Frackin' Aytch
The Registrar at CSBSJU is trying to kill me.
I was originally planning on 4 classes next semester: Differential Equations, Industrial Organization, Quantitative Methods of Economics, and Foundations of math.
Diff Eq's was at the same time as I/O or at the same time as foundations, so I switched out and put my upper division theology (blech) this semester and Diff Eq's in my final semester. Not ideal, but it works.
Then I got the first schedule update. Now I/O is at the exact same time as Quantitative, I need to take both of these classes, and I don't have a time turner. I'm working with my advisor to find a solution, but I'm kinda frustrated with my schedule.
So we were taking care of some stuff in the foreign students dorm the other day, and none of the students there had anything to do but wait. There was an African student also waiting around, so I went up to her and started conversing. I spoke, then she replied in Chinese, so I switched over as well. It turns out that her first language is Spanish, and she doesn't really speak English, but we ended up having a pretty nice conversation anyway. Kinda cool.
We had an excursion from August 26th until Oct. 2nd. We went to Chengdu where we saw a panda reserve (they're actually kinda playful when they've got room to play), and a traditional opera. The opera was kind of a variety show, definitely aimed at foreigners since most of the acts were dancing and other non-verbal things. I lost my nice Chinese-English dictionary when it fell out of my pocket in a taxi, but I had a pretty good time in Chengdu, despite the fact that the waiban (foreign office) at SWU books nothing but government hotels, which have terrible locations and rooms. Actually getting a taxi turned out to be pretty difficult due to said terrible location. However I had a good experience in a Chengdu club, and I've decided that I should start buying good shirts since a large number of my shirts from back home are going to be too big and I can get nicer and cheaper clothes here in China, so I got a nice shirt.
Mount Emei, is a very tall mountain, famous for it's Buddhist temple. Winter clothing since it actually got cold enough for ME to feel it. I had a wonderful talk with a college student who was spending the national week of vacation surrounding Oct. 1st (national day) working on Mt. Emei. Then we spent the night up there in a hotel with no central heating. I slept in my winter clothes, which was convenient since I, the two Matts in the group, and Brendan got up at 4:30 to start walking down the mountain. This was the bit I was sad my camera was broken for. We saw little temples, and there was a little rest hut selling overpriced water and food about every two kilometers along the path. Plus the natural scenery was extraordinarily beautiful. We didn't get attacked by monkeys despite the many warnings, our theory is that this is because we had no women in the group. The monkeys seem to have noticed that men fight back when you try to steal their food, where the women just stand there and maybe scream (sexist, but borne out by experimental evidence). Fortunately the others took a lot of pictures. All of the cats I encountered on the mountain were extremely friendly. We stopped at one rest area that had techno playing (kind of surreal) and I ended up petting one cat for about 15 minutes. Just before that stop we ran into a couple of mules going up the path unaccompanied. Apparently they haul the supplies up the mountain, and they've done so enough times that they don't really need anyone to watch them. They looked well cared for too, though sweaty.
At the beginning of the trip down the mountain I was wearing a coat, sweater, long underwear, and t-shirt. By the and of the trip, eight hours and twenty two miles of steps later I had everything but my pants tied around my waist. The experience was worth every twinge in my legs over the next couple days. Going up stairs was actually a lot easier than going down for some time afterward.
We finished the trip in Leshan, where we saw the 30m tall Buddha. Impressive, but not exactly requiring many words besides 30m tall Buddha.
We had an extra week of vacation, so six of us went to Chongqing for a few days. Of course Brendan and got massive food poisoning the day we were supposed to go, so we ended up going a day later, but it was still a good time. The taxi driver that the people who went when we were supposed to go recommended a hotel that was about a tenth as good and two thirds the price of the one I'd researched (and we'd booked) right in Jiefangbei. Guess what! It was a government hotel that gives a commission to drivers who get them guests. We moved out after the first night to the hotel we'd originally booked and into the excellent one I'd researched in my guidebook. The breakfast there had bacon, toast, and BREAKFAST CEREAL WITH COLD MILK. I had knockoff cheerios, and then we found A GROCERY STORE WITH BREAKFAST CEREAL. Then later we went to another grocery store that actually had rum, which I'd been wanting a bottle of for a while. We also went to Ciqikou, an old town area with a lot of shops, where I managed to complete my gift list.
Brendan and I (the rest of the group wasn't interested) went to a WWII history site. The Chinese people there were rather surprised to see Westerners. There wasn't much in English, though it was interesting to note the long Chinese paragraphs followed by tiny English ones. We also saw a bomb shelter.A lot of the facilities were kind of dilapidated. The Chinese government seems to take the same view of WWII history that they take of Mao. They don't actively try to extinguish it (except for the awkward parts) they're just trying to prevent people from emphasizing it too much. At least the history bits of it, they still put waaay too much of it on TV.
Then back to classes. Ah well.
I was originally planning on 4 classes next semester: Differential Equations, Industrial Organization, Quantitative Methods of Economics, and Foundations of math.
Diff Eq's was at the same time as I/O or at the same time as foundations, so I switched out and put my upper division theology (blech) this semester and Diff Eq's in my final semester. Not ideal, but it works.
Then I got the first schedule update. Now I/O is at the exact same time as Quantitative, I need to take both of these classes, and I don't have a time turner. I'm working with my advisor to find a solution, but I'm kinda frustrated with my schedule.
So we were taking care of some stuff in the foreign students dorm the other day, and none of the students there had anything to do but wait. There was an African student also waiting around, so I went up to her and started conversing. I spoke, then she replied in Chinese, so I switched over as well. It turns out that her first language is Spanish, and she doesn't really speak English, but we ended up having a pretty nice conversation anyway. Kinda cool.
We had an excursion from August 26th until Oct. 2nd. We went to Chengdu where we saw a panda reserve (they're actually kinda playful when they've got room to play), and a traditional opera. The opera was kind of a variety show, definitely aimed at foreigners since most of the acts were dancing and other non-verbal things. I lost my nice Chinese-English dictionary when it fell out of my pocket in a taxi, but I had a pretty good time in Chengdu, despite the fact that the waiban (foreign office) at SWU books nothing but government hotels, which have terrible locations and rooms. Actually getting a taxi turned out to be pretty difficult due to said terrible location. However I had a good experience in a Chengdu club, and I've decided that I should start buying good shirts since a large number of my shirts from back home are going to be too big and I can get nicer and cheaper clothes here in China, so I got a nice shirt.
Mount Emei, is a very tall mountain, famous for it's Buddhist temple. Winter clothing since it actually got cold enough for ME to feel it. I had a wonderful talk with a college student who was spending the national week of vacation surrounding Oct. 1st (national day) working on Mt. Emei. Then we spent the night up there in a hotel with no central heating. I slept in my winter clothes, which was convenient since I, the two Matts in the group, and Brendan got up at 4:30 to start walking down the mountain. This was the bit I was sad my camera was broken for. We saw little temples, and there was a little rest hut selling overpriced water and food about every two kilometers along the path. Plus the natural scenery was extraordinarily beautiful. We didn't get attacked by monkeys despite the many warnings, our theory is that this is because we had no women in the group. The monkeys seem to have noticed that men fight back when you try to steal their food, where the women just stand there and maybe scream (sexist, but borne out by experimental evidence). Fortunately the others took a lot of pictures. All of the cats I encountered on the mountain were extremely friendly. We stopped at one rest area that had techno playing (kind of surreal) and I ended up petting one cat for about 15 minutes. Just before that stop we ran into a couple of mules going up the path unaccompanied. Apparently they haul the supplies up the mountain, and they've done so enough times that they don't really need anyone to watch them. They looked well cared for too, though sweaty.
At the beginning of the trip down the mountain I was wearing a coat, sweater, long underwear, and t-shirt. By the and of the trip, eight hours and twenty two miles of steps later I had everything but my pants tied around my waist. The experience was worth every twinge in my legs over the next couple days. Going up stairs was actually a lot easier than going down for some time afterward.
We finished the trip in Leshan, where we saw the 30m tall Buddha. Impressive, but not exactly requiring many words besides 30m tall Buddha.
We had an extra week of vacation, so six of us went to Chongqing for a few days. Of course Brendan and got massive food poisoning the day we were supposed to go, so we ended up going a day later, but it was still a good time. The taxi driver that the people who went when we were supposed to go recommended a hotel that was about a tenth as good and two thirds the price of the one I'd researched (and we'd booked) right in Jiefangbei. Guess what! It was a government hotel that gives a commission to drivers who get them guests. We moved out after the first night to the hotel we'd originally booked and into the excellent one I'd researched in my guidebook. The breakfast there had bacon, toast, and BREAKFAST CEREAL WITH COLD MILK. I had knockoff cheerios, and then we found A GROCERY STORE WITH BREAKFAST CEREAL. Then later we went to another grocery store that actually had rum, which I'd been wanting a bottle of for a while. We also went to Ciqikou, an old town area with a lot of shops, where I managed to complete my gift list.
Brendan and I (the rest of the group wasn't interested) went to a WWII history site. The Chinese people there were rather surprised to see Westerners. There wasn't much in English, though it was interesting to note the long Chinese paragraphs followed by tiny English ones. We also saw a bomb shelter.A lot of the facilities were kind of dilapidated. The Chinese government seems to take the same view of WWII history that they take of Mao. They don't actively try to extinguish it (except for the awkward parts) they're just trying to prevent people from emphasizing it too much. At least the history bits of it, they still put waaay too much of it on TV.
Then back to classes. Ah well.