So far, everything has been wonderful. Of course there are minor frustrating things, but nothing too terrible to throw me into the "culture shock" that everyone warns me (and other study abroad students) about.
I like the idea of trust here in China. It just seems like people trust each other a lot more. i.e. anyone buys fireworks and lights them off themselves on the day of the Lantern Festival. Also walking back at 1:30 in the morning, we passed a police officer that didn't seem the least bit suspicious of us even though we were in the Teacher Housing area and we certainly don't look like teachers -- (more details on how we got there on Feb 25).
I like how lots of things are cheap here or at least bargainable. Getting enough food for breakfast, lunch, or even dinner could cost maybe 3 kuai each = less than 50cents USD.
Feb 23 (Wednesday) - Had a "one-on-one" session with my teacher Zhang Laoshi. Margaux introduced me to the underground market underneath the convenient store where I could get some noodles for 3 kuai. I love it because it's cheap and convenient with a large variety of foods. They also have a bakery, fruit stands, meat stands, etc.
Attempted to study today, but constantly got distracted from sleep and an undying need to do laundry. To complete the laundry task, I first needed to retrieve detergent. To complete the task of retrieving detergent, I first needed to get some moolah. To get some moolah, I needed to first go to the ATM and use my newly acquired bank card (got it like last week) and take out some cash. It wasn't too bad, I went to the wrong ATM by accident, but they still gave me what I needed for probably a very small service fee (I'm thinking 3 kuai). After folding my receipt into my wallet, I reached for my ATM card, but as I touched it, the card was absorbed back into the ATM. It then flashed a number to call for 2 seconds and went back to the welcome screen. Essentially, in the time it took for me to put away my receipt, the card safety timer timed out and ate my card. I would have to go to the bank the next day to retrieve it.
It was alright though, because I was able to withdraw money and pay for detergent and some snacks.
As I went to do the laundry back at the hotel, I got extremely confused by the Chinese washers. In the end, I overloaded one of them, and the other one never drained the water. Fortunately, a guy who also happened to be doing his laundry knew English and Chinese really well and assisted me. It was still annoying to not have a dryer. The room was then filled with hanging clothes all over the place as they raced to dry.
For dinner, I got a bowl of wonton soup for 3 kuai with Margaux and Patrick and sat it the mini tables out on the street. Food was excellent, and once again, very inexpensive. It was kind of funny sitting at the seats though because I felt like we were grown ups playing tea party with a young girl since everything seemed miniature, but it was great all the same. I really enjoyed being outside, having the wontons fresh from the stand, and just relaxing and eating as the local people passed by with their busy selves.
Feb 24 (Thursday) - It's the day before the big exam (exam on Friday on sections 15 and 16). But before studying, Joe, Crystal, Malcolm, Darren, and myself all went out to a local Xi'an place with a Xianese noodle specialty for cheap. These noodles were fat and flat and very tasty. It was a great precursor to intense studying for the rest of the night.
Feb 25 (Friday)- Test time! Don't really know how well I did -- either really good, or really bad, hopefully the former. At 2:00 we met our Chinese roommates! They all seem pretty cool, each seeming to match flawlessly with their American counterpart. We all went to KTV (karaoke) and sang some songs (yeah, it's kind of an awkward way to meet people at first... but there were many instant connections). I hopped in on some Maroon 5 (This Love) and a couple others. It was a success, and we ended up playing a couple games of Mafia/Werewolf/Drug dealer/Assassin followed by, once again, delicious food.
Gao is my roommate and like his name suggests, he is certainly a tall guy. I didn't speak to him all too much in the beginning when we were still unsure of our roommates, but when we did find out, we instantly connected and I'm sure living with him will be great! It's also helpful that his knowledge on English is pretty good (since I'm still a noob at Chinese) though I try to speak in Chinese to him when I think I could compose a sentence correctly.
We ended up going out tonight -- well all of the American students plus Gao and Mi (Crystal's roommate). We went to a local bar, and played some Kings and Mafia/Assassin/Drug dealer/Werewolf which is becoming a very popular game here because of how super fun it is.
On the way back though, the gate was closed. This meant having to walk all the way around the perimeter of the campus to get into the other entrance. Half of us wouldn't take it. Sean, Joe, Malcolm, and I, climbed through a hole in the wall finding ourselves standing on a whole lot of debris (all I could think of was, "I really hope we don't step on any land mines out here..." [though it is highly implausible that they would have any]). There was then another wall that we climbed with the help of an adjacent tree. After climbing the second wall we were home free and back in the hotel long before the other half of the group. All I could say is night well spent.
Feb 26 (Saturday) - This morning Sean showed me this street vendor selling something like a breakfast burrito/omelet/egg roll thing. It had some vegetables, protein, and crunchy in it and it did not disappoint for cost or taste. It was 3 kai, tasty, and hit the spot.
Went to the Muslim area of Xi'an -- kind of forget the name of it, but it was very cool. To get there we went through a Chinese Bazaar like place which reminded me a lot of the Turkish Bazaar that I visited a couple years ago (except here it was a lot colder and smaller). But we finally got to the gate where we were welcomed by Bai Laoshi. He taught us a lot about the history of Islam and how it reached China. The architecture there was very cool and Bai Laoshi was very kind, welcoming and informative in his lecture on the Muslim areas and populations here in China.
All in all, there were still quite a few pleasant surprises and exciting events this week. There were also a few hurdles, but we're taking each hurdle one stride at a time and I'm pretty psyched for more fun to come!
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