Julia's Trip to China (part 1)

Getting there

My sister and I decided to be rather daring and try some of the weirder drinks on the plane. I tried the Bloody Mary Mix, which is a spicy tomato juice. She tried the Tonic Water, which is like Sprite, but really bitter. We called it the Toxic Water. My next choice was Club Soda. It actually doesn't have much taste. In fact, it's just soda, no flavor at all. And the flight attendent gave me the whole can!! I had horrible times finishing it!! I had to mix it with my sister's cran-apple juice just so I could drink it.

You'd think that in China, being rather modernized, the people would be mostly the same. But it's still a totally different culture. Let me give some examples: while getting on a plane, everyone pushes and shoves. Even if everyone is guaranteed a seat, people still push and get in front of you. If you are polite and let them go, you will be the last one on. Also, if a young child starts to cry, the mother usually scolds the kid instead of trying to soothe them. Let's just say that that doesn't work. While everyone was trying to sleep on the plane, this boy started crying and was crying for about 15 minutes. The mom didn't even try to quiet him!! Oh, and the people here(especially relatives and friends) like to comment on your appearance. "Say, you've gotten fatter since the last time I saw you." Gee, that's always encouraging.

In Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, my mom's hometown

My sis and I went to one day of school 'cause it was the last day of one session. We just listened in on the math class. Mine was trig. Not too bad. Except my teacher was speaking the Sichuan dialect which made things a little harder to understand. And we were learning with angles: alpha, beta, ooooo-mega (omega), and eck-keh-seh (x).

Eight yuan here is about one American dollar. So something that costs 80 dollars here is only $10 dollars in America. Everyone says this: the food here is really good and really cheap and I completely agree!! Let's see, my first night here I ate chicken feet, rabbit, 1000 year egg soup, lotus root, and pig ear. Yummy stuff. Today, our lunch was only $12 for 4 people!! That's 8 bowls of noodles, which is only $1.5 per bowl. And translated into American dollars, only $.20 per bowl!! Lunch was only $1.50 in American dollars for 4 people!! And it was darn yummy too!! It's cool 'cause a lot of American stuff here is cheap. You can buy a Shrek DVD for about $2, music CD's for $1, any clothing for less than $10, and a taxi ride for $1(in US money). Even movies that aren't out in US yet are out here, such as Star Wars and Spiderman. But the downsides are the pollution, smoggy air, dirty streets, smelly sidewalks, squat toilets with no bathroom tissue(you must provide your own), and people pushing to sell you stuff. It's awesome though that you can bargain the prices with no tax, and things are nice round numbers, such as $10, not $9.99.

The variety of products here is fascinating!! I got myself a pumpkin pillow the other day, and dubbed it "Punkin." It actually looks like a pumpkin, except that it's squishy. My sister got a pillow also, named "Pillow." Hers looks more like a cucumber and has a dragon embroidered on it (she was born in the Year of the Dragon. Quote from Elisha: "That means Julia was born in the Year of the Pumpkin" (hehe, you're funny Elisha *sarcasm*))

Anyone ever seen those old people do taichi?? Slow motion fighting positions and such. My sister and I have been trying to learn taichi, just for the heck of it. It's really funny, 'cause sometimes you have to stand on one leg, and I'm rather unbalanced at times. Some people make fun of the movements: pretend you're cutting a large watermelon with your arms, half goes to the left, half goes to the right. (it's easier to visualize if I demonstrate it...)

Those that live in Utah should feel glad that cockroaches are seldom happened upon. Those big ugly bugs are so scary looking and frighten little kids, including me. My fear of bugs is not lightened by these hairy(actually they are not hairy) monster ugly flying creatures. Last time when my sister and I came to China, a cockroach crawled on Elisha's hand. That's kinda my fear, that maybe it will crawl into my mouth or something. Ewww!!

Did you know that watermelon come in a variety of colors?? Besides the popular red color, there is also yellow. Yellow watermelon, very cool. I wonder if we can get them in the USA. Or maybe one of you genetic engineers would like to create a blue watermelon...

Just for the record, frogs are not good to eat. I attempted eating a frog leg at some restaurant the other day, and although the taste wasn't too bad, the texture is semi-slimy. It was like a mixture of fish and chicken, which is not the best combination. Blech. How can people even like them?? I guess maybe if they were better cooked, maybe fried, and maybe if they didn't tell me it was frog, then I could like it. Yeah, right.

The people here in Sichuan almost specialize in spicy food. A lot of food has pepper in it and whenever we eat noodles, we put pepper in it (and vinegar, but more on that later). We went to eat Huo Guo, which is Hot Wok. They give you raw food to put into the pot and you can watch it cook. Then you pull it out and put the food into a mix of spices. It's really good!! They split the pot so half was hot and half was white. After eating the hot side, your mouth is really on fire!!

We all know that soccer(or REAL football) is not a popular sport in the USA. It's been awhile, but in case some don't know, Brazil won the World Cup. That Renaldo is amazing!! Oh, and the US team did better than ever, getting into the quarter finals. Soccer is THE sport here. Even when the World Cup is over, the TV continues to show some of the more spectacular scenes from the games. Over, and over, and over.

There is a rather silly game called Majong. It's silly because the rules of the game don't seem too hard or sophisticated, but if you can endure playing it many times, there actually IS some kind of strategy for winning. You play sorta like cards, but you use blocks instead of cards. I still have not gotten the hang of the game, but my sister has almost mastered it, winning about 20 dollars from our grandma(which equates to US money about $2.50).

China Chinese restaurants are much different from Chinese restaurants in the US. First off, before eating, the waitresses give you a hot towel to wipe your hands and face. And after dinner, there are no fortune cookies. Yes, there are no fortune cookies!! And not only that, the people here don't know what they are!! I was rather amazed and disappointed by this aspect. I wonder where this tradition started up. Probably some American person thought of it to make more money.

Ever gone to school in another language?? I'm in 8th grade here (even though I've already graduated from high school), taking math and Chinese. My Chinese is probably not at the 8th grade level (it's worse) but the math is really easy (I'm learning how to factor...and there's much rejoicing...). Actually, it's really easy. I just can't read what the teacher writes on the board. The classroom is so hot!! And the fans do absolutely nothing. The teacher speaks in the Chengdu dialect, which makes things a bit harder. And if the teacher makes a mistake, the kids don't dare challenge him. On the first day, I got to take an English class!! (but sadly, my grandpa made me transfer out) The people here pronunciate words horribly. Especially the letters: tr, th, l, and r. And the grammar is the really strict kind, such as "September THE 10th". We don't say that!! Just "September 10th." It's probably English English, not American English. And the teacher doesn't know the English very well. One of her example sentences was: He is a welcome boy. Sure, a welcome boy. Whatever that means. But now I switched to a Chinese class. The kids are really nice when they know you're from America.

Btw, what's "dibs"?? My sis and I saw that word on the bus "Produce your commutation ticket, or throw the dibs in." Um, yeah. My little electronic dictionary didn't know that word. I think they made it up or something. And a lot of English words here are spelled wrong: Help the enmironrent. Make Chengdu baeutiful for future genrations. I guess there isn't a spell-check here or something.

One nice thing in China is the TV series. There are a lot of them!! From historical fiction to modern times from a war to time travel. My sister and I watched Feng Zai Jiang Hu (direct translation: The Phoenix is by the River and Lake) and Yi Jia Zi Zhu (One Home is Living). Some other good ones are Cang Tian You Lei (The Blue Sky Has Tears), Xun Qing Ji (A Step into the Past (or The Story of the Search for the Qing Dynasty)), and Da Zai Men (Big Garden Door (or my translation: Big Narrow Door)). The ones that are based on novels are pretty good too: Xi You Ji (Journey to the West), San Guo Yin Yi (The Romance of Three Kingdoms), Shui Hu Zhuan (River Water Story), Hong Lou Meng (Red Building Dream) and Bai She Zhuan (The Story of the White Snake). (I know most of you have no idea what I'm talking about)