I had a lazy morning and afternoon because I stayed in bed until 4:00. Now here’s the thing, I could have walked to the 超市 to buy myself water, but I honestly couldn’t bring myself to do it so I kind of just died of dehydration until 7:00 PM. Also, didn’t feel like walking to get lunch either, so I survived on a pouch of yogurt and three leichi.
I made plans to go to Chengdu with people this morning, and somehow I’m the one organizing the trip. Not that I mind, but now I gotta figure out train tickets and hotels and stuff. It was crazy confusing having to make travel plans in Chinese with people, because not only did I have to translate what I needed to say, but I also had to figure out what other people were trying to say to me. The group chat was super hectic this morning with people making plans. Another group is going to a Buddhist temple the same weekend. I ended up creating a separate group chat for the Chengdu people (which Korey named Chengdu Crew) and made plans in English. It’s going to be a little more expensive than I thought, but I’ll do anything for the pandas. A one-way ticket is $40 US with a handling fee of $5. So total, a $90 trip. None the less, I’m still super excited.
Originally, I wanted to go to the city wall with my friends, but I already had plans to go with my roommate and language partner, which was fine. I would have liked to hang with my CLS friends, but I think I got more of a cultural experience going with my Chinese friends. Although, I wish we could have ridden a bike around the wall, but neither of them knew how to ride, so we walked for an hour and then went to the bell tower.
It was crazy busy, but super cool. Also, trigger warning, but there was an animal (probs a pig caucus) hanging from a street lamp. The skeleton was still intact and everything. I’m glad that stuff doesn’t freak me out because it was gross.
We ended up eating some fruity pebble type snack dipped in nitrogen. I’ve always wanted to try one of those desserts. It was really cool seeing the vapor coming out of my mouth.
There was a lot of walking, and my feet were killing me. For some reason, we took the subway another stop, left the station, walked in the direction we came, took a bus back to where we were and then walked in the opposite direction the bus took us. I’m not really sure what their plan was, but I was confused.
Dinner was good though. We had some beef and tofu soup with 酸梅汤, so I was happy. We then proceeded to get on the worst bus ride of my life. The driver closed the door on me while I was still partway in the door and then started driving while I was trying to pay, and I almost fell into a lot of people.
I’ve been on a few busses in China before, and never have I been rocked as bad as this one. Perhaps it was because I was standing for a good 30 minutes, or maybe I was tired, but dude needs to learn to drive/be more patient. Either way, I have a tiny bruise as a souvenir. (Although not going to lie, I’m making this a bigger deal than it is.)
