Friday we went rock climbing again. I think I'm definitely getting better and Alec, Matt, and I attempted most of the V2s in the gym. Some are still really hard to get while on an overhang but they seem to be getting a little easier...we were able to convince Duncan to leave a little earlier than last time and ended up going to a bar with one of Duncan's friends from the gym. After that, we headed back, showered, and set out again in search of a place to play cards. We ended up settling on the craft beer pub we had found the first weekend, playing poker for hours. I'm not sure how we discovered it, but the pub had a Chinese version of Blokus! It seemed to be published by another company...but it was definitely the game Emma and I spend a while trying to avoid on game night! I was hoping my experience would lead me to victory...but I was beaten early by the TA. Poker was more my thing until I ran out of chips. So all in all I didn't win much but it was a lot of fun.
Saturday Duncan ditched the rest of the group to go serious rock climbing with some other guys he had met at the gym (it helps to be able to fluently speak Chinese in China I suppose.) while the rest of us headed to "Blue Chicken Mountain," home of the "Dragon Gate." We had the same tour guide as last week, and the bus ride to the mountain was full of random tidbits about Chinese culture. While I do enjoy the cultural aspects of the stories, I wish they were a little more associated with the place we were going. The mountain itself is covered in shrines. We learned that each individual God has a level on the mountain and he/she shall judge your worthiness once you reach it. A lot of Chinese people associate this to a degree with climbing the mountain to the shrine, a sign of determination. We took a golf cart up the base and as far as it could go. From there, we saw the Gods of Wealth, Mercy, and Honor I believe...towards the end we were suddenly in a rush and frankly I’m not sure if we ever did see the Dragon Gate. At about halfway through the door we never stopped walking until we reached the cable-car descent point. I have no idea where we ended or if I saw all the cool stuff...it seemed like we needed to be in such a rush to get to a Spa we weren’t able to enjoy the beauty of the mountain. All things considered, my general complaint is still that we try to do too much too fast or there isn’t enough freedom for those of us who’d rather take the incredible opportunity to see the homes of Taoist Gods along rocky cliffs and ancient steps...as opposed to spending six hours in a Spa.
We had lunch at “Wang Fu Spa” and dinner was provided, so if we toughed it out...it would be free. Otherwise, we were allowed to leave whenever we chose. A lot of us took advantage of the time to really relax and unwind. I think everyone in the group got one type of massage or another! I curled up in this big comfy chair and read for a few hours before learning how to play Mahjong from Alec. There were also these great roman style baths...that took some getting used to. All in all it was fun, but a little long. I think in retrospect I should have left before dinner and just gotten it back at the hotel or something. Maybe done some personal exploring...anyway that’s the plan for this week! I have a pretty good mental model of the big streets surrounding campus but I definitely want to get out in the city a little bit more. So, I’m thinking from now one I’ll use my lunch break to go exploring and try and build a bigger city image. It beats taking naps for sure!
("Blue Chicken" is the literal translation of "Peacock" in Chinese, this is their mountain)
Today...I cracked, and got a Western breakfast. After three and a half weeks I needed the pick-me-up of a bagel covered in fried egg, jalapenos, and cheese. It was heavenly, and served with a cup of coffee. Until now I’ve been avoiding the Western restaurant on the nearby food street as has most of the dialogue but you can only eat dumplings for breakfast for so long...I went with Duncan, Julie, and Mary and we all felt like it was a well-deserved treat. After that, everyone on the dialogue was split by classes and went back to Teachers’ houses to make dumplings. That, was an experience. Brandon’s and my class was put with Advanced 2 so generally conversation flew way over our heads. Nevertheless it was a great time and I even made some somewhat decent looking dumplings. Now, one cannot live on dumplings alone so lunch was a multi-dish affair...of some things I had been avoiding thus far. Probably sensing my fear, the teachers decided to award points for every new food we tried that day. So, I left lunch full on century egg, pig foot, quail egg, and lychee root.
(From left to right: Brandon plays Mahjong while Professor Cai looks at Alec's tiles)
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