Wrapping it up in Chengdu

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Well. This is the end of my time here. Today was even a little sunny for us. Lucky really since it's an icky time of year not in the habit of showing blue sky and sunlight (especially in China where there is the added obstacle of smog). I pretty much had nothing to do but twiddle my thumbs waiting for tomorrow (and take my last final but it was so easy it really doesn't count). But of course doing that would have been aweful so instead I tried to keep myself busy and distracted. I got a nice hour-long massage for 20 kuai (yuan)...less that $5.00. I walked around taking pictures and when the batteries in my camera unexpectedly died on me I ran out to get more. On the way back I stepped into a sweets shop that I'd heard about that sold candy from other country. The main draw was that it actually sold real chocolate (the chocolate here is kinda blah...doesn't taste real). I guess I had imagined a general store full of cheap american and other foreign candy. Instead it was a small store artfully designed and fancy looking. Relatively speaking (to food and candy here) a lot was pricey. Of course, it cracked me up to see boxes of SwissMiss Hot chocolate sitting contentedly on the shelves along the side. It gave me a little clue as to the real quality of all the other foreign candy in the store. SwissMiss is not exactly gourmet chocolate or even expensive in the U.S. I can probably safely guess that the same held true for all the other curious and mystifiying sweets there. They might be low to middle range fancy here but.....not so true elsewhere.

I did have a moment of gloomy feelings when I was alone and not actively distracting myself so I took a walk with my camera and ended up joining two girls for dinner. They live in the overseas dorm with me and I had seen them before. I even had been introduced at one time but it was nothing we really pursued until In ran into them today. They were very pleasant and made my day just a bit brighter...chased away the sad mood I was in. We talked and ate over good food (though I'd eaten at the same restaurant the night before) and I thought of how glad that I was to eat my last dinner in Chengdu with people and it not be hot-pot. Though my mouth can handle the spicyness of huo guo (hot pot) the rest of my digestive system does not handle it so well. A large group of my friends ate hot-pot tonight but I had to refuse such and invitation that would mean and unhappy digestive tract and multiple rather painfully burning trips to the bathroom.

I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up my room and doing last minute packing. I'll be spending the next two nights in Shanghai. Hopefully I won't be overwhelmed by my choices. After that it is flight to WA that proves time travel is possible. After all I leave China Saturday morning and arrive at SeaTac about and hour before my flight left from Shanghai on the same morning. Weird to think how I am more than half a day ahead of the rest of the U.S. while in China. At least I won't be wasting any time even if I do have to repeat the same day.

Well that just about wraps it up here. But before I end this let's just clear one thing up. For those of you who plan on asking that oh-so-vague question: "So, How was China?" the answer is "Great" or even "Fantastic" (when I remember about the existence of synonyms). If I'm feeling particularly wordy, then it's: "One of those life changing experiences that doesn't begin to show it's side effects until a couple years have passed." or "I haven't even begun to process its impact on my mental and pysical health." or anything along those lines. Actually, if shown the time and interest (and given more specific questions to start me off) there is a lot more I could say on the subject of China and my semester in Chengdu. I look forward to those moments and I look forward to seeing many of you soon. (Some of you, not so soon but it'll happen eventually).

This is Mallory, signing off. Next time you hear from me, I will be much closer (geographically speaking). This concludes my time in China (at least for now...).

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