Hey family!
I don't know if anyone is reading this anymore. Tanner's dad Jon told me he was waiting for a final post.
I am home safe and sound. I am very happy. My health is getting better. I am having a lot of fun. I caught on me sleep fairly easily. I am puttering around now. I clean my mom's house, read, and watch the news. I am taking care of school stuff this week. I also need to get my car running.
I am so glad I got to go to China. I do miss things already. I can't wait to go back.
Love you all!
I think if I/we go on more trips I'll keep using this blog okay? I will let you know.
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
Dorm
I live in the 留学生宿舍 or Overseas Student Dormitory. Here is a tour. Part of the reason I'm doing this is that a few weeks ago my mom just realized I dry my clothes on a balcony outside. I actually forgot to take a photos of the balconies. The dorms are the nicest on campus.
We have our own fuwuyuan, or server, on our floor. She unlocks doors and helps with various other problems. This is her station.
Inside that room you can see above, is one of the most important things in the dorm. It's the hot water machine, its open 24 hours a day, so we can have drinking water whenever we need it. The water here isn't really potable, most people boil their water.
Lovely view from the roof, where if it's dry out, you can dry clothes.
This is the kitchen. We have three gas burners, and a sink. Tradiotional Chinese cooking doesn't involved any baking at all. Baking is done now in bakeries and most homes don't have an oven of any kind. Woks need really high heat, so every one has gas burners too.
Kitchen sink
This is just the view of the common area. The girls bathroom is in the photo. Next to it is the laundry room, kitchen and then boys bathroom. All Chinese homes seem obsessed with tiled floors, walls and sometimes ceilings.
Half the dorm is curved back onto itself.
By the water machine, the lobby at the top of the stairs.
Into the girls bathroom.
There you go, white tiles. The girls bathroom has two squatty pottys and two showers. The shower has hot and cold water. But it's got no water pressure, the water falls out of the wide old fashioned shower heads. It's fine. Cold lately, the bathroom window stays open at all times, so it dries inside.
Tinny little washing machines. All in Chinese too, so read carefully.
The long sink in the washing room, for handwashing clothes.
In the common area. If you keep walking my room is the fifth or sixth door on the right from here.
We have our own fuwuyuan, or server, on our floor. She unlocks doors and helps with various other problems. This is her station.
Inside that room you can see above, is one of the most important things in the dorm. It's the hot water machine, its open 24 hours a day, so we can have drinking water whenever we need it. The water here isn't really potable, most people boil their water.
Lovely view from the roof, where if it's dry out, you can dry clothes.
This is the kitchen. We have three gas burners, and a sink. Tradiotional Chinese cooking doesn't involved any baking at all. Baking is done now in bakeries and most homes don't have an oven of any kind. Woks need really high heat, so every one has gas burners too.
Kitchen sink
This is just the view of the common area. The girls bathroom is in the photo. Next to it is the laundry room, kitchen and then boys bathroom. All Chinese homes seem obsessed with tiled floors, walls and sometimes ceilings.
Half the dorm is curved back onto itself.
By the water machine, the lobby at the top of the stairs.
Into the girls bathroom.
There you go, white tiles. The girls bathroom has two squatty pottys and two showers. The shower has hot and cold water. But it's got no water pressure, the water falls out of the wide old fashioned shower heads. It's fine. Cold lately, the bathroom window stays open at all times, so it dries inside.
Tinny little washing machines. All in Chinese too, so read carefully.
The long sink in the washing room, for handwashing clothes.
In the common area. If you keep walking my room is the fifth or sixth door on the right from here.
Snow in Chengdu
That's all, it didn't ever stick here. It's also been sunny and nearly warm some days. Too bad I'm going back to Seattle, it's colder there and more regularly overcast. Though I am excited to get rid of the month long sinus headache I have had from the pollution here.
Last post from China - for now
As I write this I’m watching TV in my room. I’ll post this tomorrow. Right now a Chinese boy is break dancing, on his head, to rock mixed Celtic music. It’s fabulous.
Chinese people my age are mostly obsessed with pop music, and there are dance competitions on TV every day, lots of male group break dancing and female hip hop dancers.
Tanner told me my blog needs some closure. I don’t really have any grand sweeping conclusions. I learned a lot about myself here. I keep thinking about how easy everything will seem in the U.S. I am convinced I will be more outgoing and braver in the states now, after having been here. I did learn some Chinese, and will be less afraid to speak it in the states when I get a chance. I learned a lot about Chinese culture, and I think it will help me in my studies in international studies at the UW. I liked it here. I didn’t like the loneliness, and spending money to fail classes. I’m going to come home and get good grades, among other accomplishments. I am already thinking about my next trip to China. I hope I can return often. I hope I make more Chinese friends in Seattle, and incorporate Chinese language into my everyday life there as well.
Chinese New Year was on the 6th and 7th. My entire city shut down. It wasn’t much fun for me actually. I’m already missing Chinese food, all my favorites place, and almost all places, have been closed for days. It was pretty special to see at midnight on the 6th the entire city around me explode in fireworks. We had a nice view from our rooftop, almost 360 degrees. There were huge fireworks too! Totally illegal even here. People were shooting them off their balconies, so even though everyone around me lives in condos there were a ton of fireworks. It was fantastic, very moving and fun. There have been families out together, walking to the grocery store, or playing ping pong on campus. It makes me very excited to see my family. Next year I’ll have to teach everyone about Chinese New Year and throw a big dinner.
I have stuck close to home, and have been sleeping in every day. Some people might say I should have really gotten more out of China in my last few weeks. It gets hard after a while to try and have by yourself though. I haven’t been buying gifts, I just did that for Christmas. And then everything shut down. But I really have had a nice time by myself and just relaxing. I won’t get to live in my own space at home, our house is crowded. I’ve appreciated this time.
About ten times a day something strikes me and I get really sad that I’m leaving. Everything at home is going to seem so boring. I really enjoy Chengdu. I’m really glad I got to come here.
I’ve got pictures from the past few days. I also finally took a bunch of photos of my dorm, so you can see where I have been living.
A friend also gave me photos of Yangjuan, the village I visited when I first got here. So I thought I would post those. When you read about the winter storms here, and people being without road access or power, you can picture these mud brick houses.
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