Blogs from Emi Shan, Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia

This update is mostly just to get some pictures out there. We should be starting to work at the university in a few days. So, I should have some interesting things to say about our experiences with that, but for now we are just hanging out and exploring. Here, I share some photos of our exploring.... read more

We arrived in Chengdu in a somewhat more haphazard manner than we had hoped. First of all our flight from Shanghai to Chengdu delayed our boarding for about an hour and then our takeoff for another 45 minutes. Then, Dani and I were supposed to meet a student from Sichuan University at the airport to take us to our hotel on campus. However, our contact at the university was confused as to which day we were arriving because of the arrival time being 12:15am. She thought we were arriving Saturday night, but we arrived that morning technically. Eventually we were able to find a way to communicate our destination to a taxi driver. In our contract was an English and Chinese version of the university's address. So we showed a cab driver the address and he ... read more

So we are kind of in rainy season and the ground is crazy slippery all the time. My friends actually did see a motorbike get hit by a taxi the other day! Everyone was ok but we were wondering how long it would take to witness an accident in the crazy roads here. The suprises here never really end. We went to a restaurant for a friend's birthday, and the main course was entire fish served from head to tail. Apparently the eyes are a delicacy. What was even more suprising was that there was a tank near the kitchen with fish. The same fish as on our table but in the living state... For desert we had cake, but this was no ordinary cake. There was fruit all over it, and by fruit I mean ... read more

Today was the weirdest day yet. I started classes yesterday and they are hysterical. We learn a ton and being immersed in the culture makes it much easier to take in the Chinese vocab because we are constantly using it. Conveniently we are using the same book as I had at nova and they are starting from the chapter we left off at! I love my classes so far, and tai chi was the funniest thing I could possibly describe. At first the man teaching it seemed very slow and peaceful, and then all of a sudden he whipped out some crazy self defense moves that none of us were expecting. He is also going to help us all get tai chi outfits. I'm super excited and will be wearing it on the plane home. After ... read more

A couple more pictures...... read more