Settling In

It's only been a few days, and already there are ten thousand new things to share. (Brace yourselves for a novel!) Now that classes have started, I have much less time to update the blog with as much detail as I would like, but I'll continue to update when possible. :) My group was talking today about how it feels like we have been here for so long already, and how strange it is that we really only met 2 days ago. We have a really great group of people :)

First, I should talk briefly about the Sichuan Opera before I forget. We took two small buses to see it on Sunday night. I half expected a Parisian-style grand opera house for some reason, but instead there was just an open building with many bamboo chairs set up in rows, with paper numbers taped to them, arranged around a small stage. I also semi-expected the sort of wailing, traditional Chinese style of singing telling one story for an hour and a half, but the show was comprised of several small performances - from singing and dancing to a shadow puppet show to an incredible erhu performance (the two-stringed instrument resembling a violin that I am hoping to find here). The show finished with a traditional fire-breathing and "face-changing" act where the actors mysteriously changed their masks in the blink of an eye right in front of you. It was a really cool experience!

Everything you've heard about Chinese driving is true - they honk constantly, ignoring traffic lights and swerving around obstructions, whether they be bikers, pedestrians, or cars parked in the middle of the road. Here, the biggest vehicle (or the boldest!) has the right of way. However, no one displays any road rage, even when horns are blaring. We also have not witnessed a single accident up until today, when a car swerved right across a median on a campus road. We aren't sure what caused it, but the young man driving got out and switched with his female passenger, and she drove them away with barely a scratch, leaving the bushes uprooted behind them. I can't imagine being one of the numerous bikers here!

Classes started yesterday - we have had an interesting experience so far. Our first class was "Chinese Culture and Society," which we have once a week on Monday mornings. Our teacher is great - very enthusiastic and engaging (and good at English, which helps!). He dove right in with a lecture called "Sex in China," where he discussed the attitudes and customs regarding sex in ancient China. We didn't quite get to present day views - that is for next week, I guess. We were just starting to discuss homosexuality when class ended; our professor was half an hour late due to a schedule mix up. The class did not feel too long at all, even though I am not used to 2.5 hour classes. (It helps that the room has air conditioning!)

For lunch, we went to a place around the corner called the "Party House," according to the English sign, though the Chinese characters say 老地方[lao difang], which translates to "Old Place." I'm not quite sure how that works . . . . Anyway, since we have ten people in our group, they had to scramble to put two tables together to seat all of us - and the only place with enough room to do that was in the street. So, in the street we went, sitting on strange, childish plastic stools (below). We ordered ten plates of dumplings (each plate came with 20 dumplings...!). It looked like so much food as they brought out the plates, but we ate every last one. One of the best parts was that it only cost us 6RMB each - roughly 93 cents. It is just incredible how cheap things are here.

Our second class was "Global Tibet." This teacher is a very, very good example of the typical "circular" Chinese way of thinking. It has been two days - two 3 hour classes - and none of us can quite figure out his point or what direction he's trying to go with in his lectures. We're all hoping he'll start talking more about Tibetan history and politics soon instead of continually discussing abstract concepts of a nation-state and examples of Tibetans in popular Chinese culture. Oh, some of you have asked whether the classes are in English - hell yes they are. I think 4-5 of the 10 of us have had some Chinese, but the others have never studied it before, and none of us would be able to understand that much. All of our classes will be led in English. :)

Last night we were taken to a fancy restaurant that just kept bringing out more and more dishes. I actually didn't like most of them, which surprised me - I have enjoyed much of the food here so far. After dinner, we went in search of a bar and ended up at a place called "BABI II CLUB" which was absolutely ridiculous - I attempted to get a picture, but the one below is the best I could do - nothing could capture how insane the place was. I think the bartenders saw $$ signs when we walked in and said there were ten of us. We were led to the back, where there was a semi-separate, raised booth big enough for maybe 20 people. It felt like an opium den sans opium. A sign on the wall read "Cherish life aparp from drugs" [sic]. All we wanted was a shot or a beer or something (it was 8pm on a Monday night, after all), but we were informed that we had to buy a bottle of brandy or whisky to stay - and the bottle was listed at 4000 yuan (roughly $600).

We left and found a restaurant across the street, where one of the patrons eagerly ushered us inside. Somehow, without thinking, I asked her "Ni you pijiu ma?" Do you have beer? She nodded, still grinning ear to ear, and said they did, so we shrugged and went inside. They had a rather interesting mural on the wall (below). We all tried a "Snow" beer - it was incredibly light and only about 3% alcohol, but it wasn't bad at all, and we had a fun time. After a while, I really needed to find a bathroom, and they gestured around the corner out the back door. After some hunting, we found the "cesuo" they were referring to - the stalls had no doors, and there was no flush or toilet paper - just a hole in the ground (or "squatty potty," as one of the girls in my group refers to them as). I think I contracted about sixteen new diseases just from my few minutes in there - I picked a bad day to wear white capris and white shoes, let me tell you. They miraculously stayed clean, but still. Quite the China experience. Our classroom building also has the same style of bathroom, but the stalls have doors and luckily there is a sink with soap.

I have countless more pictures and stories; this is such a fascinating place. Even little things stand out, like people fishing in the lily ponds on campus, the absolutely horrific smells of trash and urine from time to time, the slow walking pace, the fact that you really can function with only the barest of language skills. It's been an interesting trip so far and I have tons more pictures - I'll send more to Kat soon. :)