Mount Emei

Instead of seeing this at the top of Mount Emei we saw this:

It was a long journey to the top so we were a bit disappointed. 

First we took a bus up the mountain for a couple of hours.  Then we climbed for a couple of hours in the rain and fog.   I was impressed by the people more than twice my age climbing the mountain.

 

This isn't real mountain climbing - it's walking up a lot of steps as is nearly every mountain in China.

When we first got to the summit it looked like this:

And eventually it cleared enough to look like this:

I noticed that the Chinese tourists didn't seem to mind the fog or the rain.  No one looked as upset about it as we did.   I looked around and realized they had a different objective then we did for getting to the top.  They wanted to pray to the Buddha.

乐山大佛 － LeShan's Giant Buddha (and a giant headache)

This day started without a western breakfast or coffee like the hostel promised us.  This wasn't that big of a deal but since we had been looking forward to it we were disappointed.  If our day wouldn't have continued like that I probably wouldn't have thought about it again but it was one thing after another.  We couldn't find the bus (our hostel was the worst), stood in line at the train station and not the bus station, got off at the wrong bus stop, no one could tell us how to get to the Buddha (SERIOUSLY?! it's the main attraction),  all the maps at the bus stops said we were in exactly the same place, finally found a taxi but was dropped off at the wrong entrance, paid way more than what we should have paid because we were at the wrong entrance, walked sooo much more in the heat than we needed to, too many Chinese tourists, an eye infection, etc.  I know this stuff happens when you're traveling but at the time that didn't help.  Being around Chinese tourists is very trying towards your patience -especially when you live in China.  There's just too many people and the impatience and pushing is at it's worst.  Plus people staring at us, wanting pictures with us, having no sense of personal space, etc.  Sometimes it's just too much!  Of course, looking back it wasn't as bad as it seemed at the time.  I think the heat really put us in a bad mood and getting lost so many times in the heat didn't help.  

This experience combined with the rest of our trip has brought forth a new goal for my time in China.  I'll write about that soon.  Our day WAS successful - we made it there, we saw what we came to see, and got some exercise in the process.  It was very impressive around, 1000 years old, stands 233 feet tall, and is carved out of the hillside.

The staircase along the side of the Buddha was very narrow and there were too many people on it.

I was happy that Simone used her umbrella for the sun.

We did get some nice pictures of the big guy.

When is the best time to see a panda?

Thinking it was better to see the pandas on a sunny day we waited till what we thought was a perfect sunny afternoon.

Unfortunately this is what we found on our sunny day:

Turns out it was too hot for pandas.    However, the red pandas were out and enjoying visitors. To our surprise they didn't stay in their enclosures......

We decided to try seeing the pandas again on another day. We got up really early and arrived at 8:30am.  This was MUCH better.  We saw many happy pandas just waiting for us to take pictures of them.

If I hadn't been with my friend I probably wouldn't have visited the pandas - much less gone twice.  But that is one of the benefits of traveling with someone - you do things you wouldn't normally do and it always turns out to be good.  The grounds of the panda base are beautiful and I was glad we went back for the 2nd visit.

成都 - Chendgu

The week after University finished I took my vacation time and went to a province south of 西 安(Xi'an) - 四川 (Sichuan).  四川 is known for it's hot weather, spicy foods, big cities, mountains, and pandas.

I went with my friend Simone.  She sat behind me at University. She's from Germany and definitely on my list of the top people I've met here.  I was glad to have a travel partner.  And no I didn't speak German with her.  When I started learning Chinese my German completely left me. 

We started our trip and ended our trip in 成都 (Chengdu) - the capital of 四川.  Embarrassingly, this was my first time traveling on the train.  I should have been doing this more because it's cheap and surprisingly comfortable.  We got on the train around 9pm and by 11am the next day we were there and rested.  We stayed on a hard bed.  There are 3 beds on each side. I think the top or middle is my favorite.  On the way back the bottom was pretty uncomfortable in the morning when everyone was waking up.

At first I liked 成都 more than 西安.   It's greener, less crowded (in the area of our hostel), the people seemed more friendly, easier to get around, cleaner, etc.  The traffic is REALLY bad.  There are some areas that for some reason are fairly quiet and then in other areas it's bumper to bumper and barely moving.  The buses are new and all air conditioned which was a huge change from 西安.  But there are a lot of people on the buses - just like 西安.  It's really humid in 四川.  We were lucky to get some cloudy days.

There are beautiful parks in 成都。

They feel less artificial then most Chinese parks.  At least they're not shy about their artificial lake.

There are many things to do in the parks.  Drink tea at a tea house, dance, watch people dance, watch the boats on the artificial lake, date, and get your ears cleaned.

All of these pieces of paper have information about a single person - male and female.  Their stats include hobbies, income, phone numbers, height, and the year they were born.

There are lots of men walking around ready to clean your years.  I was surprised by how many people had dirty ears.   I was not one of those people - I can clean them myself.

Hot pot originated in 四川 so we decided to try it on our first night.  I suppose it was a bit more spicy but otherwise it was the same as what we eat in 西安.  Hot pot is good but a lot of work digging around for your food - especially if you're hungry.  It's not my favorite.

We only found the Chinese bar street where beers were expensive and Chinese people wanted to drink with us - bad idea.  Luckily we turned down all requests for company except when the monkey man stopped by the table.  Actually, I did turn him down but he still put the monkey in my lap. 

Next stop in 四川 － 熊猫 (pandas)！

第一学期 = 完了！（1st semester = FINISHED!）

It wasn't always easy but I made it through my first semester of University.  It was a strange feeling to study for exams again and to get a nervous feeling on the day of exams.  But it was a great feeling to be finished! 

I got an 86% in the listening class, 88% in writing and reading, and 90% in speaking.  I feel like I made a lot of progress this semester but after having just a couple weeks break I want to dive back in and learn more. 

Soooooo now what?!

*I just started a speaking class 4 hours a week.   My University class was around 25 students so the speaking time was very limited.   I joined a class that only has 2-3 students.  I feel my fluency improving already.

*Study for the 汉语水平考试 （HSK - Chinese proficiency test).  There are 6 levels and I'm going to study for level 3 / 4. 

*Memorize tones.  There are so many elements to the Chinese language.  Everyone says something usually has to be neglected in order to keep up. We learned around 800 characters this semester and I mostly kept up with the pronunciation, meaning, and how to write them.  What I neglected were tones.  Tones are important because they change the meaning of the word.  So hours of flashcards here I come!

*I have small daily goals such as being more patient with Chinese people (ahhh!), working out, reading, writing in my Chinese journal, watching Chinese TV (snooze), catching up with True Blood, staying in better touch with family and friends, etc.

*Figure out my next move.  I'll be home for the holidays.  I'm sooooooo excited!  Then, I would like to come back to China to study for another year.  For the next couple months I'll be figuring out the best city for me to live, work, and study.

What's growing from your mop??

Yes, that's a mushroom, growing from my MOP.  In the morning I noticed there was something on the mop that I didn't think I had seen before.  Then I came home - about 10 hours later - and this is what I found.  I was soooooooo grossed out.  Instead of throwing the mop out my 21st floor window I carried it to the stairwell where I knew it would disappear eventually.  EWW!

I discussed my mop with a friend and a little while later he emailed me this picture from a Chinese website.

Is it a normal thing in China to have mushrooms growing out of mops??  I just thought it was my mop but apparently it happens.  YUCK.  I am never using regular mops again!