Chinese Chocolate Chip Cookies

Today all of the NSLI students performed at a shopping center, in front of reporters and a crowd, the traditional Chinese arts we had been practicing: kung fu tea, traditional tea ceremony, tai chi, and Sichuanese cooking.  I really enjoyed getting to experience kung fu tea; I probably will never have another opportunity to pour tea from a three-foot spout balanced on my head.

My favorite dish that my host family has served me so far consists of a mound of long and thin potatoes cooked in oil (I know it sounds suspiciously like French fries but is actually traditional).  I have had some other tasty treats, but none of the desserts that I have tried have actually been that appetizing.  My host sister generally says our desserts taste too sweet for her (like cotton candy which she was surprised to discover existed in the United States).  Lily and I tried to cook chocolate chip cookies using a bag mix I brought from America.  First we had to substitute for the butter; then we had to substitute for the oven.  Cooking them in a pan on a stove resulted in pancake-like cookies but was much better than the microwave.  The microwave resulted in a single large cookie on the bottom of the plate.

Street vendor making sugar animals

Traditional market in the evening

Tomorrow morning the group of exchange students is leaving via overnight train for Kunming in the province of Yunnan.  I have heard that we may be staying in a mountain resort, cabins, and tents (pretty big difference, but I am bringing my own roll of toilet paper so I will be prepared for anything).  I have very little idea of what to expect, but Internet access and Western toilets are doubtful so I may not be able to post for the two weeks that we will be away.

Ice Age

After school, some friends and I saw Ice Age 4 at a movie theater.  We had been expecting English subtitles but ended up watching the entire film without them.  Seeing as the content was for 10-year-olds and barely had a plot, the context of the movie was very easy to follow, but I only understood about 10% of the dialogue and guessed at the rest.  The sentences that I did understand brought me superb satisfaction, however, especially if containing terminology recently learned.

I am trying to convince my host sister to wake up at 4 am with me tomorrow morning to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics, but she does not seem particularly interested.  From what I can tell, none of the hype that usually surrounds the Olympics in the US exists here.

Weirdest thing I ate today: pigs' ears.

American Idols

Evidence that the Asian stereotype of taking "selfies" is founded in some truth.

Last night I was trying to sign up for a 微博 (weibo) account, the Chinese version of Twitter, but I was hindered by the requirement of Chinese ID Number (similar to one's Social Security Number) to create an account.  Besides being beyond frustrating for me, the government-mandated requisite removes not only the anonymity of users but also limits foreigners' involvement in the social networking site.  I have found since being here that I took the ease of information access in the United States much for granted.

All of the NSLI students spent the morning teaching Chinese elementary school students English. The kids tended to swarm and were even hopping up and down in front of a window to glimpse into a room where we were.  They all wanted our picture and autograph in a desperate way; the benefit was that by rewriting my Chinese name one hundred times my signature advanced from a carefully constructed beginner's to a realistically expedited version more comparable to a native's.

The mini mob only grew when we students convinced them
that one of  the students in our program was Justin Bieber's little brother.

Weirdest thing I ate today: red bean flavored doughnut (wonderful!)

Kung Fu Tea

Setting for learning kung fu tea, a gorgeous teahouse.

Instead of having class today, groups split off to learn various traditional Chinese talents which we will all perform this Saturday.  My group is learning a routine of kung fu tea, an extraordinarily physical manner of pouring tea using a teapot with an extremely long and thin spout.  Below are clips of the teacher presenting her art.

An elaborate tea ritual for our behalf.

¥3,300 tea (the most expensive offered was ¥350,000 per half kilo)
$516 US Dollars (the most expensive offered was $54,807 per  17.6 ounces)

I wanted to get my ears cleaned for only 3 yuan each, but my host mother decided it was too perilous for my ear drums.

An inflated rat made of sugar bought for me by my host family.

Weirdest thing I ate today: fish eyeballs.  While crunching on my mid-morning snack of chicken fingers (complete with knuckles and nails), I thought it had claimed the daily prize, but then I found a little present of fresh fish eyeballs in my soup at dinner.

Spicy pickled chicken feet

Best Street Vendors

Today the class of exchange students split into the same teams from last Friday's Amazing Race competition to endeavor to earn the most money selling street-side. Seeing as at least five times a day I turn around to find someone taking a close range picture of me, my group decided to use the "crazy American right here, only 5¥ for a photo I'm actually expecting" strategy to make money.  And it worked!  We had decorated a huge poster board to say "American Friends" in Chinese and then approached pedestrians of the crowded square about if they wanted to sign their name on the board and take a picture.  We would sometimes have a small crowd gathered waiting for photos with us and our poster.  Several times parents sent their tiny toddlers into the midst of the American teenagers for an adorable photo where we all crouched next to the child.  The adults would actually teach the children to hold up what Americans consider the peace sign in pictures but rather means victory for them.  Other teams tried selling water bottles, playing guitar, wearing masks, and offering hugs, but our team won with 362¥!  The challenge ceased around lunchtime so for the rest of the day a group of friends and I enjoyed ourselves around the city.  The afternoon we spent at a traditional Chinese goods market and the evening in the beautiful central downtown plaza.

Lake in the middle of the traditional market

Tianfu Square illuminated at nighttime

Statue of Chairman Mao in the center of the city

I recently discovered that whom I thought was my host aunt is actually just a live-in maid for my host family!  Chinese people tend to call everyone family names whether they are related or not; for example any guests to the house automatically become Aunt and Uncle, their kids Brother or Sister.  There are 18 different terms for the nomenclature of two generations alone, all depending on which side of the family, gender, relative age and last name compared to you.

Lily

I had a really interesting conversation with my host sister tonight about how she is studying for an English exam for foreigners (ILETS) so that she can go to college in the States, particularly UCLA (she says the campus' air is very fresh).  She would like to work in the US but must stay in China to take care of her parents as they grow older, an interesting mindset difference from the rising generation of young adults in the US.

The NSLI-Y group visited the American Consulate in Chengdu yesterday, an experience that convinced me I want to become a foreign service agent and spend my life traveling the world.

I had a wonderful evening the night before with my (American) friends at a Tex-Mex Restaurant.  It was the first "American" food we had had in so long that it made us giddy, and we laughed so hard all night long.  Afterwards we joined a group of women dancing in a park, something I had been wanting to do while in China!

Tonight all the exchange students and some host siblings (not mine; her father recently told her: I work hard, so you will study hard) celebrated one of the American's birthdays at a Chinese barbecue (MSG was served in a bowl for those who wanted to add it to their barbecue).  At one point in the evening a group of us was playing Mafia (杀人游戏 Kill People Game), using a translator for every step of the game, and then it dawned on me how amazing it was to be playing in multiple languages a game I learned on the opposite side of the world.

My favorite cute common phrases (and habits) of Lily:
"I am so clever!"  She means it in the best possible way.
Whenever I say thank you to her, she will respond with, "No thanks" in English.
Every single time we are eating together, she asks, "Dericious, right?"
"I love convenient noodles!". Ramen noodles translated literally are convenient noodles.
She ends every conversation with, "Bye bye!"
She wanted her English name to be Dolphin.
If I buy an outfit, she will buy the exact same one so she can match me.

Weirdest thing I ate today: rabbit head.

Swan Lake

Last night my host family took me to an extraordinarily fancy restaurant called Swan Lake.  We were seated in a private room (with a TV) where three business colleagues of my host father's joined us.  To illustrate the luxuriousness of this entire dinner: the ceiling was the clear bottom of an aquarium, out the window lay a lake filled with swans, the dishes were served on a rotating crystal platter, and the bathrooms had toilet paper.  The main dish: a tray with a lobster (may or may not have been alive), a small ice sculpture, and a mini liquid nitrogen volcano.  Other dishes were Beijing roast duck, filet mignon....  The weirdest thing I drank: corn juice, although this sauce that was like wasabi but 100 times worse (and my host sister let me put a huge amount in my mouth) was a close second.  It might as well have been moonshine by how well it cleared out my sinuses.  The importance of the guests can be determined based on who controls the Lazy Susan on which all the dishes are placed during meals whether formal or informal.  If you are the guest of honor, you can spin it for whichever dish you like.  Everyone else waits for their desired dish to land in front of them.  The only abominable part was that all of the men were smoking, and the regular Chinese table etiquette was mostly withstanding (burping, chewing with one's mouth open, etc., ugh).  Every couple of minutes someone would stand up, make a toast, and drink their shot of sake.  At one point they all stood up and looked at me.  Lily whispered that I was supposed to wish them something, so I subsequently drew a blank on all my Chinese except for 祝你生日快乐, "wish you a happy birthday".  Eventually I managed something about peace (but most people put more effort into birthdays anyway).  Afterwards my host sister and I played golf on the attached country club's driving range.

I learned that for women to marry in China they have to be 20 years old and men have to be 22!

Weirdest thing I ate today: chicken feet.  They were just as scrumptious as they sound.  Additionally, we had dessert for the very first time, not counting the abundance of nightly watermelon.  The dish tasted like an extremely watery jello with rice-pudding-like chunks and not at all sweet.  I brought good old artificial American jello to make my host family later, but it will probably end up being sweet enough in comparison to scar their taste buds.

Dragon fruit, not as sweet as the dark color insinuates.

Milk Flavored Chinese Toiletries

Weirdest thing I ate today: pig's stomach on a stick.  It was part of our dinner of Chinese barbecue which my host sister absolutely adores.  Slightly different from American barbecue, you choose raw meat on a stick and then it gets slathered in spices and cooked either in a pot or on a grill.  All the while my mouth was on fire as my host sister just giggled.  For breakfast I was served homemade soy milk and glutinous rice balls filled with a black herb-looking goo that actually tasted like sweet peanut butter, and since glutinous=delicious, it was delicious, albeit gaining bowling-ball-like qualities in my stomach.  I had made chopstick-size peanut butter sandwiches for my host family the night before, so they were convinced I love peanut butter (very true).

Milk Body Wash

Milk Nail Polish Remover
(Smells wonderful; why do we not have this in the US?!)

Lily and I painted each others' nails today, my favorite culturally transcending, bonding activity!

Panda Park

My host sister, Lily, in front of baby pandas.

Today my host family took me to the Chengdu Panda Reserve.  It is this huge, beautiful, lush park with about 20 giant pandas and red pandas.

In the afternoon, Lily and I went to a massive underground market for cheap shopping.  I loved bargaining as I hunted for unique souvenirs.  My host sister was not nearly as driven of a bargainer as I was, but I think the vendors automatically notched up the price just because she was standing next to me.  Besides all of the shoes stopping at a size I grew out of in elementary school, at least an inch of height is added to the bottom of each.  Converse must have to special-make Chinese Chucks.  A lot of the clothes are of a really strange style; I cannot tell if their fashion is ahead of or behind ours, but hipster has definitely not struck yet.  I have already tired of the clothes I brought with me, but then I realized that my host sister only has five outfits...

Contacts to change iris' color or size.

I recently figured out why it is so hard to understand my host family's Chinese; they speak a dialect of Mandarin called Sichuanese that varies from Standard on a few vocabulary and pronunciation points.  For example, 吃饭 (chi fan meaning eat) and 睡觉 (shui jiao meaning sleep), two rather important words, are pronounced ci fan and sui jiao.

Weirdest thing I ate today: duck's tongue (like beef jerky with more tendons).  Although that was kind of a low, I had some really delicious things too, such as kumquat chrysanthemum juice with jackfruit (pictured below) and a dinner roll filled with red bean paste.  A few days ago I had Beijing roast duck, and it was so tasty.  For foods classified as highly-suspicious (often soups), I have developed a tactic where if I pick up something whose protein source is dubious I can let it slip and blame it on my still-developing chopstick skills.

The Amazing Race

Maomi playing with the Chinese paper lantern I made yesterday.

Food on a stick to cook in boiling water.

Balls of dough are bounced off a board with bells and then roll down a wall of flour-like coating.

Today we broke into groups and raced around Chengdu in an "Amazing Race" type format.  We were given a photo of the first place we had to go and then asked natives to navigate, while using all resources available.  The first place was known for serving a famous dessert, but we never actually got to try it since it was closed.  Another clue took us to a temple where we ate a lot of good street vendor food, like delicious glutinous rice balls (anything glutinous=delicious).  After saying a Chinese tongue twister to earn the next clue (四是四), we eventually made our way to another restaurant for fried dumplings.  Eventually we reached the final destination of a hot pot eatery (notice the edible theme?), where you choose raw meat, vegetables, and fungi on a stick and then cook it in the pot of boiling water on each table in traditional Sichuan style.  It is similar to the fondue places we have in Indy, but swap water with chocolate (obesity, much?).  My team actually reached the end first after a slightly frenzied trek, but now I know exactly how the participants on "The Amazing Race" feel.

Weirdest things I ate today (and realized I was eating): chicken foot and heart (not at the same time) and pig stomach (that one I only discovered its identity after putting it in my mouth).

Traditional Chinese Medicine

All of today we spent on a traditional Chinese medicine field trip.  In the morning we went to a museum, and in the afternoon we visited a university specializing in TCM.  The presentation they gave us was fascinating, talking about natural remedies, qi meridians, yin and yang balance, accupunture, etc; although, from the perspective of someone raised with Western medicine at least, the logic was rather sketchy (a word I seem to be using a lot in China).  A few of the students got the chance to try out the cupping and acupuncture.

I went out exploring the city some more after school with some friends, one of which is actually Japanese.  It is hilarious to watch as natives turn to her and rattle off Chinese expecting her to translate for the Caucasian Americans.  It seems hard for some to grasp that not all Americans are white and not all white people are American.

I saw foreigners for the first time since being in Chengdu!  One woman was in a Starbucks, and another couple was in a McDonalds.  Ironic...

Please Honk Appropriately

There is a surfeit of American fast food chains in China, especially McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and KFC.  The winner by far is KFC; so many people here LOVE Fried chicken.  They even have multiple knock-off KFCs that sell more cheap fried chicken.  All of the American-brand restaurants are a lot different, though.  McDonalds burgers are spicy unless requested otherwise.  Pizza Hut is a sit-down restaurant serving family-style noodles, meat, and dumplings in addition to pizza.  One night my sister brought home a delicious egg cake for me from KFC.

We preformed a final tai chi routine to wrap up our tai chi/kung fu unit at school.

Acceptable moments and durations to honk in Chinese traffic:
Too lazy to turn on blinker (3 sec)
Trying to win chicken with a grandma on a moped (10 sec)
Entering someone else's blind spot (2 sec)
Bored (to your enjoyment)
Running late (multiple 1 sec bursts)
Seeing an American (5 sec and stare)

Adventure to the Chinese Grocery Store

My host family took me to a Japanese department/grocery store called Ito Yokado.  It was packed at 9 pm and had samples for everything, like Costco on steroids.  I have to be careful what I compliment or even comment on, otherwise they will latch onto the idea that I LOVE that certain food, buy tons special from the grocery store, and serve me it nonstop.

My Host Aunt with tomorrow's dinner (chicken!)

Corn on a Chopstick

Today I had to get myself to and from school on my own for the first time.  I remembered my bus schedule fine (and did not miss any) but almost got lost after getting off at my last stop when my school was directly across the street.


Some of my friends and I went looking for a nail salon after school today, but we got tired of walking before locating one.  It was kind of exciting, however, to use new Chinese vocabulary to ask directions along the way.  Navigating traffic as a pedestrian in and of itself gave us all an adrenaline rush.  They say that in Chengdu the most dangerous part of your day is crossing the street.

I still have not see the sun in Chengdu nor even blue sky.  At least the lack of sun means a tad bit less heat on some days.  (The humidity has taught me why Chinese women wear their hair in buns so often.)  Sometimes, when exercising, it is hard to get a good, clean deep breath, as if Chengdu were at at high altitude.  Otherwise, the pollution is not much worse than the usual smells and fumes of an American city, and I have not seen nearly as many people smoking as I remembered from my previous visit to China five years ago.

Still no sign of any other foreigners besides the NSLI group (and all of the models in advertisements)!  The homogeneity is astounding, at least for one from the world's mixing pot.

Weirdest thing I ate today: corn on a chopstick.

Does not quite compare to Indiana's fresh sweet corn.