Sichuanese Holiday

So it's been a while since I posted. I had my first long break of the year with National week. I went traveling with friends, but I'm afraid that because I was tired and stressed and at times frustrated I got passive-aggressive and snappy with them. I know better than that and that they deserve better from me. I'm sure they had their own stresses and frustrations too. And I snapped about the smallest things too...I need to send a pretty big apology to them for that. I'm not the best travel buddy...That's not to say it was all stress and frustration though. I had a really good time out in Sichuan despite feeling really tired and missing my kids a lot. I got to see Wenshu Yuan which I wanted to see when I was accepted by the Colorado China Council and I got to see the pandas in Chengdu as well. Our hostel was pretty nice and not too badly priced, we were close to Wenshu Yuan and walked out to the Tibetan quarter as well. Seeing Chongqing after hearing Dad talk about it so much was pretty wonderful too. I wasn't sure what he meant when talked about a massive city in a forest, but going around Sichuan I did notice a lot of trees and vines. I haven't seen that quite as much in the places I've been to in Hunan. Chongqing really surprised me with all its greenery and the vines waving around on the highways.

The littlest giant pandas...after waiting in a long snaking line.

Chongqing was a tough place to maneuver around both as foreigners and as tourists during National Week. Our appearances obviously set us apart and meant that a number of times people offered high prices for services. We also struggled to understand where our hostel was relative to where we were since we had no map with us and couldn't really say how long it would take to get to Ciqi Kou, an older style part of the city. I wish we had spent more than a day out in Chongqing. I'd like to go back and explore at a different pace and see about this laid back lifestyle that Sichuanese people are known for. In particular, they are known for spending lots of time in teahouses playing mahjong and chatting, though I've also seen ear cleaners make their rounds in teahouses too. Sadly, I did not buy any tea since I felt I couldn't carry it if I did but I have no doubt I can pick up tea just about anywhere I go in China.

I read in a guidebook that Tripitaka's skull is in here (AKA Xuan Tsang, the monk from Journey to the West) but I was unable to confirm anything. All the same, I did enjoy its big woodsy spaces.

I was most looking forward to trying Sichuanese cuisine when we were there. It wasn't quite up to my expectations. I can't decide if it's just the places we happened to eat at, but for the most part when we tried to hunt down Sichuanese dishes it either didn't taste that great or nearly killed us. There were a lot of huajiao peppercorns in our hotpot in Chengdu. It was good, but we created quite a scene with all our screaming and crying. And we kept eating it while the owner's kid smirked and others in the restaurant watched the crazy waiguoren breathe fire. When I finally tried mapo tofu it wasn't that great either. It mostly tasted of smoke and peppercorn. One of my friends really wanted to try gong bao chicken but she didn't seem to like it much. I'll have to try some other place I guess. I though about buying some huajiao for my kitchen and then thought better of it. Why carry it on a 24-36 hour long train ride if I can probably find it in a grocery store or spice market? Maybe before I leave since it's hard to find in the US despite the ban being lifted on Sichuan peppercorn. Apparently, it was banned in the USA for a while because of the numbing sensation it produces when you eat it. But according to Chinese medicine, this particular type of numbing spiciness is good for Sichuan's particular humidity and climate. It seems to have helped with my congestion anyway.

The meal that left me not just crying, but blasting tears at the end. And we kept eating! Will you just look at all the huajiao peppercorns and the red peppers in this thing?!?!

The top of Hongya cave in Chongqing at night. There's about 10 more floors beneath this of various shops. The first few top floors are pretty much all about foreign food, snacks, juice, and candy. They also sell various folk crafts and other things. We found a pretty good Tex-Mex place called Cactus while there.

All in all, a pretty unforgettable trip though I'm watching my money closely since traveling isn't cheap. I figure if I can spread out the cash I have with me I can have about 1000RMB in my account when I get my second payment. I think traveling comfortably for a few weeks during the New Year vacation will take at least one stipend's worth of money, but I think it's entirely possible for me to save it. For now, I've set my spending limit to about 17 kuai a day to ensure I have that 1000 by my next payment. It's not too hard since I get lunch at the school, I can skip breakfast or have a cheap breakfast for about 3-5 kuai since tea eggs are about 1-1.5 kuai each and a large bottle of water is 3 kuai everywhere (except the train, where they charge 6 kuai for a small water bottle), and dinner can be noodles or street food. I'll still have a little left at the end of the day and I haven't starved myself. The amount of money each volunteer here receives is definitely more than enough to enjoy yourself. I calculated that even if I set aside 300 of the 3000 I get each month, I can set a spending limit of about 77 per day. Which is more than enough since I don't eat in restaurants a lot, the most expensive food I've bought on the street is an entire Beijing duck that comes with pancakes, green onions, and plum sauce for about 30 kuai. And that definitely lasts me about 2-2.5 meals if I eat nothing else so even though it's pricier it also covers more meals for me. I live in a downtown area so I need to put a little more effort into being sure that my money isn't just draining from me. Switzerland taught me to always pay in cash though, so I've found that if I withdraw cash within or under my spending limit then I can stop, count, and have a more immediate sense of how I'm doing as far as my budget regardless of where I may be standing.


Aside from money, I made the unfortunate discovery that there's nothing in my passport where my residency permit should be. My entry visa has not yet expired, but all the same I'm worried and hate the idea that I might have to leave my classes for a day to take care of it. Not only does that mean a day of paperwork for me, but less time with my students and more time to make up material the next time I see them to ensure my classes are on the same page. I felt really awful at our hostel when they couldn't register me since I know that's a huge liability to them to have guests that are not registered with the local police. Fortunately, nothing happened but I'm working on it as soon as possible. I just feel like I've had tons of things fall on me this past month both from the US and from China. Not to mention, I still need to check in with both my family and my college to make sure that my diploma was mailed. I would really love to see it someday and I never did see it before I left for Hunan. I'm sure I'll get it all resolved some way or another and quit snapping at people. I really do feel awful about that and I know that as a generally quiet person it hits people even harder when I am snappy or aggressive. Thankfully, I never seem to have this problem in the classroom though most of the time my students just need me to tell them to put their other books and things away, stop talking to each other and stop touching each other.