Blogs from Chengdu, Sichuan, China, Asia - page 4

I was really surprised when, after school, Daniel, my homestay student, told me we were having dinner out; we usually have dinner at home. But, I was even more surprised when we stopped at some market filled with traditional looking buildings. It was raining most of the time, which was good because everyone was inside so I could see. The stores were mostly those tacky rip-off shops with fake artifacts and paintings. But there were also a lot of street food stalls, traditional silk stores and mini restaurants. The homestay dad, Yao I think his name is, randomly disappeared and came back after Daniel got me a peach toffee-on-a-stick thing. He led us to a restaurant and we got a table. It was in a traditional building, and the waitresses all wore olden style clothes. We ... read more

Walking with five year old Leela past the primary school playground, I observe she has not noticed the chorus of chatter around her "xiao lao wai". I let her know the children are telling their friends "little foreigner, little foreign girl". Leela replied "How do they know I am from somewhere else? Is it my dress? Tomorrow I will wear my Chinese dress and they won't know. It's not my shoes. My shoes are the same. Is it my hair plait?Some of my Chinese friends have a hair plait like mine. I think it's my dress". Several hours later we navigate the bike hire system with the help of our homestay family. After a one time bond deposit to the bike company, it costs one Chinese yuan to rent a bike per hour. In Chengdu there ... read more

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder. This is generally true. Especially when you are plunged into a culture foreign from your own, in a place and with people you don’t necessarily know. You appreciate the blue sky and the stars at night. You long to wake up to the sound of bird calls in the early morning and the panting and lapping of your precious pets. But, the more you are present in the moment, the more you open your eyes, and heart, to what is around you, the more you grow fond of where you are and what you are experiencing. Despite the lack of blue sky (which I learned today is because of the almost permanent cloud formation found in a geographical basin) and stars, or the bird calls and pets, there ... read more

So far China has been really fun! Last night I rode a MoboBike (bikes that you rent through your phone on the side of the road) for the first time with my homestay mum. I thought I was going to get hit by a car because of the whole “there’s road rules but we don’t use them” thing but I survived and it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, it was really fun. It kind of snapped me out of being a little homesick. I’m really excited about going home and sharing all my photos with everyone. I think I have been developing a good relationship with my homestay mum. I’m really looking forward to our camp this week and getting to know the rest of the Chinese class nines, they ... read more

The food in China is very different to Australia. There is a lot of rice and cooked vegetables. When there is rice left over, they add water and then, the next day, you have gloppy rice for breakfast, which has no flavour and is not that nice. In a lot of food I have been having they have these little beans that you eat and they make your mouth numb and tingle. They are strange. Avalon... read more