about going to Tibet over the fall break. It looks like it's going to work out, which is really exciting! It will be pretty expensive though, but traveling Tibet is just that way because of the permits and everything. Then I went swimming and I swam 2700 meters today, which is more than usual. My shoulder is getting stronger everyday. Then I rode my bike back home and Laura and I went to try out this tea house by our apartment. It was really pretty. We got a table outside right next to the "river." By river I mean dried up, polluted drainage canal, but that's what a river is in Chengdu. It's pretty for China I guess. We sat at a little wooden table under the trees. Then the waiter came up and asked what we wanted, and the test begins. What do we want....tea? Of course we don't know what kind of tea to order, so we ask him what kind he thinks is best and we will have that. He brought two kinds out then for us to try. One is called piao shui and the other I didn't get the name of. I'm going to keep a list so I can remember them and don't have to ask every time. Piao shui was a very flowery tea that smelled like Lillies. Laura really liked it and I thought it was OK. The other one I really liked though. It was some sort of green seed looking thing and tasted really fresh and kind of grassy, but in a good way. Then it got dark and we couldn't read outside anymore, so we went home. On the way we stopped to get some dinner to go at a little restaurant. This is actually the hardest part of being in Chengdu so far because we can't read the menus except for a few things and you can't have those things every time. So we tried to find something that didn't have anything weird (like liver or hearts or anything) and ordered it. But the lady said that we shouldn't get that, we should get cai dan, which means "a meal." Apparently what we ordered is only considered lunch and not dinner. Or at least that's what I think she meant. So we ordered something else that she recommended, the good old "what do you think?", and went home. We ended up getting some sort of pork and garbanzo bean rice soup, which was very good so we considered it a victory. Moral of the story is: life in China is always a surprise but it makes you take pride in even the smallest accomplishments. This blog doesn't have any pictures so I decided to put some random ones in. The top one is one the tea service we had back in the international student dorms, but we had a metal hot water container just like the one in the picture at the tea house.
16 September 2006
Liang ge waiguo nuhaizi (two foreign girls) strike again!
Everyday seems like a challenge here. Mostly in a good way, because it works out, but it's always kind of a surprise. Today was a good day though. I woke up and did homework for a while. boring I know, but they keep us really busy with Chinese homework here. It's good though. I feel like I'm learning alot. Which is part of the reason why everyday seems like a test. Can you go and buy milk in Chinese? Can you order lunch in Chinese? Can you buy a phone card in Chinese? After homework my test was, Can you buy a new basket for your bike in Chinese? The answer is yes. My old basket was attached with a little piece of wire and a screw that kept coming un-screwed while a rode it. Finally yesterday it just fell off. Not all the way though, just most of the way so it was just hanging off the side. I tied it back in position with a piece of string. I guess that's what you get for $10. So today I had to go buy a new one and ask them to put it on for me. I rode down the block from our house to this little bike store and asked them for a big, new basket. Then I asked them to put it on for me. It went very well and I was really proud of myself, especially because the store people spoke really thick Sichuan hua (like southern accent kind of). On top of that, me buying a new basket was apparently the event of the week and about 10 people gathered around to watch. After that I rode my bike to school for a meeting with a travel agent 
about going to Tibet over the fall break. It looks like it's going to work out, which is really exciting! It will be pretty expensive though, but traveling Tibet is just that way because of the permits and everything. Then I went swimming and I swam 2700 meters today, which is more than usual. My shoulder is getting stronger everyday. Then I rode my bike back home and Laura and I went to try out this tea house by our apartment. It was really pretty. We got a table outside right next to the "river." By river I mean dried up, polluted drainage canal, but that's what a river is in Chengdu. It's pretty for China I guess. We sat at a little wooden table under the trees. Then the waiter came up and asked what we wanted, and the test begins. What do we want....tea? Of course we don't know what kind of tea to order, so we ask him what kind he thinks is best and we will have that. He brought two kinds out then for us to try. One is called piao shui and the other I didn't get the name of. I'm going to keep a list so I can remember them and don't have to ask every time. Piao shui was a very flowery tea that smelled like Lillies. Laura really liked it and I thought it was OK. The other one I really liked though. It was some sort of green seed looking thing and tasted really fresh and kind of grassy, but in a good way. Then it got dark and we couldn't read outside anymore, so we went home. On the way we stopped to get some dinner to go at a little restaurant. This is actually the hardest part of being in Chengdu so far because we can't read the menus except for a few things and you can't have those things every time. So we tried to find something that didn't have anything weird (like liver or hearts or anything) and ordered it. But the lady said that we shouldn't get that, we should get cai dan, which means "a meal." Apparently what we ordered is only considered lunch and not dinner. Or at least that's what I think she meant. So we ordered something else that she recommended, the good old "what do you think?", and went home. We ended up getting some sort of pork and garbanzo bean rice soup, which was very good so we considered it a victory. Moral of the story is: life in China is always a surprise but it makes you take pride in even the smallest accomplishments. This blog doesn't have any pictures so I decided to put some random ones in. The top one is one the tea service we had back in the international student dorms, but we had a metal hot water container just like the one in the picture at the tea house.
about going to Tibet over the fall break. It looks like it's going to work out, which is really exciting! It will be pretty expensive though, but traveling Tibet is just that way because of the permits and everything. Then I went swimming and I swam 2700 meters today, which is more than usual. My shoulder is getting stronger everyday. Then I rode my bike back home and Laura and I went to try out this tea house by our apartment. It was really pretty. We got a table outside right next to the "river." By river I mean dried up, polluted drainage canal, but that's what a river is in Chengdu. It's pretty for China I guess. We sat at a little wooden table under the trees. Then the waiter came up and asked what we wanted, and the test begins. What do we want....tea? Of course we don't know what kind of tea to order, so we ask him what kind he thinks is best and we will have that. He brought two kinds out then for us to try. One is called piao shui and the other I didn't get the name of. I'm going to keep a list so I can remember them and don't have to ask every time. Piao shui was a very flowery tea that smelled like Lillies. Laura really liked it and I thought it was OK. The other one I really liked though. It was some sort of green seed looking thing and tasted really fresh and kind of grassy, but in a good way. Then it got dark and we couldn't read outside anymore, so we went home. On the way we stopped to get some dinner to go at a little restaurant. This is actually the hardest part of being in Chengdu so far because we can't read the menus except for a few things and you can't have those things every time. So we tried to find something that didn't have anything weird (like liver or hearts or anything) and ordered it. But the lady said that we shouldn't get that, we should get cai dan, which means "a meal." Apparently what we ordered is only considered lunch and not dinner. Or at least that's what I think she meant. So we ordered something else that she recommended, the good old "what do you think?", and went home. We ended up getting some sort of pork and garbanzo bean rice soup, which was very good so we considered it a victory. Moral of the story is: life in China is always a surprise but it makes you take pride in even the smallest accomplishments. This blog doesn't have any pictures so I decided to put some random ones in. The top one is one the tea service we had back in the international student dorms, but we had a metal hot water container just like the one in the picture at the tea house.
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