alive in chengdu

yay! i made it here and i venture to say that i am living the dream. but i will get to that when i describe the traffic hotel/交通饭店/jiaotong fandian.

this morning feels so far away! but i woke up in a completely empty room with everything packed up and ready to go... then went to the post office to send my main luggage to BLCU (where it will await me while i travel). i was apprehensive about sending a 60 lb suitcase to beijing, and rightfully so. the minute i walked into the post office they exclaimed that it was way too heavy, we'd have to separate it into at least two boxes. that actually turned out not to be too troublesome, minus the invasive process of overturning and examining every single one of my perfectly packed things for security purposes. the post man threw a bunch of things back at me that aren't allowed in the mail... perfume, soap, etc. i'm getting used to the fact that chinese service people don't necessarily mean badly when they yell at you or throw things at you. that's just how they do. oh, but stunning, 100 kuai or $14 to sent 60 lbs of stuff to beijing. yessssss.

after the post office, mary and i checked out of our room and chilled in the lobby with sarah and shi laoshi :) we ordered delivery from the "loving hut" (vegan chinese! our faaaavorite) for lunch. don't underestimate - it is so freaking delicious. shi laoshi laughed and reiterated the general chinese perspective that eating vegetarian is straight-up unnatural. at noon we had to say goodbye to everyone and to tonghe, our happy home :( just like that, we were on the bus to pudong airport. sad sad day.

but also very exciting day :) at pudong i checked in and then partook in one of my favorite activities, wandering around and people-watching in airports (weirdo). my favorite thing about chinese airports is how children run around and do stuff their parents would certainly stop them from at home, aka hijack luggage carts and play really dangerous games of go-carts, chicken, whatever. the plane food gave me stomach cramps (some things are the same everywhere!) but other than that, it was a pleasant flight. i scored the window seat i wanted, i was surprised to see how green sichuan was from the sky. oh, and just as hazy as shanghai, but then again it was raining.

when i got off the airport bus downtown, a bunch of moped taxis were clamoring for my business as soon as they saw my lonely planet book. i made a show of starting to walk to my hostel because (1) i sort of intended to (2) i wanted to see how low they would go. from 20 to 15 to 5 kuai... they crawled along the sidewalk next to me, and finally i hopped on one of them! because i have a death wish? sorry mom and dad. i've never ridden a motorcycle before! 5 kuai? that's 75 cents. it was funnnn but i promise i won't do it again.

YAY okay: hostel. i know i am a little, naive, loser, single traveler... so naturally i am starstruck by my living situation here. it's a huge complex of backpacker paradise. tons of dorm, single, and double rooms. a cafe with cheap sichuan hot pot and lots of english-speaking, beer drinking, good-looking rugged people. CLEAN shared bathrooms with toilet paaaaperrrrr! washing machines. amazing chinglish help at the travel desk, from super-friendly and knowledgeable young chengdu residents. best 30 kuai a night i've spent so far ($4.50). i sort of met one of my roommates as he arrived this evening. he's a chinese backpacker, but we didn't really get to talk. i think the other two are supposed to arrive tonight too.


tomorrow i shall go to the panda research center, bright and early! then have dinner with estella's family. i already feel like i could stay here longer than the time i've allowed, but i shouldn't get ahead of myself :) meh i can't post pictures but i'll try to add some later!