DuJiangYan

Before leaving Hangzhou we went out with all the EPs (Exchange Participants) and all the Chinese volunteers to a club called Coco Bananas. Painful as it was, they were replaying the Holland - Germany match and all the waiters were wearing football outfits. One of them was particularly nice amd he gave us a free bottle of whisky and plenty of ice tea to mix it with. At the club you could really see the one child-policy at work as all the girls were outnumbered 8 to 1.

The next day I woke up after having slept a wonderful 12 hours, which is great because it meant I had no jetlag on my first longhaul flight. We went to an amazing restaurant where I tried a lot of new dishes and it cost us only 32 yuan each, which is less than what I paid for the burger at the airport. We then went on yet another dangerous taxi trip to the trainstation, ready to embark on a 33-hour long trainride. The trainride was surprisingly fun and time went by quite fast. A major advantage was that it would span two nights, so we could sleep for about 14 to 20 hours. Could...Unfortunately, in my case the girl next to me was snoring like a lumberjack and I barely slept. I played a cool cardgame with the Chinese volunteers, of which I forgot the name but it was quite similar to ˝klootzakken˝ and I got to know my fellow EPs a lot better. I even learned a few new Spanish sayings from Dave: ˝El que en pan pienso, hambre tiene˝ and ˝En tiempos de guerra, evalquier hoyo es trinchera˝. I will leave it up to you to translate and understand it.

A very good thing to bond over was the fact that we were all suffering from the lack of a normal toilet. The only available toilet was a squatting toilet, or basically a hole in the floor. None of us planning to use it in its intended position, we were determined to last it out, the entire 33 hours. I gave up, starting to feel sick, but the others lasted only to find out that the restaurant we were having lunch at, the famous local Sichuan dish called Hot Pot, did not grace us with porcelain to sit on either. Thus, it came as a pleasant surprise that our dorm at GuangYa school does have a regular toilet that us Westerners so often take for granted (no longer).

Anyways, let´s return to more tasty matters before this goes out of hand. Hot Pot can best be described as a spicy version of cheese fondue, the cheese being replaced with soup filled entirely with different kinds of peppers and chili. I have no idea about what it was I put in half of the time, and the other half consisted of a pig´s brain, lotus root, duck stomach and blood. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend the brain or the blood, but it was a very tasty experience in general.

Afterwards we continued to the school in DuJiangYan and with our final dangerous trip, for now, on the crazy Chinese roads. I suspect that they attain their drivers license by buying an extra large pack of rice, because it seems that they allow anyone on those roads. Having arrived we finally completed the trip that we started 40 hours ago. The principal welcomed us and told uss about the region. Sichuan, home of the Panda, has manz beautiful mountains and the city, that has completely been rebuild after an earthquake five years ago, is quite stunning as well. We will explore this soon, after we have prepared our classes for the coming week. I am definitely looking forward to it.