see red pandas...also on the endangered species list.

Wednesday, we had our weekly meeting with Andrea. This time, we ended up in Roberts Hall...although...it's really more of a room than a hall. It is the designated UW room on the SU campus that our exchange students use every year. I have to say that being there was alot like opening a time capsule and Christmas morning put together. Last year's UW exchange students left us alot of stuff...stuff we could have found really useful if we had known about it earlier when we first arrived...or when we were looking for stuff for our apartments. I ended up grabbing a bamboo painting for our still barren apartment walls. That night...I went out to hot pot with Sunny, Tabitha, and their landlords. I think I will end this here.