If not for my love, I wouldn’t be slaving over this computer while I’m stuck in an uncomfortably hot room, on an awkwardly firm bed, and frequently dashing to the bathroom thanks to eating really really great but spicy food from the Sichuan province. The food is delicious – the best I’ve had in China yet – but it can ravage a digestive system and really create havoc to say the least!! Kind of makes you wonder what I had to eat. Right?
You should also know I love you because I only talk about things like this with people I really and truly love. Pictures after the jump!
Just kidding! All you get is a picture of my butt as we walk into the Foreign Language Experimental School Attached to Guilin University of Electronic Technology. It's only scary if you were actually here and behind me.... remember spicy food, upset digestive system.... You'll have to read more to see the food of the week.
Our last day in Guangxi province started at this private boarding school. We met with the school principal to discuss education in China compared to America. I hope to talk about this more in a later post where I elaborate on my thoughts on liberty and education in our two countries. For now, I want to just talk about a few of the things we saw before my battery dies and I’m on a train for over fifteen hours.
Pictured above is the principal and I’ve never missed Lee Wheaton more in my life. Seriously, he had a lot of very interesting things to share and was very kind to show us around the school.
The school looked more like a prison than anything else but they told us they were in the process of moving to a new building. I really enjoyed the “inspirational” signs around the school and we also got to visit a classroom. They were taking a history test. It appears that tests suck no matter where you go.
Our group went to a tea planation before dinner. We needed to fill some time and felt cajoled into going but it turned out to be awesome. I got to wear a cool hat, stepped in some buffalo turds, attended a Confucian tea ceremony, and bought some of the best oolong tea I’ve ever tasted.
I also learned how to thank someone for pouring me tea. You tap one finger on the table three times rather than having to say thank you. Using more than one finger can suggest many different things. For example, I thought it was three fingers tapped three times until the end of the tea ceremony. I was then told that I had been suggesting to the server that I was married but available.
After our dinner, we caught a late flight to the Sichuan province. China is freaking huge and Sichuan is the fourth largest province. Not very big. Just, you know, the size of France. The region is known for incredibly spicy food and on the very first day my taste buds were rejoicing. Meanwhile, my digestive system was screaming in agony.
In the city of Chengdu, we attended two seminars as part of our efforts to pretend that we’re professionals and academics rather than awe-struck tourists. They were boring but informative. One was about science. And when I say science I mean the methodology of researching the environmental impact of production in China. It had absolutely nothing to do with teaching social studies and I was one of the few who really got engaged but I also read a book about string theory in middle school so my opinion is invalid.
Afterwards, we visited the cottage of a Chinese poet from the eighth century Tang dynasty, Du Fu. It was scenic and I enjoyed just sitting around taking in all the peace that a cottage reconstructed based on the poems of a failed civil servant and self-proclaimed ascetic can provide. Actually, China’s attempts to reclaim some of its cultural history in a post-Cultural Revolution world are very interesting. Look forward to more on that in the next post.
We went to Jinli Street, a popular shopping area in a very upscale part of Chengdu, after seeing Du Fu’s cottage. A pretty stark contrast. I mostly just focused on checking out the shops and snacking with some of the others. Our content specialist, Steve, is probably most useful for his knowledge of random, delicious snacks in China. Under his guidance, I had some delicious spicy fried tofu and an array of meat on a stick. My favorite was the “bigl ambs” that we later determined was lamb. I love Engrish.
Like I said, I pretty much just shopped so the only interesting photos I got were of American businesses in China. Starbucks is still wicked expensive and the blizzards at Dairy Queen don’t spill even when turned upside down.
Our first stop on the following day was the Sanxingdui Museum. Their exhibits highlight architectural discoveries in Sichuan of some of the earliest civilizations in China. I thought that what I saw was amazing and I can certainly use what I learned in my classes. However, I’m not a big fan of museums that just have artifact after artifact on display.
I know that a good social studies teacher would be much more excited but I started to lose interest in the sacrificial blades like the one pictured above after the twentieth one. And I lost interest in the chisels after the first one. Very cool stuff but I would rather read about the interpretations of these discoveries and the history of their discovery. Unfortunately, most museums are too comfortable telling me what I’m seeing rather than how and why they’ve decided to label it as such.
Oddly enough, what interested me the most was the behavior of the Chinese visitors to the museum. I’ll dedicate a future post to the unique Asian perspective on lines and respectful ways of navigating around other people. The Chinese and I are just from entirely different worlds when it comes to this behavior. Thus I had several pictures suddenly blocked by interloping Chinese tourists.
The best one, my nemesis for the day, ruined many great photos and would often stand in front of me as I tried to read plaques on the wall. I took his picture because passive aggressive hatred and ranting on my blog is how I choose to live my life. Collin tried to teach me phrases to politely ask him to wait for my picture to be taken or to not stand in my way but I said screw that and followed him around to repay the favor. Really spicy food, upset digestive system, you get the picture.....
Our day ended at the Duijiangyan Irrigation Park. That might sound incredibly boring but it was beautiful and these irrigation systems were started over 2000 years ago. Also, I ate a delicious popsicle. It was blueberry flavored and there was ice cream inside of it. That was the best popsicle that has ever happened to my mouth.
One interesting thing about this park and our hotel and several restaurants we have eaten at is that they all play a lot of Kenny G covering random songs. I may or may not have rocked out to the Backstreet Boys while walking amongt statues of Chinese emperors and philosophers.
I’ve learned that the information I was given about not needing an adapter in China was a hurtful lie. Thus I must end this post before catching up with where I really am in my travels. But I shall update soon and for now I can tease you with what I have done and what lies ahead.
Wandering through the furniture district of Chengdu.
Condemning my soul to eternal fire for making an old woman carry me to dinner.
A Buddha carved out of a mountain 1200 years ago.
Panda wrestling.
The ancient city of Xi’an.
And…
