Pumpkin Carving and the Sichuan University Olympic Games

Today we talked about traffic in my class and how crazy it is. I don't think there really is a good way to describe it, Laura and I are going to try to film it though and then hopefully you all will understand the honking, cars, people, bikes and chaos that is my daily commute. After class Deborah, Laura, Matt, and I went down by the East gate to a street where all the middle school kids eat. There is a middle school in the ChuanDa campus and they don't have a cafeteria (that I'm aware of) so all the kids go outside to this little street vendor and restaurant area to eat. It's nice because it is really busy and all the food is really cheap. I had this fried chicken on a stick that had spice all over it, a banana ice cream cone, and fruit (mostly grapes and kiwi) on stick covered in a simple syrup. It was all delicious and cost 4 kuai all together. It's like the state fair, but better. Deborah also had some fried potatoes and grilled lotus root, both prepared with spices on top of course. Matt and Laura both got cold noodles and Matt also had a fried chicken sandwich thing. The abundance and variety of food here will never cease to amaze me, you really can't go wrong. Especially the street food. Yum!
On the way back we got another job offer. People are constantly approaching us everywhere we go because they want us to somehow promote their product or business. This time it was two people who were part of a cosmetics company and they wanted two Western women to be models for some of their new products. Part of me wants to do it because I want to see what it would be like, but I just feel to weird about it. First, these people are always approaching me on the street and that is a little unusual. I don't know where it is or exactly what will be required of me or, in this case, what my pictures will be used for, or anything. Second, I don't like the Chinese idolization of Western looks. It's all just a little unsettling. But we got rid of them by pointing them in the direction of the Foreign Student Dorm and saying that we would be out of town this weekend so we could not take the pictures (they wanted to do it this weekend), which is true.
Then I went swimming and listened to the band practice "America the Beautiful" in the building next to the pool. It was very surreal and I couldn't keep myself from smiling at the bizarre feeling of swimming in a cold, outdoor pool in China as it's getting dark listening to "America the Beautiful" situation. By that time I was also the only one left in the pool, but they turned on the lights for me. I felt like I was in a movie or something.
After that Deborah, Matt, and I went to Shamrock's, the foreign bar, because they were having pumpkin carving, well nan gua carving anyways. Nan gua is like a mixture between an pumpkin and a butternut squash. I made mine into a cat sitting on a fence, Matt's is the one to the left of mine in the picture. His is a devil and looks like the Spitfire logo. This was only the second time Deborah had ever carved pumpkins and I thought her's was great, it had alot of character even though he was missing a few teeth . :-) After that we went home because I wanted to get some sleep before my race tomorrow and I don't really like that bar. It is full of nostalgic, drunk, ex-patriots and just feels weird and kind of sad. But we got to sit outside when we carved pumpkins and that was really fun!
I had be at the stadium at 7:20am the next morning for the opening ceremony. I got there and there were people everywhere!! Every department had a different outfit on and were all gathering before we marched in the stadium for the ceremony. It felt like the Olympics, or as close as I'm ever going to get anyways. Some teams wore suits and were very formal, some had track suits like us but different colors, all sorts of things. We milled around for about an hour before we were given these 3 feet long gold tubes that were like giant party poppers and tried to line up. We also had a banner that said "Overseas Education School" and a big flag that was carried by this Swiss guy riding a skate board. Then we were ushered into the stadium. Each department marched in separately and had something they did when they walked into the middle. The Chinese are much more organized and disciplined than we were, and so had little routines they would do with little props (like pompoms or something, and chants they would say. We had enough trouble keeping 5 people in a line. So we all walked in mass lead by a skateboarding flag-bearer into the stadium. As people starting cheering for us, some of the foreign students started blowing off their rocket things and then more people started blowing them off. It was all very disorganized and chaotic, but still very fun and exciting. Some of the foreign students were a little rowdy (not Americans, which I was surprised about) because there are never any repercussions for us, but no one seemed to mind. You can get away with alot as a lao wai. Also, alot of the people participating in the opening ceremony weren't competing, so they didn't really care about being serious about it. We all stood on the field and some people gave speeches from the judging table (which you can see below the flag that says 2006 Sichuan University Track and Field Meet) and they opened the games. Deborah and I sat with a bunch of the other foreign students and watched the first few races. It started out with women's 100 meters, which no foreigners competed in, and then onto men's. There was one kid from my class who ran in this race, but he finished last in his heat. The Chinese are FAST! It was really amazing and just a huge event. At about noon I decided to go home and chill a litte bit before my race. It was kind of cold outside too. So I went home, went for a short run to warm up and sat a round for an hour or two. When I got back to school at 3:45, my teacher helped my go down to the registration area and get ready for my race. 50 girls were running the 3000m race with me, in two heats. I was in the first heat and number 22. I thought of you Alex and thought it was a good sign. At about 4:00 my heat all lined up on the track in two staggered lines and at the shot of the gun we were off. I've never run track before or raced this distance before, so I didn't really know how to pace it. I just figured I'd run pretty fast and pick it up at the end if I felt like I could. The race was 7 and 1/2 times around the track and for the first lap I stayed with about 4 or 5 other girls at the front of the pack. By the second lap all they were starting to slow down, so I moved into the lead. By the 4th lap, I had a decisive lead and started passing the straglers. By the time I finished there were tons of people cheering and all the foreign students were down on the track to see me finish. People always say "Jia you" in China, which is the equivalent of "Keep Going!" or "Come on!" but literally means "re-fuel". I was really happy with my race, but for a long time I didn't know my time or how I did compared to the other heat. After I finished I felt famous. Everyone wanted to congratulate me, even people I had never met. On the way out of the stadium they had posted the results and it turns out someone in the second heat beat me by 4 seconds so I got 2nd place with a time of 12:57.3. I was still really happy to place at all. I didn't get any pictures of myself running, but one of my classmates Eddie is a professional photographer and he got some really good ones. Once I get them from him I'll put one up so you guys can see me running. It was really exciting and I had alot of fun! I can't go to the awards ceremony tomorrow morning because I am going on that field trip with my Exchange Program, so my teacher is going to accept my award for me. I'm sad I will miss it though, because the top 3 get to stand on a podium and these girls in qipaos give you flowers and put the medals around your neck. It really feels so much like the Olympics, it was a way bigger deal than I ever expected. But, on to other adventures, so I'll let you guys know how the trip to WenChuan goes tomorrow.