04-30-2016

On a whim, I went to Bayi Square again today. This was the only picture I took and it was inside a shopping mall. However, I should have taken a picture of ALL THE PEOPLE WALKING AROUND. Monday is a holiday (Labor Day) which is why there were so many people out. My first thought was, 'wow, and here the population is only 5 million - I wonder what Beijing will be like' (and my friends and I were actually planning to go to Beijing this weekend because of the holiday, but a Nanchang local teacher, crowded images of the Great Wall, and limited as well as expensive flight tickets made us reconsider. 

(Also, I want to center all of this text but I have no idea how that. I already dislike mobile .__.)

04-29-2016 (and important update!)

So this happened today. As a result, I will have to update my blog via mobile, which I am not looking forward to.

In addition to upcoming posts possibly being delayed for that reason, I will be traveling to Beijing on Wednesday (5-4-2016) and stay until the weekend, so I'm not sure if I will update while I'm gone.

04-28-2016

As you can see, I felt quite bubbly today :p

The girl taking the picture is a friend of my friend next to me - she's the girl I met at Chinese corner. I guess I should introduce her since I've mentioned her before. I don't know the exact characters of her name (she might have written it down somewhere but I'm too tired and lazy to check) but her name sounds similar to how you say 'whale' in Chinese. For simplicity, she said I can call her whale in English (which I'll admit I feel a little weird doing).

There were seven of us altogether (six girls including me and the one guy, Whale's classmate that had dinner with us last time) that went to lunch today. Afterwards, we went to watch the remainder of a basketball game between two departments - the team that my acquaintances were rooting for barely lost after making it into overtime. This picture was taken after we left the gym and someone distributed these tiny bubble-balloon toys. And oh my gosh, all of Whale's female friends were taking SO MANY PICTURES OF THEIR BUBBLE BALLOON THINGS THEY TOOK FOREVER LIKE IT WAS SERIOUSLY SO RIDICULOUS and Whale and her male classmate told me, "Yeah, sometimes we have to pretend we don't know them.." which I found amusing. I had a fun time hanging out with them (also, the weather today was sunny and clear and amazing ☀☁)

04-27-2016

~scenic China~

Hehe, but there are restaurants on either side of the road (which I obviously didn't do a good job of including in the shot) and food is good so yay. This is across the street from my campus but it's still pretty close to my dorm. 

Also, you might notice there is a fair amount of litter on the ground. It's typical to see people simply drop their trash on the street rather than take it to a trash can. One morning I walked near here and saw a lot of trash from fireworks (I'm not sure why fireworks were set off, but that actually happens often enough that no one is surprised by it). I've also seen clumps of hair on the side of the street probably from a nearby barber shop (and speaking of hair places, most of the ones I've seen would not be considered sanitary by US standards, the floors are COVERED in hair). I'm not sure if this reasoning is accurate, but after experiencing the street conditions it makes sense that taking off your shoes before entering a house is a necessity/tradition here.

04-26-2016

I didn't get a great picture so they are a little hard to see because of the trees, but there are statues of men on top of the ornate columns. This area is on my campus and is dubbed the 'Music Square' in English, which is funny because if you see the entirety, it's not a square at all but rather a circle. I've been meaning to take a picture of it for a while because I walk past here every Friday on my way to Martial Arts. However, I got the picture today because I wanted to kill time before going lunch to avoid the busiest period (seriously, everyone here goes to lunch RIGHT AT NOON because that's the time that all classes let out (there aren't as many time slots for classes here as there are in the US) and staff lunch break begins. And it seems like no one waits to avoid the crowd - it was about 12:35 when I entered the restaurant I went to for lunch, and there were about five tables full. Everyone left within ten minutes and I was the only customer in the restaurant. I don't think that's a Chinese thing but rather an aspect of university life, though I could be wrong. I find it strange as do other foreigners, especially because some places close after the peak time concludes.)

But I digress (thanks Blathers). Going back to the actual picture, these statues are of various composers (hence why the area is called the 'Music' Square). I think it's cool because they also list the composer names and brief information in Chinese. You can see that in the picture below.

They also have statues of Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss...I'm blanking on the other Western ones. They also have two of Chinese composers - one of them arranged the Chinese national anthem. 

Sorry, I'm really intrigued by this because this is what minoring in Music and playing in an orchestra for about seven years does to you.

04-25-2016

This is the only picture I took today (likely because I napped for 3 1/2 hours and later another 2 1/2 - I clearly had a very productive day). 红烧肉！❤❤

04-24-2016

The English Corner events I have been to in the past were held at another campus. However, I was invited to an English corner on my own campus tonight and I decided to go. It was fun despite the topic being film (which I'm not too interested in - most of the people were shocked upon finding out that I have never watched the entirety of the Titanic). They also gave out (relatively unhealthy) snacks and drinks, which was quite unlike the larger English corner. There were only two foreigners in attendance, one of which was me. The other is the girl in the light blue shirt making the peace sign with her right arm sticking out to her side - she's from Korea. The guy kneeling in front with the blue jacket whose peace sign in in front of the cup of juice is the person who invited me - his English name is Alex. I met him at the larger English corner event, and he was in charge of tonight's activities along with the girl in the red and white sweater to my left. Also, the guy in the center with the blue sweater and collared shirt underneath works in the (Overseas) Student Support Office, and he's the volunteer that picked me up from the airport - his English name is Archer. There were two other girls at the event that didn't join the picture because they were too shy (they were in my group and didn't talk much, mostly laughed among themselves. Afterwards, they both added me on WeChat and one of them sent me a message which read that they don't speak English well and were laughing because they didn't know what to say).

04-23-2016

(I realize that the intended item of interest in the picture is hard to read. I'm sorry. )

Wow, finally! I have been looking all over for a 'Fashion Makeup Thing'! 

04-22-2016

I know I have been posting a lot of food pictures lately (I might as well have an Instagram at this point) but this is very important! I ate at a place called George's today, which is funny because for starters, I don't think it's called George's. I actually don't know the place's name (if it even has one), but for some reason it is known as George's among international students (whether that is only exchange students or actually all international students is unclear). This is 红烧茄子, or eggplant braised in soy sauce. I think the only times I had eggplant in the US were at Italian restaurants, and I wasn't ever too enthused by its flavor. But THIS IS SO GOOD. And actually, it might be that anything 红烧 is good because I also really like 红烧肉, which is braised pork.

However, I sadly still kind of miss American fast food. I caught myself thinking about Chik-Fil-A waffle fries today. And I've been toying with the idea of trying KFC because Xintong recommended it. Or maybe some other fast food place such as Dairy Queen, which I was originally surprised to see here, but I guess the franchise is more widespread than I thought. I think my surprise stems from their jingle, 'that's what I like about Texas!' which I guess I'm not sure why that's a thing since according to their website the restaurant's place of origin seems to be Illinois. (I didn't read too much into it because I am tired and the WiFi is acting up right now, but a possibility for such specific advertising seems to be that there are more Dairy Queens in Texas.)

04-21-2016

Didn't get any pictures today, but I have this from when I went shopping with some friends about two weeks ago (it was the day that I attended the mixed media performance - I know because I had to leave the shopping excursion early in order to attend!). Anyway, these shoes really spoke to me on a personal level. I have never felt more understood. Maybe I should have invested in them.

04-20-2016

Found out rather last minute today that there was Chinese corner. I met with the girl I usually talk to there, and we talked about food once again. I asked about her opinion of dumpling places around campus, and she recommended one on a street closer to the classroom building. However, her classmate told her that the place she was thinking of no longer exists, so went elsewhere.

In the top picture, the guy standing in the striped shirt is my friend's classmate, and my friend is the girl standing just to the right of him with the dark jacket.

I actually ordered 炒手, but this came with my friend's order and she let me try it. It was basically a rice wine soup and tasted surprisingly sweet. For some reason, it tasted like bread to me. I think it might be because all the bread I've had in China is sweet (I'm pretty sure all the bread I've bought had red beans in it, not that I've actually bought that much bread because I have no self-control when it comes to eating things that are not previously portioned). Basically, it did not taste like a soup at all, but I still liked it.

04-19-2016

After the last English Corner I attended, I had dinner with two girls (one from Brazil and one from Kazakhstan) at a dumpling place across the street from campus. I mentioned how I had heard of a couple dumpling places nearby, but didn't know where they were located. The Brazilian girl shared that there is a location closer to campus and took us by there on the way back to school. I finally tried it today, and it was pretty good (and a pretty good price! ¥9 for 12 dumplings!). 

The shop-owner guy in the first picture gave me a weird look after I took the picture.

And below are the dumplings! Don't worry, I didn't eat them plain c:

04-18-2016

The sun came out today, so I decided to do laundry! (I mean, I also had a lot of clothes to wash anyway.) This is the laundry room. The one machine with the circular door on the front is a dryer and the rest are washers (except the one along the back wall in the bottom left corner - that's also a dryer). The black boxes above each machine are where your student card is charged. 

Also, I saw this along with a basket of clothes on one of the dryers today and ??? Does this person know who used the dryer before them? Because honestly I wouldn't want others touching my clothes and I wouldn't want to touch anyone else's (and you have to pay for the dryer, so I'm not sure how that would work? unless that is the free dryer...some students have said there are some machines that can be used for free).

04-17-2016

I actually took this picture several days ago, but this is where I went to dinner tonight so it will suffice. This is at a Muslim canteen on campus (I'm not sure why they refer to the food places as canteens instead of cafeterias, but I guess they're pretty much the same thing). I like to come here because it is cheap and filling (I probably got this for ¥10 or ¥11). It's also convenient in terms of payment because I can use money that I've preloaded onto my campus card. I told my Chinese friend that I like to come here and she told me that that place isn't very popular among Chinese students because they feel the main three floor canteen is better. And that is another reason why I prefer this canteen - it's smaller so it's not as intimidating. 

04-16-2016

I had an awesome dinner with friends tonight cooked by two girls from the Czech Republic and two Chinese friends of one of those girls (the Chinese friends are a couple). The location was the Chinese couple's apartment. In the picture the green stuff is guacamole (!! I actually have yet to see avocados in China, which makes me wonder how expensive they were) and below that is fish. Below the fish is 红烧肉 which is really good and apparently was Mao Zedong's favorite. The red stuff are sliced tomatoes and above that is beef. Next to the beef is some sort of leafy vegetables, maybe some sort of cabbage. AAAND NEXT TO THAT IN THE POT ARE MASHED POTATOES AND THEY WERE SO GOOD! We also had a soup afterwards which is not pictured.

It actually took a while to cook the dinner due to delays in getting the groceries and the power going out for about five minutes at one point. It was probably around 8:45 or 9pm when we ate even though the planned time was 7. The people who didn't cook played cards together. 

The couple also had two cats, which provided some entertainment for us. The orange one was shy and would often run away. We used a laser pointer to play with the gray one and I'm pretty sure we traumatized him because after we put it away he was still walking around alert looking for the light. He was also breathing kind of hard. 

After dinner, the Czech girls made pancakes (except they realized they bought yogurt instead of milk and had to make do with that) and a jam and they were very good! They only made one for each of us since they were time-consuming to prepare, and I forgot to take pictures of them while we still hadn't eaten them.

04-15-2016

I went out to a bar with other international students today to celebrate someone's birthday! His name is Petteri and he's from Finland. Someone created a group chat so we could coordinate the details of the surprise party. I suggested that we should all sign a card for him because I personally like cards and they are nice. Thus, I was placed in charge of that which I didn't mind, especially because I used one of the cards my mom sent me. The girl that made this whole event happen has apparently studied abroad in Finland before (she's from Brazil), so she told me how to say 'Happy Birthday' and 'Congratulations' in Finnish, which I included in the card and on the envelope.

I was (and still am) stupidly proud of my contribution, especially when I saw the card itself filled with signatures. It made me really happy, and I'm glad that he'll have something to remember his birthday in China by. 

The first picture is of after I signed the card (I didn't want to make the 'Happy birthday' portion too large because I wasn't sure how many people were going to sign).

And this is the birthday boy reading his card! He also received a trendy crown that apparently came with the cake order.

04-14-2016

I received a package from my mother today! She sent me lots of goodies (but also things I needed such as deodorant and contacts!!). I already ate one of the Godiva chocolates and am planning to share the rest with my classmates. Not sure about the other stuff, though. I'll have to buy more snacks from the supermarket before I eat everything she sent me!

04-13-2016

More food! This was at the Korean restaurant that my Chinese friend from Chinese corner took me to! I felt that there was a lot of plain rice on my plate so I used this opportunity to try the two sauces/spices on my table (unfortunately not pictured :c). The milder one was good, but the other was too spicy for me and I didn't have any liquid to clear my throat! I also wasn't expecting it because the spice took a little bit to really hit me.

04-12-2016

At Mallorie's request, a picture of food! Meat with curry and rice at a Japanese restaurant (I'm not sure if it's an actual Japanese restaurant or if the friends who showed the place to me called it such because they serve sushi). In the top right corner, you can see my kimchi, which I felt was disappointingly sweet. Behind my plate is soup (at least I think it was soup). It had a very strong flavor - it wasn't bad, but with a lack of meat/veggies in the bowl, I wondered at first if maybe it was a condiment rather than a soup (but then I realized it would have to go somewhere...and I don't think I would pour that on my curry).

04-11-2016

'Well, that's one way to park a car' : a perfect explanation of the state of Chinese adherence to official driving regulations

04-10-2016

I've recently made a habit of taking pictures of menus whenever I go to places which have one available and then translating them (I have only done a couple so far and thank goodness for dictionary apps and the internet) because I want to familiarize myself with menu terms because...I like food.

So far, it's helped me expand my food vocabulary in English (I am now aware of the existence of sago and tamarinds!) as well as given me ideas for food items I might want to know the name of in Chinese (such as 巧克力, how could I forget that??)

04-09-2016

Tonight, I went to a free performance on another campus of my university! Anna, the English name of the mother of my Chinese family, drove me here. One item I enjoyed greatly were the costumes - they were very stunning and glittery and looked especially beautiful during the dance performances.

Another aspect I enjoyed was the use of various media. For example, there were dancing selections, singing selections, a poetry recitation, and instrumental selections which employed the use of an erhu (a two-stringed instruments which is played with a bow) and a guzheng (kind of like a Chinese zither). I have some pictures of the performances but the quality isn't very good because I was trying to be discreet about taking pictures since it feels weird for me to do so. Therefore, the picture above was taken by 王老师, my speaking teacher, and she shared it with my class group on WeChat.

Which, on that note, I'd like to talk about concert etiquette. In the US, taking pictures of performers is typically seen as impolite or in some cases unacceptable. But here, everyone had their phones out taking photos (however, that might be because this was a school event). Additionally, the crowd was quite noisy in my opinion and people would dart across the front to exit the hall (likely to head for the restroom) even though that was not the only way to go. 

Also, there's this picture: two younger girls were sitting in front of me, and on the armrest they had a bag of shrimp which they were eating from during the performance. I don't know how typical that or any of the other behavior I've mentioned is in China, but I found it amusing.

I realize you guys could look these things up yourself, but for your convenience:

if you want to hear how the erhu sounds and see how it looks, you can go to this YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhic2cE57iM

if you want to hear how the guzheng sounds and see how it looks, you can go to this YouTube link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujzMHLac404

Also, if you read this Ren Laoshi, there was a group of four guys that sang a version of the Bride Returns song (I can't remember exactly what it is called at the moment). The audience seemed amused when the performers started singing it like it was something they knew or recognized, and then I realized I knew the tune too and was confused because I couldn't remember what it was from at first! 

04-08-2016

These are some student apartments on campus. One aspect of Chinese culture (at least here in Nanchang, I'm not sure about bigger cities) that I believe I have neglected to mention is that many people dry their clothes outside. I don't know if it's because dryers here don't work that well (I've been told this is true of the dryers in my dorm) or if it is to save money on energy for the appliances. While it is a more eco-friendly approach than using dryers, I don't think that is the reason for doing so (In fact, I would argue from my experiences that China is not so eco-friendly).

In a way, I find it comforting. Not that I purposely look at every article of clothing (that would be creepy), but I like seeing clothes hanging outside of people's windows as I walk by. They even sell plastic mobile hangers of varying sizes at the supermarket so that you can dry multiple items at once. While dryers are convenient so that you don't have to wait very long for clothes, I can see myself air-drying clothes more often when I return to the US. 

This is the hanger that I was talking about :3

In my opinion, there's only one slight problem with drying clothes outside here - the weather. It rains quite a bit and Google seems to do a bad job of accurately predicting the weather here (likely because it's blocked in China). Some floors of my dorm building have a terrace-like room outside with bars where you can hang-dry clothes, and while some parts have an overhead roof, I still wouldn't chance it on a day it seems likely to rain in case of wind.

04-07-2016

Because I've still been lazy about taking pictures, here are some more from the Lushan Trip. These center around the travel process. This first picture is the opening to the train station. To get past the booths outside, you have to show your ticket, which you purchase from another building/section outside of this one.

I took this picture in the train station heading to the platform.

choo choo

This was the bus we took from the entrance of Lushan Park to a more central area where we intended to find a hostel. Some of us (including me) took a similar bus back to Jiujiang (our group split for convenience reasons). The bus drivers go fast for the roads being so curvy and it was honestly kind of scary. Not to mention the ride into Lushan was pretty awful for most (if not all) of us because we didn't have a proper meal before (it didn't help that I was excited/anxious about seeing new sights and such so my brain was going 932298347 miles an hour along with the bus going fast up winding paths). The trip down wasn't so bad in that respect since we had lunch before leaving.

04-06-2016

In keeping with the previous pictures of people and the fact that I didn't take any pictures today, I thought I would share some pictures of my classmates and I from the trip to Meiling. I guess it's also relevant to today since yesterday and today, I saw two of my classmates at lunch and then again this afternoon at Chinese corner (one of them is the guy with the gray and light blue shirt and the other one didn't go on the trip).

In the bottom picture you can see that a couple of my classmates are holding the Kazakhstan flag. Also, the lady with the red shirt and the white cap is the teacher (王老师) who took us to Meiling. The top picture is of all the students from my class who went - they are all from Kazakhstan except the girl with the maroon tank top who is from Mongolia. (Oh and Hannah, the one in the stripes is my classmate whose first language is Persian.)

04-05-2016

Since I didn't get any pictures today, here are more photos of the Lushan trip featuring actual pictures of people including me looking like a derp!

It was cool and kind of creepy that there was so much fog that you couldn't even see the other side of this bridge.

Look and pay for transportation in a different language or squeeze with friends? I have no idea how we managed to make such a diagonal looking line. Oh, and by the way there are two more people in the car that you can't see because they're sitting behind the line. (Don't worry, the car rides like this were pretty short, we definitely didn't feel safe doing this long distance.)

Selfie featuring my unwashed hair and broken seat on the train ride home! You can't tell from the picture, but the seat didn't lock so if I leaned it back, it would go farther than it should have and very much invaded the personal bubble of the passenger sitting behind me. Therefore, I sat pretty far forward. Thank goodness the ride was only an hour.

04-04-2016

There were no classes today because of a holiday, which is why we were able to stay at Lushan until today. After leaving, we went to Donglin Temple in Jiujiang, which is a monastery. It was very peaceful. I love this picture because not only is it pretty, but a monk walked into view just as I took it and I think it's funny (at the top of the stairs if you cannot see him).

04-03-2016

We actually made it here yesterday, but this is Lushan Park! It's beautiful here, although today was pretty rainy. I was actually looking out the window of where we were staying this morning and within two minutes the sky went from being light to dark and stormy.  

Anyways, this is a picture of a waterfall we saw there. I'm not sure of the name, but it's a lot bigger than the picture makes it seem. We were getting wet from the water even standing away from it and people had umbrellas and ponchos out.

Seeing the fog/mist move about was cool (huehue). I really like the way this picture came out which is surprising considering I don't have a fancy camera, only my phone

in the evening after a long day of walking ☁

04-02-2016

I decided to be touristy today and buy my Chinese name carved into a seal!

This is what it looks like! I can't wait to sign my name on my not so great calligraphy attempts! (Also, I guess that means I need the red stuff, but I don't know what it is called or where I can get it. If someone knows, please help! Otherwise, I'll Google 'red stuff for Chinese seal' or something of the like when I have time and remember.)

04-01-2016

This is a picture of the room where we have martial arts! It's oddly shaped - the wall with the window is curved like a semi-circle (I'm sure there's a better way to describe it that I currently can't think of). The view outside is of the tennis courts. In the background there are punching bags which we don't use as well as yellow dummy things behind those which we don't use either except to aid us in stretching. The floor is usually kind of gross with dust and dirt so I keep my socks on rather than go barefoot (we don't have any kind of special equipment or clothes we have to wear).