My first real weekend in Chongqing. Oh boy. It was much needed after the crazy first week of classes here. Our lab equipment is stuck in customs in Hong Kong (they won’t tell us for how long) so we’re improvising with some physics lab kits that CQU let us use. It’s kind of hectic at the moment but everything else is coming together just fine!
On Friday night a student named Jack needed help with one of the programs we use to record data for the experiments in the labs. Now Jack has helped us SO much over the past few days. He’s gotten our internet working on campus, meal cards, adapters for the lab, and he even goes to the dining hall with us to help us order food since no one speaks English and it’s really hard to get edible food when you can only speak English. Basically, he’s been our savior here. Desiree and I were with him on Friday after classes and told him about our plans to go to this really cool place called Dazu on Saturday. Remember, they usually have a full day of classes on Saturdays but Jack texted us later that night and said his classes were cancelled and asked if he could come with us! Of course we asked him if he was skipping class. He didn’t understand what “skipping” meant but we eventually determined that his classes really were cancelled. I love that he makes such an effort. Jack is the bomb.
So, Saturday morning we headed to the bus station. It was Dr. Cheng, Jack, Desiree, Brandon, and I. Dr. Cheng figured out how to get to the station and what buses to take to get there. He’s a pretty quiet guy and he always goes off on his own and just disappears for hours just walking around campus and the surrounding area. Sometimes he says things out of nowhere that are just absolutely hilarious. I’m glad I get the chance to work with him. But, like I said he always ventures off on his own so he somehow found this strange trail to get to the bus. Desiree and I were laughing so hard the entire way there because only Dr. Cheng would find this kind of path on his own. I just don’t understand how he does it.
On Friday night a student named Jack needed help with one of the programs we use to record data for the experiments in the labs. Now Jack has helped us SO much over the past few days. He’s gotten our internet working on campus, meal cards, adapters for the lab, and he even goes to the dining hall with us to help us order food since no one speaks English and it’s really hard to get edible food when you can only speak English. Basically, he’s been our savior here. Desiree and I were with him on Friday after classes and told him about our plans to go to this really cool place called Dazu on Saturday. Remember, they usually have a full day of classes on Saturdays but Jack texted us later that night and said his classes were cancelled and asked if he could come with us! Of course we asked him if he was skipping class. He didn’t understand what “skipping” meant but we eventually determined that his classes really were cancelled. I love that he makes such an effort. Jack is the bomb.
So, Saturday morning we headed to the bus station. It was Dr. Cheng, Jack, Desiree, Brandon, and I. Dr. Cheng figured out how to get to the station and what buses to take to get there. He’s a pretty quiet guy and he always goes off on his own and just disappears for hours just walking around campus and the surrounding area. Sometimes he says things out of nowhere that are just absolutely hilarious. I’m glad I get the chance to work with him. But, like I said he always ventures off on his own so he somehow found this strange trail to get to the bus. Desiree and I were laughing so hard the entire way there because only Dr. Cheng would find this kind of path on his own. I just don’t understand how he does it.
It was an adventure and it doesn’t stop there. The bus itself was crazy. We rode on a big bus for about an hour and then had to transfer to another one for a 30 minute ride up into the mountains. It was an interesting ride. I think the driver honked his horn 846 times in total. They are not shy at alllllll with the horn usage here. But we finally made it to the sight of the Dazu Rock Carvings!
Ps- that's Jack in the red jacket!
I wasn’t expecting to be so high in the mountains but the view was incredible!
I guess I should explain what the Dazu Rock Carvings are now. Dazu County is located in the southeast part of the Sichuan province and it is known exclusively for these carvings. There are over 5,500 statues and 10,000 Chinese characters that depict beliefs from Buddhism, Confucianism (as in that Confucius guy who people quote sometimes), and Taoism. The carvings date back to the 7th century and were built over the course of several Dynasties. There are so many carvings that they had to be spread out to several places in Dazu and we only had time to see one so we went to the Shizhuanshan Rock Carving Site. Now, the history lesson is over so you can check out some of the pictures below. The detail is incredible, I can't believe some of the statues were carved over 1200 years ago! Also, there are some super creepy statues that symbolize hell or something. I’m not totally sure, I couldn't read any of it but Jack and Dr. Cheng translated some of the characters for us. I really should work on my Chinese. There’s a cool lake and temple that were at the site, so I included those pictures too.
There's this myth that if you touch this symbol you'll have good luck for the next 10 years or something along those lines. Honestly, other people were touching it and getting their picture taken so I touched it and had someone take a picture of me. Then I asked Jack to explain it to me.
*group pic*
Dr. Cheng was against being in a picture but we forced him into it of course.
On the way back we had to wait like 2 hours at the transfer bus station. Dr. Cheng was hungry and so he set out in search of any Americanized fast food restaurant he could find. The workers at the Wendy’s near his house in Cincinnati all know him by name. He reeeeeeally likes fast food.
We eventually found off-brand McDonald’s. So sketchy. You can buy a whole chicken (head included) so that didn’t do much to calm my fears. Buuuut, I obviously wouldn't pass up chicken nuggets no matter how sketchy they are and they turned out to be surprisingly good!! Even better than the real McD’s. Or maybe I was just super hungry, I’m not sure.
Dr. Cheng ordered this weird thing for us to try, it’s like the Chinese version of a sweet potato but they fry it and then serve it to you. It wasn’t thaaaat bad but the color and texture were just too much for me. Too bizarre. I’m still forcing myself to try every food that’s thrown my way (….almost) and I’m doing pretty well so far!
After we ate we found this really cool street fair type of thing to kill some more time. Actually, I don’t even know what to call it. It wasn’t really a street fair but just like an outdoor market area on a street that had little shops lining either side. That’s a terrible name for it but you get the idea.
China doesn’t really have anyone that monitors their food distribution. So it’s normal to see vegetables laid out in the street and open meat on food stands. I can handle the vegetable thing but that meat?! Not refrigerated, sitting out in a dirty street area just open on a table. GAG. I just can’t do it. I use the 5 second rule on a daily basis so I'm totally not a germ freak but I wonder how many different types of bacteria and disgustingness are on that meat and table. Vom dot com.
We kept walking down the street fair thingy and saw cotton candy. Who doesn’t love cotton candy? So Jack ordered us some (he’s our personal translator, just kidding…. sorta). Okay so that’s not interesting but what was is is that a group of at least 25 kids and adults gathered around us while we were eating it. I couldn’t stop laughing. I mean, it's just so ridiculous that it's hilarious. We literally had a crowd standing in front of us just staring while we stood there and ate cotton candy. One mom even made her kids come up and hug us. It was like we were aliens. We made our way back towards the bus station but people kept staring and taking pictures. Jack said they’ve most likely never seen anyone who wasn’t Asian before in real life so it makes sense but it’s still just so weird to me.
On Sunday we made plans to go play ping pong with this girl named Ivy. She was a TA for a class that our students had taken last semester. She somehow got Desiree’s WeChat name (it’s kind of like Skype, we all downloaded the app so the students could easily ask us questions) from a student and then decided to ask us to play ping pong with her. I would say that’s weird but I don’t even know what’s considered weird anymore. It was so funny because when we met her and introduced ourselves she mispronounced our names so badly that they were just completely unidentifiable. She kept calling Brandon, “random” but she eventually got it. She’s played ping pong since she was like 5 so obviously she killed all of us. But she taught us some tricks and we made Jack come and play against her so we could see how 2 skilled ping pongers (…?) played. It's seriously competitive around here. I think Ivy found it painful to watch us play against each other. We were sooooooo bad.
Badminton is popular here too!
Eventually we gave up on ping pong, Ivy and Jack left but we went to play basketball. There wasn’t a single other girl on any of the courts. Girls don’t ever play basketball here apparently. So Desiree and I stuck out even more than usual (if that's possible). We were just playing some casual basketball, like playing horse and shooting around for fun. Until these 4 guys came over and asked us to play them in a game. Oh no. Brandon had literally never played basketball before, Desiree hadn’t played since high school, and I played for 1 year in 3rd grade and then quit. Nice. They had no sympathy for us whatsoever. But we recruited this guy who is the next Yao Ming to play on our team so it wasn’t that bad! He didn't speak a word of English so we never did figure out his name. But since I had been planning on a leisurely game of ping pong, I was wearing riding boots, tights, and a north face. That meant nothing to them so we played for like 2 hours and I now have blisters the size of quarters on my feet. Totally worth it. We didn’t technically keep score but I just know that we won. Plus we’re playing with them again next Sunday. I’ll be dressed more appropriately for a basketball game then. The guys we played with also told Desiree and I that they like girls who play basketball. Maybe I totally will bring a Chinese boyfriend back to America with me (JUST KIDDING DAD).
Here comes another week of classes! Can't wait to see what Chongqing throws our way this week. I'll keep you guys updated if anything interesting happens.
Peace.
Here comes another week of classes! Can't wait to see what Chongqing throws our way this week. I'll keep you guys updated if anything interesting happens.
Peace.