So you can't blame the Communists for everything... ...

Yesterday the China Daily newspaper published a story saying that the Internet is broken because of an Earthquake in Taiwan that took out some fiber optic cables or something like that. I don't know why that causes some sites to be fine (like blogger) and some to be inaccessible (like the University of Washington), but that is what they said. I hope they can fix it soon, but this is China so you never know. But I think they will because businesses are suffering too. Nothing is a big deal here unless the economy is or might be affected. Oh well, life goes on. And it has. Last Tuesday and again Thursday night some of my swimming friends took me to an indoor pool not far from school. It has one big 50m pool and a diving well and, even though it is not nearly as nice, reminds me of the Natatorium at the University of Minnesota where I used to swim a little. Open swim is in the diving well and they use the big pool for different groups. When we are there, 7-9pm, is when the students who "major" in swimming at the Sichuan Sports University practice. I'm not joking. They have a Sports University where you major in a sport and also take some other classes. But do not be misled, some of the students who major in sports are really good and go on to play professionally, some are not so good. Most of the students who major in swimming that I have seen swim are not even as good as me. The facilities are very nice though, and it is nice for me able to swim for longer than 20 minutes and think about technique and things. In the cold, outdoor pool I just jump in, swim 1000 or so meters and jump out as fast as I can. However, the water is hot (like any diving well) and there are a TON of people. I am passing people the whole time. That said, they have a new registration cycle starting in the new year and I think I am going to go buy a pass so I can go back and swim. They also have open swim from 6:30-8:00am and 12:00-1:40pm besides 7:00-9:00pm, so maybe the other times are a little quieter.
After swimming yesterday my friend Huang Laoshi (the one with short hair and glasses) invited me to go play badminton with her and her friends. Actually, she called them her "classmates" because she studied badminton at the Sports University with some of them. Chinese people seem to stay surprisingly close to their classmates. When they attend college, the entire class lives together is one building or even on one floor. Then when they graduate it seems they have trouble making new friends and moving on until they get married. This of course is a huge generalization, but it seems to be the case more often than not. We played at an indoor gym and there were many other people of varying abilities already playing even though it was 9:00pm by the time we got there. I am very bad at badminton, but they were very good and it was fun to watch. After that they wanted to treat me to dinner, which I could not very well decline event though it was already 10pm, so we went to a chuan chuan (like hot pot with a spicy, oily broth but you pick out things individually on sticks; so maybe more like Chinese fondue). Usually when we go out to eat I like to watch and listen and don't have to say all that much unless the conversation turns directly to me, in which case people slow it down a bit and I can understand. But this time Huang Laoshi talked to me the whole time, it seemed like she didn't see or hang out with these people alot and she didn't really talk to them much. But I think she likes them because I am going with her and another of the women (her classmate) somewhere next Tuesday when we don't have class. I don't know.
But tomorrow morning I am leaving for Chungzhou with swimming grandpa and Wo Laoshi, the guy from Taiwan. I am very excited and I'll let you know how it goes when I get back. I will not be back until the evening of the 1st, so see you next year!

The Great Fire Wall of China has finally found me!

I came home from school today and I can't get to my email anymore. I hope I get it back soon, the fire wall is pretty spotty so sometimes it blocks alot and sometimes it blocks nothing, but this is the first time it has gotten to my email so I am a little worried. I'll let you know if anything else interesting happens. Every once in a while you get these little reminders that you live in a "Communist" or at least a one-party country. So hello from inside the walls and hopefully I'll be free again soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I would like to start this blog by saying GO PACKERS!! and Thank you Auntie Caryn. My mom said that I could open one of my presents before I left because it was actually a birthday present and it was this Favre jersey. I wore it all Friday (Thursday in the states) for good luck and I absolutely love it! It is exactly what I wanted, so thank you!
Friday afternoon we started our Christmas adventure. Andrea and a Chinese family that is friends of hers (Mark, Shelly, and their son Max) picked Laura, Matt, Ben, Deborah, Deborah's boyfriend Joel who is visiting, and I up in the van. The drive was not too far to our first destination, the hot springs. The hot springs were about 6 different temperature, sulfur-smelling pools done in this kind of Greek feel. It was really fun. It was really nice to be warm again and then to jump into the cold pool to cool off again.
After about 2 hours of relaxing in the pools, and some Marco Polo, we left to go to the cabins we would be staying in this weekend. They were up a one-lane road about 30 minutes surrounded by farm land and mountains. We arrived in the dark and dinner was already on the table. We had delicious plum wine with dinner because Mark is a plum wine producer. After dinner we walked our stuff into our rooms. The room building was separate from the kitchen room. It was set up kind of like a motel, but was very well done for China. One of the architects and his wife were also there. They lived in Los Angeles for awhile and just moved back to China and the guy built this place. You could see how really well designed it was, given how much better it fit in with the surroundings than most places in China. After dinner we moved into the "play room" where there was a fire place! It was warm and cozy and they had, of course, set up a karaoke machine for us. They also gave us all a Christmas present, which we thought was very nice until we realized it was a mechanized, battery-operated nail buffer. Then we didn't really know what to think. We sang songs and sat around for a few hours. My cookies went over really well too. Yay!
The next day I woke up and realized really how beautiful this place was. There were streams and mountains all around, it was just beautiful. After breakfast we went on a hike to a temple that was supposedly on the mountain behind us. A local led us to a path of stone steps and told us to just stay on the path. This of course proved easier said than done. We got lost and had to go ask directions, but eventually found the trail again. It was really nice to get out and see the valley. Hiking in China is always a little weird though. Even though practically no one hikes this path, it is all stone steps. There are no dirt paths, they are all made into stone steps all the way up to the top. When we got to the temples, they were also very cool to see. Joel was raised Buddhist and he would pray at the temples, which was also very cool to see. We met up with Mark, Shelly, and Max again for lunch and then took the van to drop them off at the bus station. They were returning because they had a party to attend. Then we went to the same museum cluster I had gone to with my swimming friends in Chungzhou. No one wanted to pay to go in though, so we just walked around a bit. Then we went back and played cards until dinner. After dinner we had our own "Christmas Party" complete with margaritas, wine, and King's Corner, a card game.
The next morning we got up and drove to XiLingXueShan (a skiing and hiking resort) after breakfast. We had all been told that this was a "ski resort" and were very excited to see snow and what the ski slope was like. When we got there though, it was not exactly as we expected. When we arrived there, we learned that we had to take the gondola to the ski area where the snow was. We had originally planned on driving up, but the road was under construction. It cost 163 yuan, which was expensive but not too bad. When we got to the ski resort, I didn't know what to think. There was practically no snow except in the few patches where they had made snow. The ski hill people kept calling "xue chang" which translates literally as snow field, for a reason. There was one run that was not even the caliber of most bunny hills. There were three or four big, crappy, Swiss-style hotels that were completely empty even though it was in the middle of their season. There was also a snow patch where you could drive snow mobiles around in a circle, amusement rides, an ice Great Wall sculpture, paintball, and snow luge besides skiing. This "ski resort" is by far the most pathetic and hilarious thing I have ever seen. All day we were there I just couldn't stop laughing because I couldn't believe it was actually this bad. We decided to do the luge, which was one of the cheapest activities. In order to do that, we had to take another gondola to the top of the luge run. As the gondola Laura and I were supposed to ride in came around, the guy opened the door and the door came off. We decided to take the next car. The luge was riding down a metal semi-circular tube in a plastic sled, but it actually went pretty fast and was really fun. Definitely worth it. Then we ate lunch in the abandoned cafeteria and went back down the mountain.
After we returned home, we decided to take part in the customary Chengdu Christmas Eve festivities as well, or at least go see what it was all about. We had heard that on Christmas Eve in Chengdu everyone gathers on the major shopping pedestrian road in Chengdu with big inflatable, American flag bats and hits each other. I don't know why they have this custom, they just do. It is usually not dangerous or malicious, but recently the riots had been getting more and more out of hand. Last year there were actual fights and the crowd had to be broken up with a fire hose. However, this year when we arrived the police were already shutting down the road. We asked why and apparently no one got hurt, they just didn't want it getting to wild. So they kicked everyone out of the pedestrian mall area and there were police standing in lines across every entrance. There were more people and police around than I have ever seen. We decided to walk around because it still seemed very busy and exciting. Even though the police were trying to disband it, there were still people selling these bats and hitting each other outside of Chrinqi Lu (the road). So Matt and Ben had to buy bats as well. The unwritten rule then seemed to be "if you had a bat you wanted to play", so as we walked down the street as we passed other groups with bats they would all frantically hit each other for about 30 seconds and then we would both keep walking. Then it would happen again a minute or 2 later. The police then starting taking away peoples bats and popping them and making piles of popped bats on the street. Matthew was very sad about that and here is crying over his destroyed bat. It was all very surreal and bizarre, I don't understand it and I don't think I ever will.
To make it seem more like Christmas Eve when I got home, I opened my Christmas presents, which was very fun. I got wonderful things from all my wonderful family members ( I love everything, thank you so much) and it made me really happy.

maybe I don't like spontaneity so much

Wednesday was the day of the big swimming race. We met at North Gate at 9:10am and rode over to the pool, the same one that we went to before. The race went like this: We all swam 50 meters and were divided into groups by age and sex. There were the most old men (74), followed by young men (56). All the other categories had between 1 and 12 people in them. My group was the one with only one person in it, me. I swam with this other lady who was in the age group above mine and was also the only person in her age group. I realized that I really am one of the only girl winter swimmers. It went pretty well. Everyone was really excited to see me swim and there were pictures of me on the wall from when we went to Chongzhou before. Everyone kept saying "is that you?" and I would say yes and they would say what is the Chinese equivalent of "good job". I also got interviewed by the TV station again and everyone said it would be on channel 5 at 6:30 to 7:30 and 9 to 10pm that night, but Matt and I watched and I didn't see it. So I don't know.
My race itself was OK. I didn't really care, obviously, and it's hard to race when you are the only person in your event and the only person you are racing against is WAY slower than you. Plus I hadn't raced since my surgery, so given the circumstances I think it went pretty well. I got 36.77 seconds and was the fastest girl. There were a few boys that were faster than me though, the fastest time was 32 seconds. Everyone who participated got a little card that said your name and age group and time for 50m and an umbrella. I don't know why they gave us umbrellas, but I've just stopped asking. Nothing really makes any sense here. Afterwards I went to lunch with my swimming friends. We had duck soup and it was alot better than the lamb. This I would order again. It was essentially a whole duck cooked in broth with potatoes. Then you added whatever you wanted to it, the jiaozi and lotus root were especially delicious.
Then I went over to Matt's house to make Christmas cookies for the gang for this weekend. They don't know and it is going to be their Christmas present, especially because it cost me an arm and a leg. But it was worth it. They all turned out pretty well, except the peanut butter kiss cookies. This is because they didn't sell kisses so I bought the best substitute I could find, which was old chocolate hearts from Valentine's Day. The chocolate turned out to be terrible and I just turned them into regular peanut butter cookies, which were fine.
Today has been the day of annoying plans. Starting on Tuesday, my swimming grandpa asked me if I could go with him on a trip on Thursday afternoon because there were some people who wanted to meet me and it was a very beautiful place. I said that I was free Thursday afternoon, but when would we get back. He said we would not get back until Friday evening and I said that I would not be able to go because I was leaving for this other trip to the cabins at 1pm. The next few days he continued to ask me to come, saying that they could have a car and drop me off at the place and I kept saying that I didn't know how to get there and it was hard to find and that I had to go with the rest of the group, stressing that I was sorry, but that I could not go this time. I thought that I had finally dealt with it yesterday at the swimming meet because he asked once and I said that I talked to my "teacher" (meaning Andrea) about it and that she said we all had to go together. Now I am really doing this because I just want to have a relaxing weekend with my friends for Christmas and I have no trouble going on adventures with my swimming grandpa, but this was not the time. Then this morning Iris (English name of course) called me and told me that swimming grandpa had asked her to call to make sure I was coming this afternoon. I told her again that I had understood everything swimming grandpa had said, but that I was not able to go. My teacher said that I had to go with everyone to this retreat and that even though he had arranged to take me, I had to drive with the rest of my class. She said she would tell him. I felt bad because I know that he really wanted me to go. But not that bad because I know that it is mostly for face (his prestige increases if he brings the new, fast foreign girl) and he told me two days ago about an overnight trip (just expecting me to be able to go) and at no point had I ever said that I would be able to go. But, I thought that I had finally got the message across and that he would get over it. But, I was wrong. I arrived at swimming this afternoon at 4pm and when I walked out of the locker room swimming grandpa was there and said "we are waiting for you". I said "why? Didn't Iris tell you I can't go?" and he said yes, but he had this car arranged to take me and we went around in circles a little bit more of me saying I couldn't go, that my teacher wouldn't allow it, and the place was really hard to find and him saying but we can drop you off. Finally I said, I want to go, but my teacher said I couldn't, I don't know what to do. Do you want me to call my teacher? So we decided to call Andrea. I had told Andrea that it might come to this before, so she was expecting the call. She talked to my swimming grandpa and then when they hung up he said "OK, another time." And I said thanks and I was really sorry I couldn't go this time. And I really am really sorry that I can't go, I like him alot and although I never know what is going on when I go on trips with him, they always turn out to be fun. However, it was just that this weekend was not the time and it was a little annoying that it took that long and that much trouble to communicate this. Oh well, such is China.
To add to an already crazy week, Li Juan called me this afternoon to tell me that we had a Christmas Party to go to tonight. Laura and I met her at 6:20 and we went to one of her student's houses and the student's mom made us dinner. There was so much food I couldn't believe it. It was delicious and I don't think I will eat again for weeks. They were all very nice and Laura and I are always really appreciative that people go to this much trouble to make us feel welcome. I just wish we could be privy to the plans a little earlier. Now I still have packing and homework to do and we just got home at 11pm. So I better get to it, I don't want to get to sleep too late. This is China, and you never know what will happen tomorrow. You have to be prepared for anything.

the swimming article - translated

So I have gotten many requests for what the swimming article says about me. I decided to make it a project for myself to translate it, which was really hard. But after several hours of struggling a have a passable version of what the article says. I can see why so many things that are translated don't sound right though, because I know alot of parts of this don't sound right. It's really hard to translate, but here is my best effort:
"Beautiful Female Exchange Student Participates in Chengdu Swim Team"
Reminder: "Winter Swimming Kick-off Ancient Buddha Record" large-scale event registration period is ending soon.
Newspaper Interview (reporter Che Wen Wu) Currently, Chengdu will host next New Year's Day's "Welcome 08 Olympic Winter Swimming Kick-off Ancient Buddha Record" large-scale event and have already registered their last applicant. Yesterday, the reporter was told by Xi Li Hui (swimming grandpa) about the Province's winter swimming season discoveries, that two beautiful foreign students will also be joining Chengdu Swimming Team's ranks. They are welcomed guests.
Yesterday at 4pm, the reporter went to Sichuan University's pool to see Sarah Widder nervously preparing for this New Years' race. 21 year old Sarah Widder also has a special Chinese name, she is called Wei De Xian (魏德娴）。 At the Chuan Da swimming pool, the swimmers all know her and familiarly call her Xiao Wei (little Wei). Everyone is very excited to talk about Xiao Wei. They say they first met her in September this year when a pretty, foreign girl managed to come looking for the swimming pool. Originally, she was just Sarah Widder who had just arrived in Chengdu to study Chinese. Now we are in the middle of the semester and she both studies and practices winter swimming.
Sarah Widder, using relatively fluent Chinese, told the reporter "I especially like swimming. I started when I was 7 years old and still swim with the Minnesota Swim Team." (not true, but oh well)
Xiao Wei quickly integrated with the ChuanDa winter swimming group and became a Winter Swimming Association team member. When asked about her knowledge of the upcoming race, she was found to be a dedicated competitor. "I really like winter swimming, I want to compete."
Then, after we observed her hard-work, dedication, and swimming skill, Xi Li Hui commented with two thumbs up "She is excellent! Every time she wants to swim for at least an hour. Now she swims at least 1000 meters each time. She is ever better than most of the male swimmers." Then, Xi Li Hui quickly decided to allow Xiao Wei to join the "Chengdu Team" and with the Sichuan Winter Swimming Association members participate in the Ancient Buddha race.
Being able to attend this kind of large-scale event, Xiao Wei happily said, "Concerning this and Beijing's upcoming Winter Swimming events, I am very determined."
Speaking about Chengdu, Xiao Wei with two beautiful, big eyes looking away into the heavens said "Chengdu is excellent, I really like Chengdu." She also said, I haven't yet been to Beijing or Shanghai, Chengdu is the first city in China I have been to." Before she began her foreign study, she went online to find out about Chengdu. As soon as she learned about Chengdu, she wanted to go. "This is a beautiful city, I really like it here." It has emerged that there is another special person participating in this strenuous event. She arrived by herself from Germany and she, along with Xiao Wei, is a special guest.
From Li Hui, the reporter was introduced to the responsibilities of winter swimming. If you want to participate and are willing to progress, your body must not only completely satisfy the demands of the activity, it is also everyone's responsibility to look after their own safety. Everyone makes decisions based on a safe conduct code they are required to sign and listens to Xi Li Hui's directions. Also, Xi Ji Hui is responsible for the safety of the competitors.
To this, Xiao Wei expressed with confidence that with her Chinese swimming friends, the crossing of the Wen Jiang River is certain to go down in Winter Swimming history the world over.

Welcome to the land of terrible, tacky Christmas decorations

It's like the Island of Lost Toys, but worse. Everyone is starting to set up decorations for Christmas here, which is strange for several reasons. One, no one really celebrates Christmas here, so it is all very superficial feeling. Two, the decorations are all done "Chinese-style", which in this case just means as tacky as absolutely possible, with possibly an advertisement thrown in. Three, I just can't believe it's almost Christmas, time is just going so fast. And, as usual, many things have happened in the past two days. Sunday Ben and I went to a restaurant supply store that our cooking teacher told us about because Ben wanted to buy a new knife and that is where our teacher bought his knife. We didn't really know where it was, but we had the address and I had asked Li Juan about it so we set off. It was in the very Northwest corner of Chengdu, pretty far away. Once we got to the general location, we only had to ask for directions twice before we found it. The store was amazing. Ben and I were the only customers, which is weird for China. It was filled with three floors of rows and rows of every cooking or restaurant ware you could ever think of. Including sign boards and little cocktail straws. I had to buy some of the straws, they have pineapples on them. I also bought some cookie cutters (not fun shapes, just a triangle, a circle, and a square) and a new knife. That evening after swimming my swimming friends and I all went out for dinner at a lamb soup restaurant by my house. I was really excited about it because I always ride past these restaurants and wonder what they are like. Unfortunately, it was not that good. The soup was really gamey or farmy tasting and was like 90% innards. The meat that was in there was really tough because it had been boiled for so long. The experience was great though. Everyone kept walking around trying to get each other to drink more bia jiu (I escaped this time). Very renao, which is a great Chinese word that means chaotic, loud, and jubilant. At one point in time a teenage boy walked in with an amplifier on his back like a backpack, carrying an electric guitar, and had a microphone around his neck kind of like Dylan's harmonica. I thought it was very strange, but no one seemed to think anything of it and I didn't get to hear him sing because no one bought a song (which I think was the idea). Today we had our meeting again and we all went out to Indian food, which was a welcome change.

IKEA

Today the day started out really well. I slept in until 8:00 didn't get out of bed until 10:00. By then the sun was shinning and the sky was blue; it was another beautiful day even though is was a little cold. At about 10:30, just as Laura and I were preparing to leave to meet Andrea, Matt and Deborah for our IKEA adventure, someone called me on the phone who I didn't know. I couldn't understand everything they said, but they kept wondering if I was at ChuanDa and I said no, but I will be there at 11am and again at 5:00pm. Then he said bye and hung up. I was very confused, but figured there wasn't much for me to do but do what I said I was going to do. So Laura and I rode to the North gate of campus to meet everyone. We waited there for awhile, but no one showed up. I obviously didn't know who I was looking for, but I am a westerner and I stick out like a sore thumb, so I thought I would let this mystery man find me. After about 15 minutes, we decided to leave so we could catch the free bus to IKEA that runs every 30 minutes. The IKEA is just like the ones in the States, except cheaper. It was very surreal, seeing all these older generation Chinese people who had gone through Communism sitting at a set up dining room table eating ice cream cones and hot dogs (yes, they have the Swedish food too) after buying things at IKEA. I bought I really nice pillow for my bed for $14, a dish rack for $5, a Teflon baking pan for $3, and some other random baking supplies. The sofas and chairs were all about $100 to $150 dollars. I think it's because everything is made in China already, so they can cut costs because they don't have to ship it again. I also bought Salmiak fish. Oh black licorice! How I love thee!
On the way home, the mystery guy called again. I still couldn't figure out what he was talking about, but I told him I would be back at ChuanDa at 5pm.
Laura and I rode our stuff home. Then another guy called. He started speaking in Chinese, then switched into half Chinese, half English. But I finally found out it was UPS that was calling and they wanted to drop off my equipment. So I arranged to meet them at the East gate of the school at 5pm for the "transfer", his choice of location and choice of words. I took Laura along to help me bring the stuff back. After a few minutes of waiting, a little brown UPS van (definitely not as cool as the truck) pulls up and the guy jumps out and hands me my 2 packages and I sign for them and he drives away again. I was very happy to finally receive my equipment, but it was a very weird way to do it.
Then I went swimming and went home. Today Andrea let us try some of her ginger tea, which was delicious so Laura and I decided to make it again tonight. You just slice a whole root of ginger in a pot of water, let it come to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes or so until it is as strong as you like. The longer it simmers the stronger it is, so we let it simmer for 40 minutes because we like it strong. Then add honey and lemon and enjoy! Yum!

Last Day of Cooking Class

This is a picture of me and my friends from my cooking class. From the left it is Ben, me, Zack (who is from West Virginia, right by Ashville) and is here studying for a few years, and Martin, who is from Sweden and just came here and doesn't know how long he will stay. Yesterday was the last day of cooking class. Our last class consisted of two soups and our translator had to leave half way through, so I had to translate after that. But it actually went OK. Then Simon gave us our certificates, so we are now all official Sichuan cooks.
After that, we were going to check out the kitchen and have a banquet at a nearby restaurant. It was a very fancy restaurant and there was going to be a wedding banquet later that night as well. We put on our coats and spent about and hour and a half or so wondering around the kitchen trying not to get in the way and observing. There is a group of 5 chefs here from Culinary Institute of America that were also there observing. They are only here for a week though and most of them don't speak Chinese, so they kind of stuck to the side. The kitchen was amazing. It was very organized and chaotic at the same time. There was a xipai area where you wash and clean everything. Then there was a cutting area where everything is cut into the proper size pieces and put into bowls. Then the bowls are stacked/piled according to dish so you have everything for one dish all together. Then when the dish is ordered the bowls move over to the wok station where the dish is cooked and plated. Then the sous chef tries it before it goes out. There are also special rooms for cold dishes, xiao chi (snacks, like jiaozi and baozi and little noodle dishes), and a steaming area. I was talking with some of the chefs and it was amazing to see them work. Everything looked really yummy. There were some weird things too though, like in the cleaning area there was a guy ripping the skins off frogs in one pull. Impressive, but also disgusting. After that we went up into a little private banquet room and had our "banquet lesson". The other Americans from the culinary school were there too. Before we ate Lu Dashi, our main teacher, told us about the tradition of Chinese banquet and the different parts and how to pair dishes. There are 5 parts of Chinese banquet; cold dishes, hot dishes, snacks, soup, and fruit. Each course has between 8 and 13 dishes that should range in flavor (sweet, salty, hot, etc) and preparation method. Except the fruit course at the end which is like dessert, of course. Traditionally each course is brought out separately, but often times traditional banquet etiquette is not followed and you just eat all the kinds of dishes together. It was very good, but Ben and I both decided that we like Sichuan home-style cooking better. Ben is going to get an internship at this restaurant for a month starting next Thursday, which will be very cool. Difficult though because he doesn't really speak Chinese. It's also not like the US where even if you don't speak English at all chefs will jump at the chance to have free labor. In China labor is cheap and abundant, so it's almost more of a burden, but I hope it goes well for him. Well, I'm off to the new IKEA that just opened in Chengdu a few weeks ago. I need to buy a dish rack.

Observations

I don't have alot to write about, so I thought I'd write about a few things that I've noticed that are very Chinese and I still don't really understand:
morning fog is bad for your health.
raw vegetables are also dangerous. Especially green beans, they can kill you.
You should not write with the paper too close to your face, it is bad for your eyes.
Your age is a secret, but it is OK to talk about someone being fat or thin.
Chinese people are also the biggest hypochondriacs I have ever seen. If you have a little sniffle from being outside in the cold, they will say you are sick. And people go to the hospital for everything! Like a bad cold could hospitalize you for a few days.

All these things are things that Chinese people really and truly believe/do and I have seen in many different places. I'm sure there is more to come, but that's all I can think of now. I was just thinking about this today because I heard it in a few places. Laura and my language partners that we meet with on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons were telling me that it was bad for my health to get up so early in the morning because it is bad for you to breathe the morning fog. I thought this was interesting because whether you are up or not you are still breathing the same air. Then I made chaomian for dinner for Laura and I tonight. Li Juan came home while we were eating and tried some. She said it was very good, but warned me that I had to make sure to cook the green beans all the way through or they were "dangerous". I told her not to worry, I had par-boiled them first. I have also heard this from my teachers at Sichuan PengChuan (the culinary school). I haven't figured out why yet, but I'm working on it.
Speaking of my cooking class, tomorrow is my last class. After class we are all going out to dinner at a fancy restaurant and we get to go see the kitchen and learn about how to prepare a banquet. I'm excited for that.
I also got more packages today! Mom you are crazy, but thank you so much. I love getting them. I didn't open them because they are Christmas presents, I didn't even read the green tags. Laura read one because it fell off her bike on the way home and got run over by a car and we wanted to make sure it wasn't fragile. She assured me it wasn't. I can't believe Christmas is almost here! It's going to be hard to wait.
Sorry for another blog with no pictures, I keep forgetting. I'm not a very good photographer.

The new Chinese swimming sensation!

So as you can see, the newspaper article came out. It is really exciting to be in the paper, I can't believe it! There is a whole article right in the middle of the sports page. I still don't know about the TV thing and when it will/did air. This is exciting enough though. That's all for now. I'll write more again soon, I am pretty busy and tired this week. Bye!

... ...it's beginning to seem alot like Christmas... ...

So first for the exciting news! I am going to be on TV and in the paper! So it all started when I was in cooking class this afternoon. We had finished preparing two kinds of hotpot, a Sichuan fondue-like soup, and were just standing around eating our delicious creations when my phone rang. I picked it up and it was one of my swimming friends. She asked if I was coming to swimming today. I said yes, I was in class now but I would be there in about an hour. She said OK and hung up. I thought that was a little weird, but weirder things have happened in China so I thought nothing of it. Ben and I rode our bikes back to Chuan Da and when I arrived at the swimming pool there was a lady with a video camera on her shoulder there. Everyone called me over and said "we were waiting for you to arrive." I said I was sorry but I had no idea what was going on. They said that people had come from the TV station and the newspaper and wanted to interview me. I still have no idea how they found out about me, but they asked me all sorts of questions about when I started swimming and if I studying swimming in the States, meaning am I training to be a professional. Then they let me go get changed and took pictures of me as I dove in and of me swimming, it was all very surreal. By the time I finished swimming, the TV people were gone. I asked one of my swimming friends if they had said when it was going to be on, but she said she didn't know. But I am going to try to find out.
Today my swimming friends also gave me pictures from Saturday. I wanted to post them just so you could see that I wasn't exaggerating when I said that each person and every possible combination of 2 or three people must take a picture with me along with several group shots. There are also pictures of me and my two favorite people on the team. Chen Laoshi is the one with short hair wearing the blue coat and I don't know the other lady's name.
To make the day even better, I got a package from my mom and a card from my Grandma today. They always seem to arrive together and I'm not sure why, maybe something with the mail system here. I love getting mail! The package had Christmas preparations in it; like, my stocking, "The Night Before Christmas" book, and some pictures. It made me want to sing Christmas carols! I can't believe that Christmas is almost here, but I'm very excited too. Everyone is starting to decorate for Christmas here in that tacky-Chinese way and it is a little weird because no one really celebrates Christmas here. I go around singing "chestnuts roasting on a open fire... ..." to myself because they really do sell roast chestnuts everywhere and it always makes me think of that song. It doesn't seem like winter here though. Even less than Seattle. Today was sunny and about 50 degrees. I suppose I should be thankful and I am. I am thankful everyday that I get this amazing opportunity to be in such an interesting place. And soon I'll be famous here, it'll be me and Da Shan. Just kidding. (If you don't get that joke, don't worry about it)

Welcome to Chengdu; the city of tea houses, mahjong, and bicycles

It is a chilly morning and I just got back from a run and am enjoying a nice, hot bowl of oatmeal with apples, raisins, and cinnamon as I write to you all. Sunday mornings are the best! I am writing from my bed, of course. Since our house doesn't have heat it is just as cold inside as it is outside so I never leave my bed when I am home, it is the only warm place! In my cooking class, Friday was "Duck Day" and we made two dishes featuring duck. Both of them are really easy, but use a special preparation of duck. Doing the preparation, called "tea smoked duck" is the hard part. Of course, they had already bought the prepared duck at the store and just described to us how to make it. It takes along time to make, at least 12 hours, so that was understandable, but sometimes I feel like they don't take us seriously as cooking students. It's like they don't expect us to actually learn it, or at least some of our teachers are that way. It's a little frustrating. Compounded by the fact that Simon, our translator is the single most confusing, unintelligible person I have met in China. He doesn't speak English all that well and even when he seems to understand the question will never, EVER give a straight-forward answer. Sometimes it seems like he is making it up and then asking the chef after if he is right, which I can tell because I can understand what he says. This would be more aggravating if it wasn't so funny. He will have the hardest time with "what kind of meat is this? Can you use other kinds?" and then I will give up and ask the chef and he will give me a normal simple answer. Even if I use Chinese, it doesn't seem to help. I have to ask him over and over again for the names of new ingredients in Chinese and he will just answer "you can buy it in the market." Then I will say I know, but when I go to the market what do I ask for? what is the name?" and he will just look confused. Then Simon will say something else that doesn't make any sense. I've taken to asking the chef whenever possible and telling my other classmates the things I can understand that the chef says that Simon doesn't translate for some reason. We keep wondering whether it is the language barrier or if he is this weird in Chinese too. I have to think so because he doesn't understand my questions in Chinese either and the chefs always do. He is just an odd duck. Makes life more interesting. So anyways, we made one style of duck that you just fry the tea smoked duck and cut it up and eat it (the first picture). The next you take the meat off the bone and fry it with red peppers in a soy-based sauce. Both were very good, but I don't like duck that much, it's too greasy. After class Ben and I went to the outside sharpening stones they have to sharpen our knives because they were getting a little dull. This is Ben sharpening his knife.
Saturday I had another engagement with my swimming friends. I met them at the sports stadium parking lot at 9:30am and we all got in a van and left. We drove pretty much back to my house. Behind my house there is a little river called Si (pronounced suh) River and a bunch of tea houses that line it with confusing little streets winding around between them. After being lost for about 15 minutes and asking about 20 different people for directions, we arrived at the "bamboo tea house". It was beautiful. It was set in a beautiful garden with all different kinds of trees growing in different plots on about an acre of land with little sidewalks going between plots. They explained to me that this was a research garden and a green house where you could buy plants. The tea house was less beautiful. It set in stands of bamboo and there were kids outside playing ping pong on an outdoor table made was out of concrete, which was a nice setting. But, the tea house itself was just a bunch of lawn furniture under a big green plastic roof. We sat around and talked for awhile and drank tea. They taught me special Chengdu dialect words and helped me read the paper (I was really surprised by how much I could get by myself!). Then we took a walk around the garden, which was amazing. They showed me the different kinds of plants that they know like a big fan shaped one that they sell as a fan in the summer and sang some traditional Chinese songs. When we got back it was pretty much time for lunch. We walked into another, more enclosed but equally as temporary-looking, room where there were a bunch of tables set up with food already waiting for us. That is something about China. I don't know if the other people ordered before hand or we just eat what they have, but there is no concept of looking at the menu. Even when I go out to eat by myself at the little restaurants near campus that have menus, once you sit down the server just stands there and waits until you order, they don't give you anytime to look at the menu or think about it. I suppose it's because every restaurant serves close approximations of the same thing and most people probably already know what they want so they don't need a menu.
Lunch was very yummy. Aside from normal Sichuan fare, like Chicken soup, spicy sauteed spinach, fish with a special sweet and sour sauce, and about 4 or 5 others, we had a special "winter swimming" dish that I had never had before. It seemed like a sweet, black, sesame bean paste pocketed between two layers of a meaty sort of fish (i think) served with sugar on rice. I had to eat it first, since I was the special guest, but it actually wasn't that bad. Not that I'll be ordering it on my own. After lunch we sat down in the tea house again and I played mahjong with 3 of my swimming friends. One is a lady named Chen Laoshi who is in her 40's and is probably the next fastest swimmer after me. She lives and teaches at Chuan Da, although I don't know what. Another is an older woman who's name I can't remember who is 57 (she told me) and is so funny and animated, I just love hanging out with her. The other guy is older as well, maybe 60's or even 70 and he always wears a blue baseball cap with a foam front, like the John Deere one's, that is too big for him and smiles all the time. There was also a younger lady who usually swims at another pool who helped me play because I'm not that good yet. At 3:30 we had to have the picture taking ceremony where we took pictures in a group and then different smaller groups and then people took turns taking pictures with me individually or in pairs before we drove back to Chuan Da. Then we all went to the pool to go swimming, because it opens at 4pm. I swam 1500 meters, which is more than usual when it is so cold outside and then went home to warm up. On the way home I took pictures of the route I take so you guys can see it. After I leave campus out of the East gate, I go on the road along the Funan River. After about 100m I pass a park/tea house/temple place with beautiful carved stone walls. I haven't been inside the park yet, but I plan on going soon. Then I come to a arched bridge going over the river. There are always vendors outside the gates of the park and at the bridge selling sugar cane, sweet potatoes, fried dough things, flowers, and sometimes kettle corn on the weekends. After I cross the bridge take a left and follow the river on the other side for another 100m until I come to another flat bridge. This bridge is at a fork in the river and is by where the tea house I like to go to is. After I cross the bridge I pass a line of lamb soup restaurants that are supposedly very good. My swimming friends said they are going to take me next, next Monday (the 18th) to eat dinner there after swimming. At night when I ride by they are always very busy and there are always boys out in front yelling at all the cars that come by to come and eat and pointing wildly. When I run by in the morning I always see either a truck or a bicycle delivering the day's lamb and they hang the carcases outside all day until they are ready to use them. After that I ride 2 blocks past some bakeries, our fruit stand, some other stores, my sweet potato lady, and a big gas station where all the buses and taxis come to refuel to a big intersection called "chen ren lu kou". After I go through the intersection the driveway into my complex comes up on the left off the next side street. I ride this same route to and from school everyday. So there you go, another window into my life in China. Now I should really go and study. I have another test tomorrow in my Chinese class. This is a picture of my activities for the day; Chinese books, computer, Industrial Ecology notebook because I am working on a Green Chemistry and LEED powerpoint, Christmas cards that I have to write, and my book on top for when I want to take a break.