Author Archives: Chloe Melnick

So Juicy

SO….Xinli had been mentioning these dumplings for 20 days now, and he always said “soooo juicy” and “soooo delicious.” Well, he was right…but I will explain why in more detail.

When our dumplings came out, he said, “Watch! I’ll teach you how to eat juicy dumplings.”

How To Eat A Shanghai Juicy Dumpling
1) When you eat a juicy dumpling you first have to grab it by the top where all of the dough comes together.
2) Then you have to dip it into your soy sauce. This is crucial so that the dough doesn’t get stuck to your mouth as you are making the first incision.
3) You then have to bite into your juicy dumpling and suck the juice out of the dumpling. It is so delicious!
4) You then dip the dumpling in your soy sauce and eat, repeating the process until the whole dumpling has been devoured.
I am glad Xinli has found such good places to get food over the years. Shanghai juicy dumplings will forever be in my heart.

 

The Worst First Day on The Job

Today our favorite, and only, TA Chen joined us. He didn’t know it at the time, but he would soon be plagued with problems. When we got to Chongqing we were trying to turn around so we could get all of our luggage off the bus and while we were doing that, our bus hit a car. There really don’t seem to be any rules when it comes to driving in China, and because of that, I have absolutely no idea whose fault it was.

Our bus driver hit the front bumper of a car!

Our bus driver hit the front bumper of a car! And we still don’t know whose fault it was!

Once we got to the hotel we got some lunch and headed over to the Three Gorges Museum. We explored the museum for a few hours and watched a 360 degree movie. It was mostly in Chinese, so a lot of it was hard to understand, but it was cool to be able to look all around you, even behind, and see the movie. I wondered how they made the movie and fit each of the screens together so perfectly. It was like an IMAX movie but the film extended the whole way around the theater.

After visiting the museum we went to the zoo for an hour. We got to see pandas, tigers, yaks, hippos, rhinos, camels and a lot more animals. The zoo in China is a lot more lenient than the zoo in America. There were people throwing Cheeto type food directly into the animal cages and there were no guards yelling at them or anything. I feel like you could walk right into the cage and not get caught for a minute or two. After visiting the zoo, we were on the way back to our hotel when our bus broke down. Xinli had a friend to meet, so he had to take a taxi back to the hotel, leaving Chen alone with almost 40 students.

Everyone was patiently and happily waiting for the bus to be fixed.

Everyone was patiently and happily waiting for the bus to be fixed.

We waited an hour for a repairman to come fix the bus, but a lot of us were trying to get a taxi instead. Once the bus was fixed we drove all of two minutes back to the hotel. That night, a lot of us went to Pizza Hut for dinner. Chen didn’t want us to go alone so he led the way through the sketchiest ally I have been in while in China. In some parts of the ally it was so dark you could barely see. But Chen prevailed and we made it to Pizza Hut.

My Chinese teacher told me that Pizza Hut in China was a lot different than Pizza Hut in America, so I wanted to check it out for myself. The biggest differences were the elegance and the portion size. The medium pizzas were a lot smaller than they would be in America. A medium was basically equivalent to a small. And they also charge you extra money to get cheese on the pizza. I guess they usually don’t get cheese on their pizzas?

I couldn’t tell you what happened the rest of the night because I was so sick that I went straight to bed after dinner, but we definitely had an interesting first day in Chongqing.

Ain’t No Dialect I Can’t Bargain In

While we have been on the cruise, there are a lot of excursions that you have to pay 100 yuan ($16) to go on. Since a lot of us didn’t bring that much money to China, we haven’t been paying to go on the excursions. Tonight, we were docked at a town that I couldn’t tell you the name of. There was an excursion here and I could not tell you what that excursion was either. Anyway, while we were waiting for dinner, a few of us decided to go to town. I didn’t actually intend on going into town, I was just walking around the boat when I saw Alejandro, Joe, Kent, and Steve. They said they were going to explore so I just tagged along.

We had to weave through a bunch of smelly docks and go through a creepy “shopping mall,” but once we got to the other side…we didn’t see much. It was a really small town. It had shops and restaurants on either side of the street, but it was pretty rundown. So we went left, we tried to buy some wine from a shopkeeper, but he wanted too much money. We then crossed the street and went the other way looking at some more shops. We were looking for a convenience store at this point and we spotted one across the street so we headed over to it.
When we were inside the convenience store we all found some food and drinks that we wanted. I found some crackers that I really wanted to buy to bring home, but they expired in March, so I decided to pass on them. I hope I can find them again. We didn’t do any bargaining in the convenience store, we just bought everything at face value.

I have never tried to bargain while in a store like this. It seems disrespectful. For the people who own these stores, this is how they get by. The prices are already cheap enough as is, it feels wrong to try and ask for something lower. Whenever we pass through small stands that people set up for tourists, or passersby, it is more fair to bargain because they try to overcharge you in the first place. But for people who have an established store and are selling to locals most of the time, it feels disrespectful to me, especially because I am a guest of their country.

After leaving the convenience store, we saw some small stands that were selling toys and drinks. Alejandro had been looking for a carved wooden rabbit along the street and at one of the stands he saw one he liked. When I asked the women how much it was she said 100 yuan. I understoond her perfectly and said 10. And she nodded her head and seemed pleased. I was really confused because going from 100 to 10 and being happy about it doesn’t seem right. I decided to pull out my phone and type 10 into my calculator because I didn’t want her to get mad if we gave her 10 and it was wrong. We wanted that rabbit!

She looked at the 10 on my phone and freaked out and said no. I guess they pronounce their numbers differently in this unknown town? They have a different dialect so ten is shi in madarin but here ten is more like si (si is 4 in Chinese) so she thought I said 40, which would be si shi…or si si in this town. So I asked Alejandro if he would be willing to pay any more money. He said 12 and she said 30. I said 12 again and she said 20. I then said 15 and she said 18. I said 15 again. She said no.

Alejandro didn’t want to pay any more than 15, so we started to walk away. We were aboout 30 feet away when she changed her mind. This can happen, because they decide they will take profit, even if it isn’t much. So we got the rabbit for 15 yuan which is about 2 dollars and 50 cents. It was a very good deal and even though the woman couldn’t understand me completely, we were successfully able to bargain!

The Struggling Musician

It is really expensive to do laundry in China because the only option is a dry cleaning service. I don’t know if it is even possible to find a laundromat. Most people are so used to doing their own laundry and just doing it by hand that they don’t need laundry mats. Besides, who needs a laundry service when it is so much fun to do your own laundry.

This morning I had to clean my clothes the real way – with my hands. I didn’t really know what I was doing. I didn’t even have laundry detergent. I had been putting all of my dirty clothing into a trash bag over the course of the two weeks I had been travelling, so I just went to the shower and dumped out the entire bag. I then clogged the drain with one of my shirts that I didn’t care too much about. Once I had this completed, I started to soak all of my clothing with water. It took about 5 minutes to get everything thoroughly soaked. Once all of my clothes were wet, I got a washcloth and dumped a lot of body wash onto my clothes. I then scrubbed all of them with the washcloth and squeezed them in my hands.

My next task was rinsing all of the soap out of the clothes. It took me a long time, and I am pretty sure I didn’t even get all of the soap out of them, but I was kind of tired at this point. I wrung everything out as best as I could and took all of my clothes out to the balcony of the boat to dry. I knew that if I hung them on the railing of the balcony they would dry a lot faster, but I was not trying to involuntarily send any of my clothing overboard. I tried to let them dry by placing them on the chairs on our balcony, but there wasn’t enough air getting to them, so I took the risk and hung them on the railing. I watched all of my clothes like a hawk for 30 minutes and then decided I would have to just hope they didn’t go overboard.

Waiting for my clothes to end up in the river.

Waiting for my clothes to end up in the river.

I was really only worried about my t-shirts. I was able to find a way to tie everything else to the railing. After washing my laundry like this, I definitely have a greater respect for people who don’t use laundry machines and wash all of their clothes by hand. It isn’t my preferred method, but I guess it gets the job done.

Making the most of the balcony on the boat!

Making the most of the balcony on the boat!

When I looked at the balconies above and below me, I saw that the Chinese cruise ship residents were doing the same thing, so I felt pretty accomplished. I’m sure it was entertaining for everyone to see a nice boat passing by with all of this clothing hanging off the railings.

Three Gorges Dam

We went and visited the Three Gorges Dam Thursday afternoon. It is the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world. The dam spans across the entire river, it was amazing to see. There were huge turbines, 32 of them in total, generating the electricity. To get through the dam, a ship lock had to be built. The ship lock is not as big as the one at the Panama Canal, but it is free to go through for all ships.

The Three Gorges Dam and the Yangtze River.

The Three Gorges Dam and the Yangtze River.

 

The tour guide explained to us that the dam was built to end devastating floods in the area. In China, the government owns all of the land, so when they wanted to build the dam in this location, all residents currently living here were relocated. He said that many people in the older generation were very reluctant to move, because this is where their family had lived for generations. However, the younger generation was much more willing to move, because they knew that in the cities there was opportunity to make a better life for their families. Our tour guide was funny and had a very memorable laugh. He used common idioms such as a picture is worth a thousand words, but I was extremely surprised when he hit us with one of the best puns I have ever heard. When we were getting closer to the town we got off our boat at, the tour guide said “Am I a good dam guide, or a damn guide?” I laughed so much, as did many other people on the bus. The tour guide had a great personality and made our tour of the dam more fun and a lot more memorable. I think he is a good dam guide for sure.

The Three Gorges Dam Ship lock at night.

The Three Gorges Dam Ship lock at night.

Not Quite Beijing

We almost made it out of the United States!

We made it?

We made it?

We have finally arrived..in Texas. We didn’t quite make it to China. Me and four other students missed our connection to China due to delayed flights. Weather and mechanical issues caused us to miss the flight by just minutes. As devastating as it was, we got to bond a little more and will now even get to stop in Canada on our way to Beijing!

The airline gave us free hotel rooms so we are going to get some rest and wake up bright and early to hopefully actually make it to Beijing this time around.

Our lovely home for the night.

Our lovely home for the night.

Wish us luck!

7 Days ‘Til Liftoff

It feels so far away, yet so close at the same time.

I know I will be so busy this week, that I won’t even realize how quickly the day of departure is approaching. However, anytime someone mentions that I will be leaving for China soon, or asks “Are you excited?” My heart starts to flutter.

I can’t deny my excitement. I do not think I have ever anticipated the arrival of anything more in my life. I remember how excited I was to move in on campus this past summer, but I have been waiting to go to China since I was in 10th grade. It has been four years, and every time I think about how it will actually be happening in just over a week, I don’t even know what to do with myself. I feel a loss for words. I am thrilled. I am also worried about missing my flight, but who wouldn’t be?

When I signed up to take this course and go to China for nearly a month, I thought that leaving two days after the semester ended was too soon, but now I am so grateful. I wouldn’t be able to wait any longer if we weren’t leaving directly after the semester ended.

My biggest task over the next week will be packing. Forgetting something is not an option. I really need to make sure I check over what is going into my luggage thrice. There are a few things I already have packed…the essentials (playing cards, sunscreen, and chocolate).

I can’t wait to explore China, make new friends, meet new people, experience a new culture, and try new food.

For now, I guess I will continue to count down the days.

 

Did I mention I have never traveled outside of the country?

Wish me luck!