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Published: February 22nd 2011
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Well it has been a short while since I last posted. Mostly this is because nothing really significant has happened and we have been quite busy with our regular routines. This semester Laura and I are teaching everything from drama club to preschool to 9 year olds. On the days we do not teach, we still have to plan for the lessons and design and develop curriculum and such. My days off are Mondays and Fridays while Laura is off Tuesdays and Fridays.
In addition to teaching, Laura continues to blog for the Association of Safe International Road Travel and to freelance write articles on travel, fashion, and lifestyle for the China Global Times. I have joined the Beijing Handball Club and practice every Thursday. The weekend tournaments are going to be hard for me to attend with my teaching schedule but perhaps something can be arranged. Wednesday evenings we have been going to a pub quiz by our apartment and Fridays we would like to start going to Chabad; at least when we can. Next month we start taking our Chinese lessons.
We would like to start hosting couchsurfers. We were hosted by so many kind people we
want to give back too. As of yet we have not hosted but we have a Latvian and a Pole coming in the next few weeks. I have had a LOT of requests but we are not running a hotel. A couple of backpackers or people on their around the world trip are gladly welcomed once in a while though. Thankfully Spring Festival is over.. fireworks had been going off nearly nonstop each evening for the last 3 weeks. Lastly we all enjoyed celebrating honest Abe’s 202nd birthday in style, all of us clad in top hats, at a log cabin like restaurant in the Wu (our neighborhood.)
This weekend we had 4 days off in a row and decided to leave Beijing for a bit. Laura pitched a Chengdu article and I found 99 dollar flights from Beijing to Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province, so we decided to come. Incidentally it is also our last weekend off until May. Sichuan is known for its spicy food, its temples and of course, its pandas. We stayed in the most wonderful youth hostel. It had everything a traveler could possibly want including TVs and DVD players in each room,
a HUGE DVD and book selection, lots of gardens, nooks and crannies, a nice bar, a game area with ping pong, foosball, billiards, a scale, an area to trade clothes, free drinking water, a travel desk, plenty of lounging rooms.. I mean you name it, they had it. Easily the best hostel I have ever been to. Even the rooms were great with fluffy beds, pillows, and heating so hot, we had to open the windows! All for just 7 dollars a night!
So what about the temples? Neither one of us are huge temple fans anyhow, so Laura got her hair permed for 4 hours while I went exploring the monastery and temple grounds with our Chinese tour leader who offered to hang out with us for the day on her off time. Besides the numerous Buddhas, the highlight of that experience was the “undrinkable tea.” It is so named because they start you out with a large glass with a forest of leaves and flowers on the bottom. Then every time you take a single sip, the hot water man comes around and “tops you off.” I never got beyond the top inch!
So the main
reason we came down was because of the pandas. They were so cute. No matter what they did, it was always so fun to watch. Even the red pandas were fun to watch. I even got to hold a 5 month old from the nursery. He really was like a cat or a big baby; I am not sure which. He kept adjusting himself and trying to get more comfortable. He also liked his tummy rubbed. The thing that surprised me is there were like no bones. He was like a heavy pillow, just soft and fluffy. When he got bored he was eventually given a honey drenched bamboo stick to suck on.
We were going to take a Sichuan cooking class but in the end elected for a Sichuan hot pot with friends. They are known for their spicy food. In fact it was all so spicy that I could hardly eat a thing. We tamed down the hot pot and drank some Chinese wine called Bijou (which is more like whisky) to help us get through the meal. Then back at the hostel I was beaten 3 times by Chinese table tennis player, who took great enjoyment
from my defeat. It was good fun. We then watched a Julia Roberts movie I somehow hadn’t seen called “Fireflys in the Garden,” and slept for about 12 hours.
Our last morning was spent at Tianfu Square in downtown Chengdu drinking coffee, reading and people watching. There is also a giant Chairman Mao Statue, that was likely over 300 feet tall. The park was very peaceful though and was a wonderful end to a great weekend getaway. And now back to Beijing for us. Talk to you again in March.
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