10-23-2019

 

More trip pictures because I haven't been in a snappy (photography) mindset.

Entrance to the highway (requires toll payment)

 

Taken at a rest stop. Notice how faint the background mountains are. Not sure if it was pollution or fog. Probably both.

10-22-2019

 

A couple more quality translations I spotted on the field trip.

Guess where the picture above was taken.

 

They aren't wrong.

10-21-2019

 Other trip pictures.

Above: the remnants of lunch. We ate at a hotel. We were 60+ people, I think, so we required A Lot Of Food.

 

Here is one of the dish name translations: Garlic babydish. 

Not to be confused with Garlic baby dish.

10-20-2019

 

Field trip day 2! Also the last day.

Sunrise in Ordos from the hotel window

First stop: Ordos Museum (鄂尔多斯博物馆)

 

Of the many spellings of Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan) that I've seen, never have I seen 'Jenghis Kehan' until today.

 

Traditional Mongolian clothing

 

In case you couldn't tell, Mongolians intensely revere horses.. 

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Second stop: Erdos Cashmere Group (鄂尔多斯羊绒集团)

in simple words: plant that manufactures cashmere

 

There were samples that we could touch 😀

 

Colors!

 

And of course there was an attached store where we could buy expensive cashmere products (who wants to buy a cashmere scarf for ¥900?)  

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Mountains near Hohhot from the bus window 😊

10-19-2019

I have been a little sick so I probably should have stayed behind and rested, but there was an out of town field trip this weekend, and I didn't want to miss out!

First stop: Yili Group - Milk Production Line (伊利集团液态奶生产线) 

in simple terms: a milk production plant

 

Learning about the cow's digestive system! Yum.

 

MILK

 

LOOK AT THE MILKS GOOOO

 

Moo.

 

Second stop: Baotou Rare Earth High-Tech Industrial Development Zone 

in simple terms: they [get? extract? acquire?] rare earth (I still don't really know what this means) to make things

 

 

 Got some pictures of some minerals and rocks and things. My terminology is probably wrong, and if my geology friend were to read my blog I think she would call me out. 

--

 

Yellow River (黄河) as seen from the bus while we were crossing a bridge 😁 Also known as 'the mother river' of China due to its importance in the history of Chinese civilization.

Third stop: Ordos Institute of Technology (鄂尔多斯应用技术学院)

This was a 'cultural exchange' event where some international students (yes, always including me because I am the only American at my university) and some Chinese students spoke on stage. But not together. Personally, I think the way the event was run could have been amended a little to allow for a little more exchange.

I think most of the foreign students (me included) kind of viewed this as just 'another event/formality that we had to sit through', but a Mongolian student gave me a different perspective. 

Ordos is a small city with a population of about 2 million. I don't think Ordos has any universities, and most of the students at this particular school are from Ordos. So this is probably the first time that many of these students have seen foreigners in person. Not that foreigners are animals to be oogled at, but I think there is something to meeting people with different looks, beliefs, and ways of life in person. If you're not face to face with them, it's easy to judge, criticize. But seeing them in person, you can't forget that they are just people, too.

10-18-2019

 

I didn't take any interesting pictures today, so here's one of a snack I bought a couple days ago. Not a huge fan of this flavor, I don't recommend.

I really like the cucumber ones, though.

10-17-2019

 

Today's breakfast (I normally don't buy breakfast on Thursdays, but I was running short on time this morning!): bun (包子) with vegetables inside. And rice. Very good.

10-16-2019

Today's breakfast!

A pork bun (包子) and a not-oily youtiao! (油条) 

I am pleased.

10-15-2019

  

In one of the international student offices. The reason I was here today...

...is because I finally got my passport and residence permit after nearly a month!! Yay!!

Now I can go open a bank account and get a bank card (need a passport to do that), which is required to receive the scholarship money (the school is not going to give us cash).

Also the residence permit picture of me is so terrible and it makes me laugh. 

10-14-2019

 

Today's lunch: 咖喱鸡丁盖饭, chicken curry and rice

又好看又好吃 -- both good looking and tasty!

10-13-2019

 

Carrefour adventures!

 

An Accessible Health!

 

I don't know what's funnier, the spelling 'pristachio' or the fact that the translation is way off because these are peanuts and not pistachios.

10-12-2019

 

Today's lunch. I tried asking what it was, but I either didn't get a response or didn't understand it. They were cold noodles of some sort, four different kinds (one kind was green!). And then some cucumber, peanut sauce, I think tofu? and a little bit of pickled vegetables. It was very good and also cheap! (I think because there was no meat). It also came with a bread thing that I ended up saving for dinner. I know I should have taken a picture after eating a little bit to make it easier to see all the noodles, but I was really hungry 😛

10-11-2019

 

Didn't take any pictures today, so here's one I took on board a public bus on the day I went to the movie theater.

10-10-2019

 

Mongolian dumpling soup for lunch with my Mongolian classmate! Honestly, it was pretty good. The broth was a little milky and almost tasted like the milk tea we had (so at American restaurants, when you sit down the waiter generally gives you ice water to start with, in China it is hot water or hot tea, and I guess in Mongolia milk tea is common? But it's not like Chinese milk tea, it tastes fuller...saltier? and maybe a little buttery? My classmate said she can make Mongolian milk tea, but was not able to tell me what goes in it, I think she forgot the Chinese words for the items). 

We also ate a different kind of dumpling, it was one big dumpling with meat in it and if I remember correctly I think that bread was fried? Anyways it was also good.

I have read some American blogs before which noted that a lot of Mongolian food tastes the same. I definitely kind of had that feeling during the lunch today. It all tasted good because it was new to me, but I feel like if I had to eat these things every day I would die a little on the inside due to a lack of variety. But other than these things I'm still not quite too sure what Mongolian food is, so perhaps this is a premature judgement.

10-09-2019

 

Bought breakfast today before class, a 肉夹馍 rou4jia1mo4 (Chinese hamburger, remember?)

But like whoa, this one actually had flavor?? And cheaper than the other ones I have bought before?? I am impressed!!

I also bought a 酸奶包 suan4nai3bao1, basically a bread bun with a slight yogurt taste. It was good too, but it literally just looked like a bread bun so I didn't feel the need to take a picture of it.

10-08-2019

 

Today was the first day of poem recitation presentations! A girl in this group even brought a gu3qin1 古琴 to class (the instrument sitting on the podium, it's like a zither but has a long body).

10-07-2019

 

Today was a fairly uneventful day, but I think it gave me the recharging I needed before school starts up again tomorrow.

Here is some cilantro (香菜) in the supermarket. I took a picture of it because my roommate doesn't like cilantro. She's got the lucky genes that make it taste like soap. She also told me a lot of Koreans have this experience, so cilantro isn't used often in Korean cuisine. 

And I cooked for the first time in China today, yay! I think the left looks like sweet potatoes or pumpkin but it's actually carrot. I just wasn't sure how to eat/cook it...so I just stir fried it in the leftover oil from the eggplant on the right. I was worried about how the eggplant would taste, but it was actually pretty good (by/for my standards)! So, victory, methinks. I would like to cook more, especially things like banana bread to give to people, but the dorm doesn't have ovens :( Just those plug-in burner things (I know they actually have a name but I'm blanking on it right now..).

I also don't have a pot yet, so I can't make soup. Not that I make much soup, but if I can find cornstarch at the market I would like to make egg drop soup. Mmm.

And I still don't have a rice cooker.

10-06-2019

 

Lunch with the roomie. The pictures on the wall are of the owner with foreign customers, haha. 

 

 骨头土豆豆角锅仔

Pork bones with potatoes, green beans, and noodles

 It was sooooooooooooooooooooo good

10-05-2019

 

Dinner: beef noodles 牛肉拉面 This was the small bowl 😮 (although I think the bowl was smaller than the picture makes it look)

 

Also bought this snack today. They are little mung bean flavored cakes. You can eat them out of the package or [put them in?] (preferably cold) water?? Anyways, I tried them plain, and they're actually pretty good! I was surprised because mung bean flavored products are pretty hit or miss for me. I was at a supermarket and saw them and thought they looked interesting, so I bought them (as you can imagine, that happens often..).

10-04-2019

 

Sushi for dinner with the roomie! featuring Japanese/weeb paraphernalia on the walls

10-03-2019

 

Wonton soup for breakfast 😊

10-02-2019

 

Went to the 'fun' mall again today. Here's a more fun picture of the inside.

10-01-2019

 

国庆节 celebration at Tiananmen Square in Beijing 北京市天安门广场

(also, check out the ancient TV in my dorm room!)