I had a quick breakfast of rice with a fried egg, coffee, water, and kiwi juice. While I ate, the others were discussing the fact that the same song has been playing on repeat all morning. It's a Christmas song. I've noticed that in Chongqing, Christmas decorations are everywhere country around Christmas time, so I wasn't sure what to expect when it came to holiday cheer. If anything, I was expecting less Christmas spirit because I thought a lot of people here would be Buddhist. I asked Lotus and she said that a lot of people go to Buddhist temples because of traditions, but she is not sure how many of them actually follow the Buddhist beliefs.
Lotus took us on a campus tour this morning of CQU Campus D. Like the other campuses, it is big and beautiful. I think this campus is the most beautiful. It is a lot like a park or nature preserve. There are even signs that describe the different plants and wildlife around.
The main attraction on this campus I would say is the giant lake in the middle. It is filled with lotus plants. Unfortunately they're all dead right now; although I still thought they were beautiful, I can only imagine how much more beautiful they are in full bloom.
We hiked around campus for a while, just enjoying the scenery. Lotus told us a bit about campus life. Everyone lives in the dorms, and even though they're not great, they are so cheap that it's okay. That is so much different than dorm housing in the US. She was also telling us that although their tuition is much less expensive at CQU, the UC tuition is much more inclusive. We have great budgets for student organizations, the rec center, and really nice libraries/study facilities. At CQU, the gym equipment is super out of date, and the library isn't big enough to hold enough students. It also closes at 10 or 11 PM every day, which means there isn't a nice place on campus to study late at night.
We eventually made our way to the JCI-UC office, where all of the staff we had dinner with last night work. They were on another campus today at an administrative meeting. Lotus was telling us that they keep all of the paperwork, student exams, and lab reports here. I guess the students don't keep their assignments, but the JCI office holds onto them until the students graduate in case there is any discrepancy or debate in the grades.
By the time we walked all of the way through campus, it was lunch time. We walk around China so much that I'm almost always hungry. Lotus took us to experience the CQU dining hall. Unlike CenterCourt at UC, the CQU dining hall is like a cafeteria where you can buy food from one of many small restaurants in the dining center.
I decided to try some spicy pig's feet noodles today. There were a lot of bones, so I had a pretty hard time eating the pig's feet. The meat was very tender, though. I liked the dish overall, even though it wasn't actually spicy.
We took the campus shuttle from one campus to another. It cost 5元, but the other campus was practically an hour away so it was fine.
On the way, we got word that the location for our presentation was closed for maintenance until halfway through our scheduled time to present. Lotus had to rearrange the schedule so that we could have the meeting after the class we will shadow this afternoon.
Since we had an hour to kill, we went to explore the Walmart down the street. It was so different than the US Walmarts. I want to say that it was a little bit nicer, and it seemed to attract a more normal crowd. It was fun to look around and see all of the Chinese selections. All of the dishes and silverware was so cheap; Liz, Alexia, and I really wanted to buy all of it but unfortunately it would have been a little bit too big to fit in my carry-on bag.
Then it was time to go shadow the CQU JCI class. We sat in on an EE Machining lecture. I didn't realize that the class was two hours until it was starting, but it turned out to be okay. This was the last lecture before exams, so their professor promised to give them a fun lecture about his research.
He is a Chinese professor who speaks with a Chinese British accent, which I've never heard before so that was neat. The class was in English, so we were able to understand most of it. I can't tell if we made him nervous observing the class or if he's just more of s nervous guy.. he kept apologizing, particularly when he would clarify a complex term in Chinese to make sure the JCI students understood.
Lil Mao was ready to help take some notes on what the class was like. The first thing we noticed is that the first three rows of the classroom were completely unoccupied. Nobody sat in them, which is so strange to me because sometimes we're fighting over seats in the front row of classes. There's usually at least a few people (like me) who always sit in the front.
As a slight side note, I've been wearing my glasses and it's been great to see all of the things. Even when we were sitting in the back of this classroom, I could read the whole PowerPoint so clearly.
Anyway, I think the students's behavior was for the most part a lot like it is in the US. Some people were paying attention and maybe taking a few notes. Other people were texting a little bit, but they were trying to do it more discretely I think. I didn't catch anyone sleeping, but it was also only one lecture so I cannot say that this is completely representative of the usual behavior.
The one big difference I did note was that nobody left during the class. Once people arrived, they stayed put. CQU also uses a bell system so that professors know when they have to stop the lectures or have the short break in class. Everyone we talked to were so confused as to how a university could function without the bells. Hopefully it won't be too big of an adjustment for them when they move in the fall
After the class, it was time for our presentation. Most of the students who attended were in the class we just observed, and the professor also sat in the hear what we had to say.
I had to trust Lil Mao with Jacob and Jonathan to watch while we were presenting. From what they say, he was a very attentive listener and quite the talented doodler (pictures will arrive when I receive them).
We also had some technical difficulties with the presentation to start, but they were soon resolved and we were able to present. Overall, I felt like the presentation went very well. The students seemed interested to hear what we were saying, and they asked some good questions that made me think they're excited and maybe a little nervous to come to UC but not so overly worried they will have a bad time.
After the presentation, we decided to go out for Chongqing hot pot with any of the students who wanted to join us. To give the students time to put away their backpacks and such, Lotus took us to see a traditional outdoor market. It was fascinating to see all of the different cuts of meat being sold. I also made the mistake of asking how they keep the flies away from the meat (spoiler alert: the answer is that they don't).
Next stop: hotpot. I've been hearing so much about how incredible the Chongqing hotpot is, and that we really need to try it while we are here. I hoped that the anticipation didn't kill the actual excitement of eating it.
Hotpot is a meal where there is basically a hot pot of water (maybe spicy or non spicy stuff is added) in the middle of the table. The waiters bring raw meat or vegetables out and you put them in the hot pot to cook. We had a lot of different stuff in our hotpot. The two signature things were cow stomach and duck intestine. The cow stomach has a weird texture and I thought it was a little bit chewy, but it wasn't bad. I actually really liked the duck intestines. We also had pork, beef, mutton, shrimp, spam, and tofu skin (they explained to me what that was but I forget exactly... Some kind of delicious tofu). I never eat spam unless I'm in Asia, so every time I see it in some sort of fine dining setting it cracks me up.
We also ate these fried pork things. Apparently they were supposed to make your mouth numb or something, but I ate a bunch of them and never noticed....
You also get your own personal seasoning oil to dip the food in. They give you the oil and you can add whatever flavors you want. I had no idea what to put in mine so I just made the same one that Shorey did.
I really loved the hotpot. It was so delicious, and I had a great time talking to the CQU students. We talked about everything from hobbies/videogames to what we wanted to do after graduation to different stereotypes about our cultures. I think the best thing we discussed was hair color and how we have trouble distinguishing things that the other finds easy. For example, telling the different between blond, bleached, brown, and red hair is so easy for me, but I cannot tell the difference between the super dark brown natural Asian hair color and dyed black hair.
Matt has been dying to play basketball this whole trip, so after dinner he finally got a group together to play. We went back to the university to play. To clarify, I wasn't playing at all-- just watching and supporting Liz.
On the way to CQU, we stumbled across a cat. It was so cute! When I tried to take a picture with Lil Mao, though, I had to spend my time rescuing him instead of taking a nice picture. As soon as I set Lil Mao down, the cat started moving aggressively toward it. We were all scared for Lil Mao and due to the circumstances, this picture below is the best I have.
Looked like a pretty intense game, but I didn't actually end up watching too much. Instead, I spent the time talking to two female EEs. They were super nice, and I think that the more I talked to them, the more I realized that although we might seem super different at first, we have so much in common. We are sharing the same school experience, we've all had awful and wonderful professors. Some people know exactly what they want to do when they graduate, others have no idea. We're all so similar, so I feel so hopeful that in the fall everything will work out smoothly.
After they finished the basketball game, we hung out around the courts for a while. I was trying to take a girls photo with Lil Mao, but he was taken out of the picture by a very insistent Matt. So then we had to take a "family photo" with all of the guys, including Lil Mao. Then they guys spent some time trying to get Lil Mao to sit on the hoop for a picture. I think it's so funny that when I first had the cat and was taking pictures, some people seemed to be rolling their eyes, but now Lil Mao seems to be a full member of our group.
When we finished up the basketball, we still had one last activity to try with our CQU friends: KTV. I was so tired already but it was our last night here so I couldn't pass it up.
KTV is like karaoke, except you rent a private room with your friends instead of singing in front of so many strangers. At this particular place, if we spent a certain amount of money buying snacks, we could get the room for free. This gave us a great chance to try some of the Chinese snack foods.
Only Shorey, Jeremy, and Lotus joined us from the JCI, so it was a slightly smaller group which I enjoyed much more I think. Lil Mao was ready for KTV all night, but I ended up falling asleep after a few hours. I don't really know how long my impromptu nap was, but I guess it was surprising to everyone that I slept through all of the karaoke. To be fair it was pretty loud and there was some *beautiful* singing going on. I really think I can sleep through anything, though, and this KTV trip just kind of enforced that.
When we were leaving, I was only half asleep and very cold because that's how it always is when I wake up from a nap... There was a super drunk Korean couple waiting by the elevator with us, and they kept trying to give us cigarettes. I look forward to arriving back in the US where the smoking less common and more regulated.
It was so fun hanging out with everyone tonight. I wish we had more time in Chongqing to get to know everyone more. Hopefully I'll get to see them all in the fall.
Looks like I'll be pulling an all nighter tonight so I can get packed. We leave for Xi'an tomorrow, so I'll just use that plane ride to catch up on my sleep. This trip is really flying by but I'm loving every second of it.
Until next time!
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