The Kangding Saga

Nick had been here for a little over 24 hours when we packed up and left. We were headed for Kangding, which is in the west of Sichuan province and commonly known as the “gateway to Tibet”. I had never been to Tibet before, or to western Sichuan, so this was a new experience for both Nick and I, as well as for Brenna and James, who we traveled with.

Before leaving, I had warned Nick that Chinese transportation was not the most efficient, to say the least. Every single time I've left Pengshan to visit another city using public transportation, I have returned weary and jaded. This trip proved to be no exception. While our bus from Pengshan to Ya'an went suspiciously smoothly, the road from Ya'an to Kangding was a total nightmare. If you don't know anything about Chinese driving, you're a lucky person. In China, rules of the road are loosely enforced at best, and once you get out of the large cities they become virtually nonexistent. This particular road was even worse than usual, as it is the only “major” highway that leads into Tibet. I write “major” in quotes, since it is, in fact, only a two-lane road, which twists and turns through the mountains with nerve-wracking drops off the side. This does not deter Chinese drivers who are intent on getting there as fast as possible, which means passing people whenever necessary—and I mean whenever. Caring little about the dangers of passing in a curve, Chinese drivers will simply constantly honk their horn to warn vehicles coming the other way. I've come to approach driving in China with a kind of horrific nonchalance. “I probably won't die today,” I tell myself, boarding the bus and settling in.

The road to Kangding

With such a road and drivers, we inevitably did get stuck behind an accident about two hours into the trip. About four cars ahead of us, a large truck had been trying to pass right before a curve and had gotten t-boned by another large truck, blocking both lanes. Luckily, it seemed as though no one was hurt. We waited for two hours for the police to do something, but their participation at the scene mostly consisted of wandering around and taking pictures—much the same as the other many onlookers. In the end, it was another large semi truck that used some chains to tow one of the trucks out of the way. After this, I naively assumed that since we were only four cars from the wreck, we would soon be on the move. This was not the case. Cars in the other lane (which was still blocked) managed to scoot around the wreck first, and just kept on coming. Once again, the police officers did nothing to direct traffic, but instead we waited for the entire build-up of traffic from the other side to finish completely, before our side began to move. This took another hour and a half.

In the end, our entire trip there, which should have taken around 6 hours, took a full 10 hours, and we arrived in Kangding around 11 o'clock.

A kindly restaurant owner opened his kitchen back up to make us a late dinner. 

By this time, we were all wondering if we had made a huge mistake, a feeling that I have come to associate with public transportation travels in China. In the end, however, the trip was easily worth the nightmarish journey by bus.

I had never been to Tibet before, or to anywhere like it, so this was a new experience for both Nick and I, as well as for Brenna and James, who we were traveling with. We came into Kangding late at night and only stopped for a quick bite to eat at a restaurant before heading to our hostel to fall into bed. But the next day we were up early and ready to go.

The very first thing I noticed about Kangding is the air, the beautiful, wonderful air. After living in Pengshan for a year, I had become very accustomed to the grayish clouds that usually obscured the sky (partly from the natural fogginess of the area and partly from pollution). Even in other parts of China that I had visited which were renowned for their “clear” air, such as the fomous Bamboo Sea in sourthern Sichuan, I could still detect a faint smog in the distance. In Kangding, however, the high mountain air was completely untainted. In places like that, it is a pleasure simply to breathe.

Just look at dat air.

Beyond the air, the location itself was also gorgeous, with Kangding nestled right up against a beautiful moutnain range, a raging river rushing straight through the downtown, and temples and prayer flags dotting the hills around the city. Throughout the day, we visited several of those temples, which was also surprisingly novel for me. After living in China for over a year and visiting several times before that, I've become a bit desensitized to temples and pagodas. Yes, they are beautiful. Yes, the religion and artwork and architecture is fascinating. But after visiting the first few temples, they tend to blend together a little in your mind. Tibetan temples, however, had aspects I had never seen before in a typical Buddhist Chinese temple. For one, they were much more colorful, both with the prayer flags and the buildings themselves. The monks also seemed much more active in the monasteries and temples that we visited.

After spending the day hiking up the mountains and visiting various temple, we spent the evening walking around the downtown, visiting the shops and the main square. What I noticed most here was the people themselves. After living among a vast majority of Han ethnicity in the Sichuan basin, the Tibetan people were immediately distinctly different, both in their dress and their appearance. The women were most noticeably different. They were much taller than their Han cousins, and many dressed in the traditional Tibetan style—an elegant long skirt with bright trimmings on their clothes. On their head, they wore their hair in elaborate braids interwoven with colorful yarns, all wrapped up in a stylized hat. Their jewelry was equally elaborate, typically using aquamarine or reddish orange stones set in heavy silver. The men wore simpler clothes, with long pants and fabric jackets. Their defining feature was the popular cowboy hat, which was introduced to Tibetans by an American long ago.

As for their appearance, I found that Tibetan people look more similar to Mongolians and Native Americans than they do to Han Chinese. Their hair is commonly worn long for both men and women. Their noses are more defined and their cheekbones are high and sharp. Combined with the many cowboy hats all over the streets, I sometimes felt like I had walked into an old western.

Typical male Tibetan dress

The next day, we moved on from Kangding to Tagong, where the “old western” vibe only intensified as we entered herding country, though it was not cows that these people were wrangling, but yaks. The drive to Tagong, which took about two hours, was exceptional. We traveled through the rolling highlands of Sichuan, with yaks and herders' huts dotting the grass for as far as you could see. Sometimes explosions of colorful prayer flags would interrupt the peaceful green, other times white Tibetan script would be written onto the hillsides.

Tagong itself is a tiny town, and about as Tibetan as you can get. In many ways, it was a more authentically Tibetan experience than visiting Tibet itself, as you can only enter the country with a guided tour group and stick to a very specific traveling schedule. For our part, we were able to eat delicious Tibetan food (lots of yak), talk to Tibetan people, and visit any monastery or nunnery that we fancied. The first day, we wandered out to a monastery university currently in construction and then explored the town, which really consisted of walking up and down the one main street.

Some younger monks playing around

The next day we found out that, completely by chance, we had come to Tibetan China on the Dalai Lama's birthday. All the Tibetan restaurants in town stopped serving meat and Buddhist activity throughout the entire town was constant all through the day. A consistent stream of people turned the prayer wheels and a steady hum of prayer could be heard from the monasteries. After a disappointing short horse ride, we rented some bikes and went on a breath-taking bike ride to visit the local nunnery, which was also humming with activity as nuns scurried around the town.

Nick making new friends

In the evening we headed back to Kangding, which was also full of celebrations and excitement—and also full of military presence including firetrucks, ambulances, army soldiers in riot gear, and armored trucks. 

They were obviously well prepared for trouble that might occur, but luckily the night passed peacefully. In the morning, we were on our way back to Pengshan. The only hiccups on the way back were getting stuck in traffic for an hour, and eating a packet of peanuts at the bus station that later gave Nick and I terrible food poisoning that lasted for several days.

But despite the not insubstantial setbacks, the entire trip was a really amazing experience, and it was easily my favorite place that I have visited in China so far. The culture, the people, and the geography were completely different from any place I've gone, and I saw and experienced and learned so much over the period of only a few days. Given the opportunity, I would do the trip again in a heartbeat.

This time, though, I might splurge on a flight from Chengdu to Kangding, and I would pass on the peanuts.

Q&A With Nick

1. Before you arrived in China, what were some things you were expecting about the country and culture?

I expected more of the country to be westernized, which only proved to be true in the major city of Chengdu.

2. What were some of  your first impressions of China?

Weird smells, honking, spitting, feeling lost not speaking a single word of their language, being stared at, delicious food

3. What was one thing you really enjoyed about China?

It has got to be the food :)

3a. What was your favorite food that you tried?

Duck hot-pot soup, soup pot. (This is where there is a large, boiling pot of soup in the middle of a table with two whole ducks inside. You can add in whatever veggies you choose, and eat them out of the pot as they are cooked.)

The family style food is also delicious, and it's fun to share because you get to try a lot of different things. And the fried rice with chewy tofu.

4. What was one thing you did NOT enjoy about China?

The constant honking and ineffectiveness at organizing traffic and queues. 

5. What was a misconception you had about China that was proved wrong after visiting?

I expected rude and pushy behavior. it also surprised me that there are vast regions with a majority of people that have never interacted with a non-Chinese person in their lifetime.

6. What was your most memorable part of your trip in China?

The interaction between the Tibetan and Han culture in Kanging and the unbelievable life in Tagong. I was especially surprised that their extremely rural life has persisted for so long. Also the feeling of being alien and just observing them at their everyday life.

Nick's First Thoughts on China

"Were they honking at us?"
"Are you hearing all these people spitting?"
"Look at that girl riding sideways on the motorcycle! That's so dangerous."
"Anna, that car is driving in the middle of two lanes. Anna, look at that car!"
"So, riding in a (Chinese) taxi is like riding on a rollercoaster. But with more chance of actually dying."

Arrival of The Boyfriend

Life here in Pengshan has been going slowly for the past week. Lots of grading, Neflix, and more grading, as I finished up the final exams. But in less than two days, it's about to get a lot more interesting as Nick arrives to visit!

Naturally, I'm already bouncing off the walls in anticipation of his visit, but beyond the whole 'seeing my boyfriend after months apart' thing, I'm also incredibly excited to be able to see China through the eyes of a stranger. Nick has never been to China before. In fact, he's never really been to a developing country before. He doesn't speak the language. He didn't major in Asian Studies in college. His knowledge of China has been greatly limited to what I've told him, and I cannot WAIT to see his reactions to this country I've become so familiar with. So many things have become second-nature to me, not even worth a second glance. Men working on powerlines using only a bamboo ladder? Yup, that's China. A child peeing on the street? Totally normal. Honking horns? That's my zen.

Now, I'm getting a chance to re-see this country through Nick's visit. For the first part, we'll be traveling to Kangding in Western Sichuan along with Brenna and James, which we will all be seeing for the first time. Then we'll be coming back to Pengshan for another week, so I can show him around the place I've been living for an entire year.

Updates will follow in the coming few weeks--including interviews with Nick on his thoughts on China. Two days seems impossibly close!

Last Class

Hello Friends and Family!

I know it's been quite a while since my last post. I could say that I have been extremely busy, but that's really only what I've been telling myself. I've had enough spare time to watch both seasons of Orange is the New Black in the past two weeks, so I really did have enough time to write a blog post. Then, just this last week I finished with classes and only have my final exams to finish up. With all this free time, the "I'm busy" excuse isn't working even for me.

With that in mind, I thought I'd share a little insight into the minds of my students. In their final classes, I had them all do a short writing assignment, and the results were endearing, hilarious, and adorable.

First, my News English students. For this class, I closed the semester by doing a lesson on the more lighthearted parts of the newspaper, including the "Dear Abby" section. Each student wrote a letter to Abby about a problem in their life. I then collected the papers, mixed them up, and handed them back out randomly. The students would then give advice as Abby. I didn't have many of these to choose from, since most students took their letter home with them at the end of the day, but a few were left behind in the classroom, which I will share with you now:

Dear Abby,
I'm very glad to share you my problem. I don't know why I can't keep calm when I faced with things. Even it's just a little thing. I don't want to be a girl with bad temper, please give me some advice.
Sincerely, Angry

Dear Angry,
Thanks for your trust.
I think it is because you are young. You don't experience many things, so you can't see through the life and face life calmly.
Cherish your youth. This is a brilliant time. Maybe when you learn how to control your temper, you are already old!
Abby
_______________________________________________________

Dear Abby,
I have something need you help. I always be late for class and I know it is rude to teacher. But I can't control it. The second question is how to fall asleep in 40 degree C room. The summer came, our hell came. That's all. Thank you.
From, Suffer

Dear Suffer,
First it's not only rude to teacher but breaking the rule as well when you are late for class. What you should is checking your watch and making yourself being on time.
Second, getting small swimming pool and putting it in your room, and sleeping in it. I promise that you will sleep very well every night. Do not thank me so much.
Abby
_______________________________________________________

Dear Abby,
I'm lack of money! Please help me!
No Money

Dear No Money,
Money won't fall down from sky! Everyone think that they lack of money! Are you willing to rob a bank?! Find a job! Find a rich boyfriend!
Yours, Abby
_______________________________________________________

As for my freshman students, I had them write a letter to the incoming freshman of next year, and give them some advice about the year to come. There was a huge range of responses, varying in English level as well as the feeling behind them. Some of them were very upbeat:

Dear Freshman,
Hello, welcome to university. There will be many interesting things that you want to study and enjoy. I'm your older student, so I will introduce adequate information for you.
At first, university is a very happy and exciting place. When you come into my university, you become my friend, and you'll make friends with any other people.
If you worry about that you can't adapt to life of university, I want to say that it doesn't matter. University's life is interesting and easy. You only need to be yourself.
Although, university's course perhaps is difficult. You have to study all day. You can acquire man knowledge. You'll grow up like me. In university, you can take part in many activities such as basketball, vollebal, swimming, and so on. So you don't worry about you will be boring. My major is civil engineer. My favorite course is Auto CAD--computer design. Because it's very important to me.
In future, you'll come here. I'll welcome you. Whoever you are, I'll be your friend. Come, guys.
From, Panthon
_______________________________________________________

Dear freshman students,
Welcome to Jinjiang collage, it's a nice school. In the school, there are much funny things to be found by you. There is a natural pond, and you can bring a book and breathe the fresh air in the morning.
In class, math is the most difficult. You also have much others to learn. They are all boring except Listening and Speaking Course and Auto CAD class. Maybe you have a differend opinion.
I came here a year, I would share something with you. The first year morning is hard to pass, because of morning running. Study hard, you should have enough knowledge. And the last, er...that's all. Hope you luky.
Rick
_______________________________________________________

Other letters were a little more up-front:

Dear freshman students,
Even I hold exciting go to college like you at now. Dream is well, but the fact is bad. The college is a small society. We have to face more and more people. And we have no regularly time for study. We also can not find a good way to study. In other words, we are confuse when we are a freshman. So I want tell you, you must definite your gold. And you must understand what you want. Final, you should make full use of your time.
Yours, LeBron
_______________________________________________________

Dear freshman:
I'm a student from Jinjiang Collage. I want give your guys. Wish you can live a better collage life. First. Don't expect too perfect about collage life, collage is a place to learn. And you should study hard. Final exam will be difficult. Department life will be fun. I love English classes, don't know your favorite classes. Be yourself it's fine!
Yours, Zhuyi
_______________________________________________________

Dear freshman,
First, welcome to my college. I know that experience the pain of three years, I think you are very happy. But I want to told you: college is not "heaven".
The college just only is a new place you to study. In the college, you can get more time rather than high school, but you will face with College English Test Brand 4, Computer Test Brand 2, and other Professional Test. So you can't to waste time. You should useing the time to study Professional Knowledge. So don't waste time. This is my advice
Jack
_______________________________________________________

Hi freshman,
Welcome to this college. Maybe you know Jinjiang College not so good. But if you come here, maybe because you also don't study hard in your middle school.
Now, this is a new beginning. If you want to become a strong man, you can become very good if you working hard.
You can expect a love story. You can have a girlfriend or boyfriend in college. But don't think love is a game. Don't let the one who love you sad and cry.
Now. I will give you some advice. First, don't take much time in apartment. You can go out to make friends and travel. Don't play too much game. It will let you feel tired. And isn't good for you study. Then, you must study hard. This is very important.
Aaron Pope
_______________________________________________________

And last, some of them were just plain helpful and cute:

Hello freshman,
Welcome to SCU Jinjiang College. As a fellow studnet, maybe I could tell you abotu the college life.
When you come to Jinjiang, maybe you will start a new life. For from your hometown, your parents and your friends. Everything si new. You can do what you want. In the September, Sichuan will be very hot, but the dormitory and the classroom don't have air-condition. I think that's sounds terrible.
Don't escape from the class. That's not cool. If you do that, you can learn nothing in the school. And you should take more time to study. Not in the computer games.
Maybe you will have a boy or girl friend. That will be wonderfor. But you should take attention. Don't take the baby!
Longnius
_______________________________________________________

Write to the fresherman:
1. You'll be on your own.
2. If you want to join something, just do it.
3. Don't be shy if you love somebody. You can loudly speak to somebody.
4. College isn't always about freedom, many things you must burden.
5. Breaking your habit maybe difficult, but you can try it little by little.
6. No homework maybe you'll excited that. However, we all are students, we all must be study.
7. Course I most love: "Politic Economitic", "Advanced Math", "Listening and Speaking Course"
8. Advice: Having true friends and open-minded family are really essencial for you. They will always for you. And you can fight all! Just find true friends.
Yours, Alen
_______________________________________________________

Hello!
Good freshman, as your senior, who has something want to share with you. Firstly, welcome to our college. There will be a lot of fresh things which attracts you. You can enjoy the green of plants which are planted surrounded our buildings. In our college, there are many kinds of flowers and trees. Secondly, there are many trouble you need to struggle. For example: no light and internet after 11 PM, no hot water in your dormitory, and you need to go downstairs to collect water when ou need, and every morning exercise at 6:50 AM. So are you ready?
But there surely be a lot of exciting things waiting for you. You can use your spare time freely, and take more activities of which you are fond. There also have many interesting classes you can take, for example: history, liberalication , and psychology and so on. Finally, please take your own time properly and enjoy your college life in our college.
Sarah
_______________________________________________________

For me, it was a lot of fun to get an insight into the lives of my students. To hear about their worries and problems from the Dear Abby exercise, and to learn about the ups and downs of their freshman  years from the letters. I'll be heading home in just a few short weeks, and I will certainly be missing my sweet students!

Pengshan Blues

Hello all! I know it's been a while since I last posted, and even longer since I last posted about life in China. The main reason for that is that life has been fairly uneventful. My days are full of teaching and lesson planning and watching movies or reading or going to the gym in my free time. While nothing particularly interesting was happening, nothing really bad was happening either. The monotony itself, however, was wearing in it's own way, and I found myself irritable and lazy, lavishing in my depressed state by moping around my room and writing terribly melodramatic poetry in my notebook. Here are a few excerpts for your reading pleasure:

A place in my back twists painfully,

feeling like two ends of rope

pulling at a frayed knot in the middle.

My mind creeps,

lethargic.

I want to burst out of myself

like a hawk springing

full formed from an egg,

my cramped wings extended,

jagged bits of shell

slicing the air.

____________________________

My soul feels like a daffodil bulb,

buried deep in the frozen soil of my chest.

_____________________________

My throat throbs,

raw from sickness,

or maybe from a trapped scream,

fraying at the edges.

Now, I've never really been the type to languish. Distressing events or sudden challenges typically inspire determination rather than despair. But boredom has its own sneaking, leeching quality that surprised me in its tenacity. It didn't help that in a small town like Pengshan, there's not a whole lot to do in terms of activities, and so it was difficult to snap me out of it. In the end, there were two things that made me sit up and take notice: a disastrous weekend trip to Zigong and the Bamboo forest, and a facebook fad. First, the weekend trip:

Our first mistake was trying to travel on a three day weekend at all. When Brenna, James, and I began planning our trip to Zigong, we did not know that whenever there is a holiday in China, it provokes mass migrations throughout the country, especially to tourist destinations. When we arrived at the bus station in Chengdu on Friday, the entire place was a madhouse, so crowded that it was difficult to move. We then discovered that despite what we had read in our Lonely Planet guide, there was no bus to Zigong. There was, however, a bus that went directly to the Bamboo Sea. In a last-minute adjustment of our plans, We decided to first see the forest and then visit Zigong on our way back. In a flurry of activity, we bought our tickets just a few minutes before the bus was scheduled to leave, boarded it, and set off to the Bamboo Sea. About twenty minutes later, the bus stopped at another station to take on more passengers, and we were informed that we had been sold tickets not for today's bus, but for tomorrow's. We were ushered off the bus, and had to make our own way back into Chengdu proper, and then find a place to stay for the night, which was also stressful, as most places were booked up for the busy weekend. However, this evening ended up being our most enjoyable one of the entire trip. There was a free hot-pot dinner at the hostel, delicious half-price cocktails, and we spent the night playing cards, pool, and chatting with interesting people.

The next day, Was spent traveling for the majority of the day. We arrived at a town near the bamboo forest after 9 PM. Luckily, I had been chatting with the owner of an inn earlier that day, and she sent a car to pick us up and take us back to her lodgings. After an adrenaline-pumping car ride down dark, windy roads at break-neck speeds, we had a late dinner and trundled off to bed.

The next morning, we awoke rested and ready to start the day. The morning was a beautiful one, clear and sunny after a storm the day before. We ate a hearty breakfast and headed out to see the park.

  

And that is when the day began to go downhill. The three day weekend meant a HUGE influx of tourists. At the bottom of the mountain, we waited for nearly 3 hours in line just to take the cable car to the top of the mountain. The ride was quite beautiful, but definitely not worth 3 hours. Once we reached the park itself, it was disappointingly touristy and crowded. Vendors lined the streets of an "old town", selling cheap souvenirs. And there weren't really any walking trails, just roads crowded with honking cars and throngs of tourists. The best part of the day was when we became fed up with the roads and finally found a small hidden trail that went off into the bamboo forest itself. While walking along, we came across an old man gathering plants. He spoke very, very thick Sichuan dialect but through a few basic sentences and gestures, he brought us back to his house which was a small building hidden away in the middle of this massive forest.

He showed us around the house and told us how he had built his own irrigation system from a mountain spring, then gave us boiled water to drink as well as a glass of terribly strong alcohol. For a while, we just sat on his porch together, enjoying the cool mountain air while he quietly prepared food for his dinner, chatting a little every now and then.

All too soon it was time to leave, since we had to head back to the cable car to get back down the mountain. We said our goodbyes, and then wandered back out into the forest and towards the cable car station, where the honking of horns and crowds awaited us.

After another hour wait, we were on our way back down the mountain. 

After the last few days, we decided to head straight home without attempting to stop at Zigong. The bus ride back was even more stressful, since we had not purchased our tickets beforehand. The bus that went straight back to Chengdu was totally sold out, so we had to go a roundabout way, switching buses in Yibin and then again in Chengdu to get back to Pengshan. It was a long, weary day of bus rides and I was never so thankful to be back in my small little city.

While this trip did have its good parts, its real value was opening my eyes to the joys of my current life. After a frantic, stressful weekend away from home, I was so grateful for the security, stability, and familiarity of Pengshan. It's funny how a change of perspective can make you feel completely differently about something.

The other contributing factor to cheering me up came, surprisingly, from facebook. In the week leading up to my trip to the Bamboo Sea, my facebook feed was riddled with posts from 100 Happy Days: a challenge to take a picture and post about something that makes you happy, for 100 days in a row. I liked the idea of it and so, after returning from my trip, decided to give it a try. Since then, I've been looking at life not as a bland monotony, but instead through the lens of all the little things that make me happy, whether it's a cup of coffee, my pet birds, or a fun cycling trip.

Since then, you'll be happy to know that I've recovered my joie de vivre. I'm determined to throw myself back into life here in Pengshan, and thoroughly enjoy my last few months in this fascinating country. The world will not come to me; I must be the one to go out and appreciate it.

Europe Trip: The Return Journey

As you can imagine, the last few days of my journal are hardly interesting--mostly morose moaning about my impending departure, and too-enthusiastic descriptions of events as I tried to ignore my impending departure. Nick and I spent time going to a few sites I had yet to check off, such as the Pergamon museum, which was simply amazing in its grandeur. We spent also spent time at our usual haunts--the Indian food place we had come to love with the quiet but enthusiastic waiter. A.horn, with their fabulous bagels and breakfast food. The gym and the food street near Nick's apartment. All places that I had come to love in my short time in Berlin, and which I miss dearly now that I have returned to China.

The departure itself was inevitably tearful. My promise not to cry was immediately broken as soon as I caught sight of the customs gate. However, despite the miserable departure not being easy (and no, it definitely wasn't easy), I felt better prepared for the future than the last time I had parted ways with Nick at an airport. I was on my way back to China, to a job and a home. We had made plans to see each other relatively soon. I felt in control and purposeful.

Of course, that 'in control' feeling disappeared as soon as I touched down in Abu Dhabi, when I found out that my flight had been delayed for over 12 hours. However, in the end it was actually a very enjoyable layover. The airline put me up in a hotel room with free meals for the entire day, and the hotel was right in the down town area. I spent the day napping and wandering around the city, taking in Abu Dhabi's beautiful seaside and abundant mosques. Not a bad way to end the trip, especially as I had just left below-freezing Berlin.

Now, I've been back in China for just over a month, and life has gone back to the same old routine. I have the same classes this semester, with the same students. There has been one VERY welcome change, in that this semester I have text books for all of my classes! I had never been so excited to see text books in my entire life. My daily life consists of teaching 2-3 classes a day, learning Chinese, bumming around the university gym, and spending my free time by reading, sketching, or watching Netflix. Not terribly exciting, except for the occasional weekend trip to Chengdu to go shopping or celebrating St. Patrick's Day.

But fear not, dear readers. There are some weekend travel plans in the works in the very near future. Stay tuned for more exciting adventures and wacky Chinese shenanigans!

Europe Trip: Nearing the End

February 8, 2014
We went on to Lille, France next and met up with my good friend Charlene, who I met while studying abroad in Beijing. When I saw her here, it was as if no time had passed. Same vibrant personality and carefree attitude.

We met up late yesterday and spent the evening grabbing dinner and drinks and catching up. She told me about her job in France, I told her all about life in China, and we reminisced about the good ol' days at CET.

The next day (today) was more productive. We got up, had breakfast, and went to check out the zoo. Unfortunately, it happened to be the only day out of the year that it was closed. Determined to do something cultural in Lille, we moved on to the Fine Arts Museum, which had a fabulous collection. So much beautiful artwork. My favorites were the vanity paintings. Nick's favorite part was a room in the basement that housed ancient miniature reproductions of Lille and other cities used to plan invasions in the past.

After the museum, we wandered until we found an authentic French restaurant for lunch and had some waffles from a street for dessert (so many waffles on this trip!). After a lovely day in Lille, it was time to part ways and head back to Trier, wrapping up our little road trip. I said my goodbyes to Charlene, and now we're on our way back to Trier, where a warm house, good food, and Lindsay await!

February 10, 2014
Nothing terribly interesting to report about the last few days, other than hanging out with Nick's friends, going to a basketball game with Meredith, and getting a free teeth-cleaning from Ali. But even though we're not filling the days with tons of activities, it has still been lovely, just all spending time together.

But even as I'm enjoying every minute, the shadow of my departure is looming ever closer. For now, I'm trying to push that aside and focus on enjoying the last of my time here, which is working for the most part.

February 16, 2014
Again, nothing to much has been happening. Lindsay, Nick, and I are back in Berlin, and we've spent the time mostly hanging out at Nick's apartment and the surrounding neighborhood. The day we came back, we arrived in the evening and had a quick dinner at a nearby Indian place before coming back, watching some TV shows, and falling asleep.

The next day was Valentine's day, and I got to spend it with the two people I love most in the world! We went to a fantastic little bistro for brunch called A.horn, and then wandered down the river for a while before going to the Topography of Terror. It was a fantastic museum and memorial, and it also wasn't too crowded, as I imagine the Topography of Terror isn't a terribly common Valentine's day destination. After a quick dinner, Nick and I took Lindsay to the Renate bar to show her the hidden labyrinth. Just as Nick had done for me, we kept her in the dark about what was going to happen and instead just surprised her with it. And like me, she had a fantastic time.

The next day, almost nothing got done. It was a day for the gym, skyping with friends, computer games, and good food. Today, Lindsay and I got up early to go to church, then we all met up for lunch afterwards. We had been planning to see the Museum of Design in the afternoon, but we ended up stopping by a flea market and a vegetable market on the way back, and then we had to go back to the apartment to drop off our leftovers from lunch. By the time we reached the apartment, it was already almost 4 PM, so we just decided to stay in for the rest of the day. We've been spending our time researching flights and playing computer games, and soon it will be time for dinner. I'm still trying to forget that Lindsay is leaving Berlin tomorrow, and that in just a few short days it will be my turn...

Obligatory China pose