Part 2 of Andrea’s adventures in China.
I found Chinese kittens!
Saturday we went to meet with Chinese high school students and they took us to Xinghai, but a different part. We rented bicycles and rode around, and I rode a tandem bike! It’s a lot harder than you might think it would be, it takes a lot more balance! They even had 3 person bikes, leave it to China to do that. lol. But the Chinese students were super nice and they took us to dinner and we met their families. It was nice.
So yesterday was full of interesting food. I went to a Korean restaurant for lunch with some friends. I just pointed to something on the menu and got that, which worked out quite well. it ended up being like big fat thick noodles in some sauce. One of the guys got seafood pizza, which sounds disgusting. But it wasn’t really pizza, and I tried a piece, it wasn’t too bad actually… but what I thought was an onion, really turned out to be a tentacle.. which was weird. But it didn’t taste bad, it just had a really strange texture, which was how I knew it wasn’t an onion. Then for dinner we went to a hot pot place. So basically they bring out a pot of spiced water and then a bunch of raw meats and vegetables and noodle dough and you put whatever you want in the hot pot and it cooks, and then everyone grabs stuff out of it when its ready and you eat it. It seemed like it’d be gross or weird to be sharing your food like that, but it was really fun and really delicious.
Today I went to lunch with my classmates, well some of them, and our grammar teacher. We went to by far the best restaurant I’ve been to so far and the best food. I didn’t know what any of it was, but this Russian guy Alex was sitting next to me and kept putting things on my plate to eat. it was really interesting.
Friday some of the people want to go to the zoo, but I really don’t want to. Apparently in China they don’t take care of their animals. People can throw things at them, or you can pay to have a live chicken thrown into the tiger den… so it’s all really bad for the animals… I’m just not sure I can support such animal cruelty. Also it’s expensive. So instead I think I’m going to a different park with a British International Student, Martha. I think that should be more fun.
Next week on Tuesday we leave for our touring event. I think we’re going to Nanjing, some other city, and Shanghai. I doubt I’ll be doing too much touring of Shanghai, since the World GPR conference is happening at the same time. I emailed my professor to see if any of his colleagues were going, and turns out a couple are, and he offered to pay the registration fee as long as I committed to one full day at the conference!!! (which is 2,000 yuan!!) I’m really excited about this, it’s a chance for me to meet geophysicists from around the whole world!
Monday we went and taught some high school students. My kids loved me, they loved my presentation and all my pictures. They were so sad when I had to leave, probs bc we were in the middle of learning about slang words. I taught them: sweet, sucks, blows, sweet ride, hottie, slamdown, muffin top. lol they had so much fun. But I also got a job offer from the high school when I graduate. Apparently they are looking for foreign teachers to come teach their students, especially like SAT prep… so that was interesting.
