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Hey, I'm Elisa, aka Ellie, and this blog is dedicated to my escapades while I study abroad in Kunming, China and travel during the Fall 07 term.
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Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - Chengdoodlydoo!

As it turns out, we ended up having a Thursday and Friday off during November because of a sports competition that they were having at school and broadcasting CCTV. So did we stick around to be on TV (because we're whiteies, they wanted us to be on TV)? PSSSH... NO. J and I decided we'd pack up again and hop on over to the capital of the adjacent Sichuan province, Chengdu. Ticket prices were deliciously low, at about $30 each way but getting there proved to be harder than expected when our plane was delayed 2 hours and, instead of checking us in, the woman pointed us to the swarm of Chinesers screaming to the attendants about how they wanted to switch their tickets and what not. Luckily we ended up checking in and after our 2 hour wait, we ended up in Chengdu with the lovely ladies from Sim's Cozy Guesthouse waiting to pick us up. We were apparently the only Chinese-speaking whiteies they'd come across and we talked with them all the way back in their REAL car with LEATHER seats. It was sooooooo cool to be in an actual car again :]. We stayed the night and on Thursday morning we set out for the bus station to go to Leshan. It was only a 2 hour ride and when we got into town a woman got on the bus with a sign that had the characters for Buddha on it and was basically saying if we wanted to go, they had a minibus that could take us there. We hopped out and it was a great idea, only costing us 2 kuai a person and it shaved off the time it would have taken to go to the bus station and then take a 15 kuai cab ride to the buddha! Well, we got there and had a little lunch before heading in and having monkeys jumps on our heads. It was a great time and we saw a lot of SE Asian statues and the Da Fo was just amazingly massive... totally humbling. That is until the monks in front of us took a million pictures of J and I instead of of the Buddha. haha... oh, being white in China...

Well after that we came back and I suggested we go eat at this restaurant that Sim had recommended called Peter's Tex-Mex Grill. He was a little hesitant but hungry so agreed. We went there and oh. my. god. it was a total culture shock for me. After not being in the states for 5 months, going to Peter's was like a trip home. The place was decked out in Texan chatchkies and there was even an map with Texas and part of Oklahoma on it. J got a burger (Texas Whopper) and I got some chimichangas and the only way to describe how good it was is with this picture of J's reaction to the food:

Some margaritas and ice cream rounded out our first amazing day in Chengdu!

Day 2 we got up early and went to the Panda Breeding Center. We got to see lots of pandas but the highlight was for sure holding a 1 yr old panda! They plopped him in our laps and he ate his little apple and held my hand! They're so furry and smooshy, you just want to gnaw on them! We also held red pandas which were like giant funny looking cats. haha! So fun! Then when we were getting ready to leave, some old Euros were complaining how they wanted the driver to leave and not wait for anyone else so we translated that to their driver... they were surprised and slightly embarrassed that culturally retarded Americans rock China better than they do! Americans: 1 Euros: 0!

After that, we chilled out in the room for a bit (after lunch at Peter's!!!) and went to a temple and walked around a parky area in the temple. There, we met Mike from Lonely Planet who said that we should do his Sichuan Opera tour because regular Sichuan Opera is "mmm... not so Chinese!" in his opinion. HAH! Boy, we live in China, we don't need you to show us how to be Chinese. smile_tongue So he talked to us about the NBA for a while and then we went back to Sim's. That night, we went to the (not so Chinese) Sichuan Opera which was very Chinese haha. It was so interesting! We took video of almost every act, so I'll show you it sometime when I get back if ya want :].

Day 3 was our last in Chengdu. It was ultimately lazy. We talked to Sim's ADORABLE daughters and took some video of them spinning in circles and the youngest showing us her markers. Then we went to a curio market and bought a couple buddhas and a chess set. After that, we went to a big park and took pictures with some Chinesers and walked around being generally accosted. Some woman tried to get us to dance in the middle of the park but we got scared and scampered off! Well, one of the things to do in Chengdu is have tea in this park, so... we did! It was all nice and everything until we noticed what was going on around us... EAR CLEANING! Yes, that's right... people get their ears cleaned in the teahouse with metal rods, and this so beyond unsanitary I don't even know what to say except:

grooooooossssss!!! They didn't even clean the rods going from one person to the next! Well after some more pictures, we got a sugar dragon on a stick and went off to do one of the last super-Chengdu-y things on our list; get some mapo doufu (tofu with chili and minced meat) from Chen's, which is supposed to have lineage to the originator of mapo doufu. Well, it actually wasn't bad! But that was of course our starter meal, we ate at Peter's... again. hahaha.

Here's the links to our Chengdu pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/sictransitvelouria/Leshan

http://picasaweb.google.com/sictransitvelouria/Chengdu

heartelisa

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1 comments

8:21 AM


Okay! Long overdue, so here we go! I haven't posted since the Shangri-la trip, have I?! Well! Halloween came and went and we went to a pub crawl with all the other whiteies in Kunming. Christina was a hippie, J was a dead guy, and I was Messi/a Messi fan ;]. The next day, Christina, Casey, Liz and I had a girl's day to go buy tea and wander around Carrefour. Then, on Halloween, we went to Kevin's goodbye party at Mazagran's Cafe (we miss you a lot, Kevin!!!) then Christina was lame and stayed in, so I was a jungle cat (maybe a cheetah?) and J was a hunter, complete with his toy gun we got him for his birthday and painted on scratches. We went to Shuoba (Speakeasy) with some of our other buddies and had a great time!!

After that, things got somewhat back to normal as we buckled down on our schoolwork... it really gets in the way of enjoying the day! But then along came a music festival (Nov. 11) put on by the local celebs, the French-Canadians. Dan, David, Mark and I invited our whole class - including our teachers - to come to it. So in order to get ready for it, and because we're just crazy, J and I went out and cut and dyed our hair. He got a blue fauxhawk and I darkened my brown and got purple streaks! So the concert was great; about an hour outside of Kunming in the middle of the "doonbas" as mom would say. So we were there for about 4 hours or so, looking at other weirdos and entertaining our teachers. I'll post about after Chengdu things after my next post... which is about the Chengdu trip!

Here's the pictures from Halloween/Music Festival

heartelisa


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7:31 AM