Greetings from Lanzhou!
Today around noon our train pulled into Lanzhou and Pierce (my sitemate) and I were swept off by a member of our school's foreign affairs organization. He told us our apartments are not usable right now (though we'll get to go see them tomorrow!!), so they're putting us up in a hotel about 15 min from the University. Then he took us downstairs to the restaurant and ordered us a FEAST of yum chinese food. In Sichuan, if you bring up Gansu, everyone loves to talk disparagingly about the food & weather here. While I am fully prepared to be eating the noodles here at least one meal a day for the next two years, THIS food was amazing. And there was sooooo much of it. Definitely no room for dinner tonight! We're here until thursday and we can apparently get whatever we want at the hotel restaurant and just sign for it. It's a sweet deal to be so well taken care of, though both my sitemate and I balk at being SO looked after. Re: the weather, all anyone elsewhere in China talks about is how dry it is here, but I am thrilled to report that I have not been drenched in sweat in over 24 hours now! It feels almost cool today, and the air feels light instead of like another layer of clothing. The pollution is certainly present, but today it doesn't feel so bad unless you're right behind one of the smoke-barfind motorcycles which often serve as family cars around here.
After our late lunch, we were free for the rest of the day and took a long walk along the railroad tracks (don't ask how we got there, but we were not lost I say). Tons of families, almost entirely Muslim, live along the railroad tracks. Lanzhou has a huge Muslim population, and lots of beautiful Mosques. Also, from the faces I've seen just walking around the last few hours, not much more than half of the population here is Han chinese. There are many people here with more middle eastern features, and many who look most like the indigineous people I saw in the highlands in Ecuador, with darker skin and ruddy cheeks. I love seeing more diversity around me, and it's interesting... the non-Han people definitely seem to stare far less. At the same time, total staring is definitely up here, since Lanzhou, while a big city, is less cosmopolitan than Chengdu. I think I'm going to like it here -- it's cool to walk around not knowing much of anything, but knowing that in the future I WILL get to know this city really well. Afterall, it's my new home!
Tomorrow we'll get to see our apartments, walk around the campus & get our bearings, maybe do a little site-seeing outside of Lanzhou as well. The next day we'll be meeting with the Dean of the Foreign Affairs department to talk about what courses we'll each be teaching and what our schedules might look like for the upcoming semester. On thursday, probably sometime in the afternoon, we head back to the train-station for the 22hour return trip to Chengdu to wrap up the last three weeks of training.
Today around noon our train pulled into Lanzhou and Pierce (my sitemate) and I were swept off by a member of our school's foreign affairs organization. He told us our apartments are not usable right now (though we'll get to go see them tomorrow!!), so they're putting us up in a hotel about 15 min from the University. Then he took us downstairs to the restaurant and ordered us a FEAST of yum chinese food. In Sichuan, if you bring up Gansu, everyone loves to talk disparagingly about the food & weather here. While I am fully prepared to be eating the noodles here at least one meal a day for the next two years, THIS food was amazing. And there was sooooo much of it. Definitely no room for dinner tonight! We're here until thursday and we can apparently get whatever we want at the hotel restaurant and just sign for it. It's a sweet deal to be so well taken care of, though both my sitemate and I balk at being SO looked after. Re: the weather, all anyone elsewhere in China talks about is how dry it is here, but I am thrilled to report that I have not been drenched in sweat in over 24 hours now! It feels almost cool today, and the air feels light instead of like another layer of clothing. The pollution is certainly present, but today it doesn't feel so bad unless you're right behind one of the smoke-barfind motorcycles which often serve as family cars around here.
After our late lunch, we were free for the rest of the day and took a long walk along the railroad tracks (don't ask how we got there, but we were not lost I say). Tons of families, almost entirely Muslim, live along the railroad tracks. Lanzhou has a huge Muslim population, and lots of beautiful Mosques. Also, from the faces I've seen just walking around the last few hours, not much more than half of the population here is Han chinese. There are many people here with more middle eastern features, and many who look most like the indigineous people I saw in the highlands in Ecuador, with darker skin and ruddy cheeks. I love seeing more diversity around me, and it's interesting... the non-Han people definitely seem to stare far less. At the same time, total staring is definitely up here, since Lanzhou, while a big city, is less cosmopolitan than Chengdu. I think I'm going to like it here -- it's cool to walk around not knowing much of anything, but knowing that in the future I WILL get to know this city really well. Afterall, it's my new home!
Tomorrow we'll get to see our apartments, walk around the campus & get our bearings, maybe do a little site-seeing outside of Lanzhou as well. The next day we'll be meeting with the Dean of the Foreign Affairs department to talk about what courses we'll each be teaching and what our schedules might look like for the upcoming semester. On thursday, probably sometime in the afternoon, we head back to the train-station for the 22hour return trip to Chengdu to wrap up the last three weeks of training.
posted by Kristen at
Sunday, August 13, 2006
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