Day 1
I left my apartment at 5 am. Yuck! However with the help of
my roommate, I had arranged for a taxi driver to come to pick me up. I arrived
in Chengdu around 10. Rebekah picked me up, and we caught up the whole way
home. This was the first time that we have seen each other since we graduated
from college.
After we dropped my stuff off at her apartment, we went out
for Muslim Noodles, and Rebekah showed me around their neighborhood. The area
where they live is so quant and peaceful and clean. I was thoroughly impressed
especially by their apartment. It seemed to be set up in a much more western
way than many of the apartments that I have been in here. Also, it felt very homey.
The one down side was that it does not have central heat or insolated walls.
The individual rooms have heaters, but they do not keep a room warm in the same
way. While we in TJ have to open up windows in the middle of winter in order to
keep from roasting, they have to wear a thousand layers.
After exploring, we went back and watched a movie/took a
nap. Feeling rejuvenated from our nap, we went and got Chinese food for dinner.
Even though my Chinese is terrible, it was fun to be the one with the better
Chinese for a change, so I ordered our dinner.
After a filling and delicious meal, we watched Psych. This
became our show over the trip, and we spent almost every evening watching it.
Day 2
We left Rebekah’s apartment at 7 am to go to the Panda reserve.
A bus, the subway, a taxi, and almost 2 hours later, we arrived. Even though
this sounds complicated, it was actually very easy.
The Panda reserve itself was a little hard to navigate. We
had a map, and we followed the signs that told us what direction to go, but we
kept getting sidetracked which caused us to go in circles. Eventually, we did
see panda’s of all ages. The adult giant pandas were far away and hard to see,
but I got good pictures of the other pandas. My favorite pandas were the
“teenage” pandas. I believe that they were 1-4 years old, and they were very
active. It was fun to watch them wrestle and play “King of the Hill.” The other
pandas were pretty inactive; all they did was sit and eat.
Not only did the Panda reserve have Giant Pandas, they also
had Red Pandas, which look like a cross between a raccoon and a fox. They were
cool because we were able to get close to them though we were advised not to
touch them.
Day 3
A friend from Qingdao also happened to be visiting Chengdu
at the same time, so we spent the day catching up over coffee.
In the evening, we got lost in a Tibetan area while looking
for a restaurant. After eating a delicious western meal complete with
Cheesecake for dessert, we went to a near by market. The shopping within the
market was not particularly exciting (I really don’t really need any more
Chinese souvenirs). However, ancient looking and Chinese lanterns lit the
streets. We got some great pictures. I did buy a set of miniature Tibetan dolls
for only 10 RMB ($1.50)! In my mind, this was the find of the night.
Day 4
It was Sunday, so we went downtown to a fellowship. After
fellowship, we went to Peter’s for lunch. For those of you who live in China, I
need not say more. For everyone else, I will say that it a large western food
chain (specializing in Tex-Mex) in China, but they only have it in Chengdu,
Beijing, and Shanghai.
After lunch, we did some shopping at the mall. I bought a
new shirt which was one sale for 50 RMB (about $8). This was a good buy because
I need something dressy to wear out to dinner for New Years Eve.
Then we went to the busiest IKEA in the world and boy was it
overwhelming. I did, however, buy a few items including a new book bag. The one
that I have been using, I have had since high school, and it is starting to
fall apart and look very ratty.
Day 5
New Year’s Eve. We went to the Shangri-la for dinner where I
ate one of the most expensive meals that I have ever eaten, but it was
delicious. It was a buffet, so I ate Indian food, Chinese food, Middle Eastern
food, and Western food. To top it off, we had our own room, so we played the
bowl game after we finished. We left to ring in the New Year by singing songs
to the Father.
After we got home, you would think that we would have gone
to bed, but no, we watch Psych instead. It was three by the time we went to
bed.
Day 6
I spent most of the morning in bed though I was awake at 9.
Once we were awake and ready, we went to Pizza Hut for lunch. It was incredibly
crowded, so by the time we got a table and ordered it was late. Sleeping in had
eaten up the day. After gorging ourselves on pizza, we decided that we needed
some exercise, so we decided to walk back.
As we walked, we tried to name as many countries as we
could. We started with the As, then the Bs then the Cs and so on. The funny
thing is that two of the countries we missed the first time around were China
and The United States (The two countries in which all of us had lived). This
made the two-hour walk back go by pretty quickly. We thought that we had done a
pretty good job with naming the countries, but we sure missed a bunch. Did you
know that there is a country named Isle of Man? If you are interested in a list
of all the countries in the world, here’s a link.
That evening, we went to a small gathering at another
teacher’s apartment. When we got home, it seemed only right to end the time
with watching Psych.
Day 7
We left Rebekah’s apartment around 7am, and I got to my
apartment around 1 pm. Overall, the trip was really fun. I ate a ton of very
delicious western food, so now I need to get Malatong (my favorite Chinese soup
with vegetables, sesame sauce, and spices) to make up for it. It was a good
balance of relaxing and adventuring. I guess I could say that I played like a
Panda. I did some active things, but I also ate a lot of good food.
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