Latern Day! Spring Festival is over!

After a rather painful massage from a blind man last night, I am glad today was another rather “lazy day.” The good think about the massage was that it was about 7 US dollars for an hour, and it would have felt good if I wasn’t “in bad shape” in so many places. Today we celebrated the Latern’s Day with some Chinese professors and their families. The apartment was filed with about 40 people, and Mike and I had the joy of going to the market to buy the supplies for dumplings. We got everything, and it was so cheap! The ladies at the market were so nice they gave me free vegetables (everything was super tasty!) While making dumplings I was named the *dumpling queen* because I cooked them all so quickly. It was nice to meet professors one on one, I guess that my ESL course is going to be more of a directed study, and the teacher gave me a list of some books… she has some, and I think I am supposed to buy some on Amazon but I do not think Amazon can ship to China! I need to talk with her more on this! I was then introduced to another lady who teaches at a business place, and she asked me to come and teach adults 3 or 4 times, I think that I will take her up on the offer- it sounds like a wonderful experience (my regular internship placement is with 4 year olds, or Chinese Kindergarten). After eating a HUGE amount of dumplings and peanut butter sandwiches (odd combination, I know, we were supposed to have American and Chinese food) the 2 English teachers taught Jackie, Jack and myself how to play mahjong. I ended up losing terribly, but it was still fun! A few other things that don’t fit into my blog need to be mentioned:
1. The people here are so kind and friendly! I used to think Americans are friendly, but I have never had anyone give me a lot of vegetables free, especially if I cannot speak the same language.
2. the culture is so calming! Plans are hardly ever made in advance, I really disliked this when I first arrived, but now it is really nice!
3. The laundry is confusing here! It took about 2 hours for my stuff to dry, the load are very small, about 3 pairs of jeans fills it up!
4. I am finding myself using simpler words. I can’t understand what the people are saying, but when someone knows English, I know which tenses confuse them. (These are the things the teacher would like me to talk about in the class)
5. Living without Sunkist is possible, and tea is rather good (only too much will make me stay up sick).

Plum Blossoms

Today we registered with the college in the morning. Basically, Li Shumin helped us fill out a paper and then we were done. It was soo cool to finally see other students around the building! There are so many languages within our dorm now, and it made it harder to pick up Chinese around us. After that Zoey and I biked to the store to buy socks and a tea holder (for the good tea Mike and I bought yesterday). The only planned event for the day was going to the Plum Blossom Garden, and it was very beautiful! I am still getting used to people taking pictures of everyone, but I really wish I could have those pictures! Today for example, this woman with a really nice camera and tripod was taking pictures of Michael and myself walking through the Plum Blossom/ Bamboo and when we were sitting inside this Pagoda type thing. I am sure that her pictures were really awesome, only I was wearing silly clothes because I haven’t done laundry yet! If her pictures are used for some type of American publisher, I look like a silly tourist. Since it was about 4:00 when we were done, Michael and I walked to a place that serves this bread/meat thing that I can’t spell the name of. Thank goodness our day was not that packed because my body has once again decided to not like the food here, I was up most of the night sick. I think it may just be from all of the tea that I drank yesterday, but it was the most painful kind of sick I have ever been! Tomorrow is a rest day, so I hope to do some fun exploring!

last 2 days :)

Yesterday I was so tired, I forgot to blog! We hiked up a HUGE mountain and we were all really tired.

Today we went to another Pogoda and a traditional hospital. We saw some really cool traditional medicine, such as HUGE bunches of Gensing root, and deer penis (excuse my language). Deer Penis is used to make men stronger, and they mix it with bai jiu (really strong wine, which is worse than the USA's everclear). Many students think that the bai jiu itself makes men stronger! We then stopped at this small shop to look at teapots and this lady ended up offering us pots upon pots of tea. Much to my surprise, the tea was really good! The lady said she knew how to pick the perfect tea for Americans, and she was right! We all ended up buying some! Mike and I bought 1 jio, (like a pound) of oat tea, and I can't wait to drink all of it!

After that, Mike and I went to this silk selling store, and bought some nice PJ's, and they gave us a free pair of shoes :)

Other than that, I am looking forward to some non-spicy Chinese food tomorrow, but we did get Dairy Queen!

Pogoda and frog bits

Today we got to rest in the morning! Praise God that I took that time to call my dad and sister . Then we went to find a restaurant and had to point to random things on the menu (usually we point to pictures, or order for the whole group). Everyone’s food was good, except for my own, but whttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=9215811544814193780&postID=5941966594364526462#e got snacks later so it was all good. After going back to campus, we got Milk Tea (it’s just like it sounds) and met Li Shumin to go downtown and shop/watch a movie/go to a water show. We took a bus and went to a store type place. There I bought a new purse and dress. When we bought the purse Michael helped me haggle the price down. She asked for 280 yuan, and we got her talked down to 230. It was hard without knowing very much Chinese, so we typed the number into the calculator (which is how they show us prices). Zoey, Jackie and I went upstairs to were the women’s clothes are and I found a dress that was super cute! We talked her down to 100 yuan all on our own! I couldn’t try the dress on, but I hope to try it on later! We then walked down by the movie place, but we voted to just walk around more. We walked around and went back to West Lake. From there we took a tour bus type thing to the Pagoda, which was soooo beautiful! West Lake is so gorgeous, I want to just stay there forever! We were approached by this old man who spoke English VERY well. After about 20 minutes of talking, we learned that he is 100 years old and learned English during WW2! He asked many questions, like why we say “The meeting is over” in English instead of “It has ended” and other things. He also informed us that there is a gathering of “English speakers” on Sundays that they would love us to come to. I think I would love to go sometime! The man so cute, and all of the people walking stopped to take pictures with us and watch us talk to the man. While talking, we also got cotton candy, which is SOO good. It’s pure sugar! After all the “touring” we went to this little restaurant and told Li Shumin to give us some traditional Chinese food. We had frog, fish (whole), and other traditional foods. (By the way it is now illegal to eat dog or cat after the New Year). I hope to upload pictures of the food soon, but it was all really good!

still too excited to make sense of my blogs!

I am finding it hard to blog because of the limited internet and electricity. I will most likely start typing a word document in my room at nights and then uploading it in the morning. Yesterday we had our very informal tour of campus, and played badminton and hacky sack. This is the first instance where I was amazed at how friendly the people are. Three guys were sitting, just watching us play, and they came and asked us to take pictures at the Mao statue with them. We took pictures, and then played badminton with them, and it was a good experience. I am so amazed how “un-awkward” it was that they were just watching us! The food here is also really good! Last night we ate at a Muslim place, which was really good, I hope to upload pictures very soon!
Today, we started by walking through Gu Dang, which has various shops and food places. We ate at a restaurant where you could walk around and see all of the seafood that you could eat, which is not something that happens in the states (Unless you are at Red Lobster, but you can’t pick THE one you want!) We had so much food, and it was all good! Roast Duck is a huge thing here, as well as lamb, which back home always made me sick! I feel bad because lamb and shellfish make me sick, and since we all order plates to share, no one can have any. I think I may try it again, and if I don’t get sick, I will blame Olive Garden  Then we took a bus to Xi Xi Wetland, which was very beautiful. We took a boat to various places, such as Plum Villa, and some poet’s old home. This place was very beautiful, and large! It was so easy to just get lost in all of the beauty! Since, it is only 4:00 PM here, I am not sure what the rest of the day will be like, but I am hoping to call my family tonight since I have not been able to yet. We only have one key to the apartment, which is where the internet is. I am going to try to start some type of system that will allow me to blog every night, but for now I am sorry that this is a jumbled mess! Things are still happening so quickly that it doesn’t come out in order!
Classes start in about 2 weeks, and my internship starts next week! Wish me luck!

I was always told to take quicker showers :)

Sunday the 21st, 2010
This is a random post because things going on right now are so out of order and exciting!
Today we took a tour around our campus, and ate at what we call “Pac-Man” because that is what the logo looks like. This day has been a lot less stressful than yesterday, but I have been learning to find humor in everything. Since I can’t think straight enough I will just list some humorous things that may not be so “funny.”
1. Our bus ride took over 2 hours and we were dropped off at the wrong stop. We had to take a taxi, which 2 of the drivers didn’t know where our college was.
2. Zhejiang University is twice the size of Pella, IA. The town has a population of over 7 million, which means there are more people than Iowa.
3. We are not allowed to be on this blogspot, so we downladed a Tor.
4. I guess today was proof that I take too long of a shower! We don’t have tubs with our showers, and my drain wasn’t working, so my entire room and the hall flooded! Not only was I freezing, but my towels also fell off of the rack, meaning I had a flooded room and no towels, or heat. I couldn’t communicate with the front desk, so I had to just leave and talk to Li Shumin when we came to meet.
We got back and ate dinner late last night, and then fell asleep really fast. Our rooms are singles but we are thinking about moving into a double because the heat takes up a lot of our electricity, which has a limit. I was so cold last night!
Yesterday all of us were just so frustrated that I wanted to come home, and nothing seemed to go right. I was so frustrated that nothing was going right. Looking back, I was just tired, so tired I was crying. (those of you who know me and have seen me this tired- it’s bad!) In the morning, after a full nights sleep and shower, things were so much better (even though my room was flooded).

I am so sorry that all of this is unorganized! By the way my room number is 6213, which is needed with the address above if someone needs to send any mail!