My Internship (First Day)

On February 26, I woke up with a headache and I didn't feel well. I went to to the bathroom and threw up. I still went to Chinese class even though my headache hadn't gone away. During Chinese class, my headache slowly went away. After class, I went to Marissa's dorm to talk about traveling throughout the semester. She and I decided we wanted to go to Songpan together at some point. I then returned home and paid the utility bill for my apartment.

On my way back home


In my apartment complex, someone owns this crazy looking poodle.


Marit and Kevin had left their money for the bill on the table. At 3 pm, I took the bus to Crayon Club (where my internship is) and met Wilma (a teacher's assistant), Shuang Shuang (the accountant) and Ma Huan (I'm not sure what she does) downstairs. The four of us went to an elementary school to pass out brochures about Crayon Club. We arrived at the elementary school early, so we walked to the flower market to pass the time. Around 4 pm, most of the parents were waiting outside of the school to pick up their children.
In China, different grades are let out of school at different times. For instance, at this school, first and second grade students are dismissed at 4 pm, third and fourth grade students are dismissed at 4:30 pm, and fifth and sixth grade students are dismissed at 5 pm. The reason for this is that they can't dismiss all the students at the same time because there are too many of them.
So, the four of us handed out brochures to the parents of the first, second, third and fourth graders. Wilma told me that they don't wait for the fifth and sixth graders to get out because most of their parents don't pick them up. Instead, the students walk home on their own. We also had to pick up a student form the school that would go back to Crayon Club for his English class. Once we finished passing out brochures and found the boy, the five of us all took a taxi back to Crayon Club. Wilma told me I was done for the day, so I took a bus back to my apartment. I returned home around 5:30 pm and did some laundry. I also researched some travel plans, did my homework, ate dinner, and talked to my roommates.

Class and meeting with Mabel again

On Wednesday (February 25), I had to attend a Chinese make-up class because we will be missing one when we go to Emeishan and Leshan on March 17 and 18. On the way there, I ran into Emma and we walked to class together. Once we got to First Ring Road, we noticed that the traffic was really bad and found out that the railing on the bridge going over the road had been damaged as if a car had driven into it. We didn't know if the car had fallen off the bridge or not because they already had people cleaning up the scene.

The bridge

Only 6 people showed up, so it was a pretty enjoyable class because we just talked about random things like “Kung Fu Panda” and our teacher’s son. I asked how old her son was and she said 22. One of my classmates was like, “Oh there you go” as a joke. I was like, “Yeah, right”. Before our class started, I took some pictures of my teacher and classmates.

My Chinese class (minus a few students)

My teacher

Anyways, after class, some of us had an hour and half before our Culture class was to begin, so we wrote our 300 word paragraph on education in China as compared to the U.S. and ate some lunch. After our Culture class, I met with Mable. The two of us went to Jinli street (next to Wuhouci Temple) and walked around, sampling some of the local foods that they were selling.

Zongzi (rice wrapped in leaves) and fried dumplings

Different meats and squid on sticks

Cold vegetables and meat in oil

Noodles with vegetables on top

Mabel treated me to some bamboo with rice inside

Sweets
Zongzi with vegetables and pancake-type things

I'm not sure what this is....

We stopped at a little restaurant in Jinli street and ate soup, vegetables wraps, and rabbit head.

Preparing to eat rabbit head (It was pretty good, actually)

Mabel taking apart the rabbit head

After dinner, Mabel and I went to Dairy Queen and got some blizzards. I asked Mabel if she wanted to meet up with my friends on Tibetan street. She said sure, so we went to meet them. We waited a while for them, and once Jared, Kevin, Emma, Christie and Gloria actually arrived, they didn't seem to know where they wanted to go. Jared and Kevin wanted to walk down Tibetan street because it was their New Year and they wanted to see what was going on since so many police officers were around. Emma, Christie and Gloria, however, wanted to go to Dairy Queen since they saw Mabel and I eating blizzards. I didn't really feel like following them and it was getting late, so Mabel drove me back to my apartment. We talked for a while in her car and made plans for me to go to Meishan. Afterwards, I returned home, blogged, and checked my email and facebook.

Tuesday, and I only had one class!!!

On Tuesday (February 24), I had my Chinese test, which was pretty difficult, especially the article we had to read because it had too many new words. Fortunately, I got out of class early, skipped Calligraphy and went to Carrefour at 1 pm with Emma and Christie. I bought mainly food that I can’t buy at our grocery store down the street, such as ham, cheese, yogurt, and imported chocolate (they had German chocolate but mainly only Rittersport, so I bought chocolate with almonds).

On the way to Carrefour, Christie, Emma and I bought some milk tea with tapioca balls

Carrefour

We returned home at 3 pm, and once again, I didn’t have to go to my Economy class because our teacher (the same one as for our Government class) was gone. At home, I blogged and later went to dinner with Gloria, Christie, Kevin, Jared, Emma and Magnus (Steven joined later). We ate at new restaurant down a street that goes to Carrefour. The food was decent but not great. When I returned home, I blogged some more, talked to Josh and Joey, did some homework, and replied to a couple of emails.

Huanhuaxi Park

On February 23, I didn't have any classes because my Government class was canceled. I also didn’t go to Tai Chi because I was busy at that time. When I woke up, I bought some food from a bakery down the street from our apartment. At 1 pm, I met Ye Lu (the girl from the barbershop) and the two of us walked to First Ring road (a main road in Chengdu) and waited for 2 hours for Da Bing (Ye Lu’s friend and coworker). I met and talked to him the day I got my haircut.

Waiting for Da Bing by First Ring Road

Since he was taking really long to meet us, Ye Lu and I finally took the bus and then taxi to Huanhuaxi Park. We arrived at the park between 3 and 4 pm and began walking around until Da Bing came. He then met up with us and the three of us walked around for a couple of hours.

Arrival at the park

Ye Lu and I



Trolley buses that kept coming up behind us. They were kind of annoying.



This doesn't look very Chinese. It looks more like it came out of a fairly tale...

Turtle!

Heron








Some cool statues






Da Bing and Ye Lu

Transliteration-Chinese signs are hilarious

By the lake in the park



Da Bing playing with a Chinese baby that I thought was adorable.

Grandmother and grandchild


Ye Lu

There was a couple who had just gotten married and were taking their wedding pictures, so I thought I'd take some pictures. The bride looked beautiful. It was funny though because Ye Lu wore high heels to the park and her feet began to hurt after walking for a while. When the couple was leaving, the bride picked up her dress and we saw that she was wearing jeans and sneakers underneath! I was so surprised at that. Of course, we had to make fun of Ye Lu for wearing high heels. :)



Da Bing and I


Walking down where we probably shouldn't



Eating ice cream on a beautiful day

Fish




Video




A guy was doing calligraphy on the ground and handed the brush to Da Bing, who wrote some characters and then handed it to me. So, I started writing some English, seen in the videos and pictures below.










Beautiful flowers

In Chinese parks, apparently, they have these rocks that are supposed to massage your feet, so I had to try it out. It wasn't bad at first, but it was uncomfortable after a while.



There was a family next to us who had brought their son and two turtles with them. It was so cute!



Kites!We had to go to the where the kites were because we wanted to fly one ourselves. Da Bing bought one and we tried to fly it, but with no luck. By the time we got there, the wind was dying down, so we couldn't fly the kite.


These seemed to be professional kite flyers or something like that.



Da Bing trying to fly the kite.









After the park, the three of us went to a restaurant on First Ring road (one that I always pass on my way to school). Da Bing ordered some noodles for the three of us and we ate. Of course, I was the slowest one to finish because I’m naturally a slow eater and I can’t use chopsticks as well as the Chinese. Da Bing left a little early because he had to go meet a friend. After I finished eating, Ye Lu walked to her apartment and I walked to mine. At home, I studied for my test for the next day.

On my way back home:

A girl on the sidewalk selling shampoo or lotion...

People by our apartments exercising. This happens almost every evening. It's really weird because there's so many people exercising, but not in unison. They all just do their own thing.