I have to say, I think yesterday was by far the best day here yet. Not that everyday here is great and brings me a step closer in understanding this unique culture, but yesterday I was able to spent the whole day with my Chinese friend Eleven (love her name!) on my side, walking arm in arm, experiencing the true China, away from all the tourist crowds. After meeting at Tianfu Square early in the morning (and yes, I consider 9.30am on a weekend early in the morning regarding the 1,5 hours it takes me to get there!) we hopped into a taxi - please only do that one if you feel confident with giving directions in Chinese (I already have my problems with left and right in German) or you are 100% sure about the correct spelling of your target destination - or even easier, you are Chinese. Check on this one. 10 minutes and 11¥ (people, just over a buck!) later we arrived at Xinnanmen Chezhan - Xinnanmen Bus Station - where we got ourselves tickets for our 1 hour bus ride to Luodai - an ancient town with Hakka - a Chinese minority - influence and popular destination for Chinese craving delicious and cheap street food in an original atmosphere with plenty of opportunity to purchase some tacky souvenirs and - you won't believe it - Cinderella looking like wedding dresses. Very much a breach of style with those shiny and badly made copies of little girls halloween princess costumes sold in a couple hundred years old houses. Good that you wear wedding dresses only once, I guess you would not be able to get a second time our of those pieces of clothes anyway ;-)
But I must tell you, from the moment I put my first step onto this long and narrow street framed with food and little shops, I immediately fell in love. Eleven insisted hardly on paying the whole trip including all the food and souvenirs for me - and after the 10th time I complaint I decided to give up and just enjoy her generosity. It was great. First thing she bargained me a beautiful flour head piece that almost every female Chinese in Luodai was wearing. Then she led me straight to the darn good food and made sure I got to try everything authentic Chinese out there on the street of Luodai, which included great and spicy seasoned potato wedges, spicy lamb kebab, sticky rice pieces covered in caramel, grass jelly - ultra spicy rice flour strips with a jelly like consistensy (which Luodai is famous for - and I really don't like but Eleven LOVED), deep fried cornmeal and chive pancakes on a stick, Chinese peanut and melon candy, EVEN the ultimate Sichuan delicatesse - rabbit head (yes, you wonder where the meat is hiding and how to get there - the trick to this is to let some bones crack ;-) ) People, I was in heaven, and sooo happy having Eleven right next to me showing me the good stuff, the right way of eating and sharing her love to food with me. I couldn't be more thankful! After strolling down the whole street and with my backpack full of local candy and my wrist covered with a colorful wooden bracelet Eleven decided to bring us to Chengdu's version of the Great Wall of China (which can be found in Beijing) called Golden Dragon Great Wall. It was breathtaking in many ways - I got an idea of what the Chinese accomplished by building a defense so wide and solid, the view of the beautiful and untouched nature around and the many many crazy steep steps we had to climb in order to get to the Buddha temple that marked the end of the 1,5 hour long way up the mountain. Yes, I do feel my legs today. But definitely good to get some exercise after eating like a pig. And it was worth every step. The view, the temple, the smell of the incense that surrounded you after arriving your target - both Eleven and I got the great feeling of accomplishment up there. Can't buy that anywhere!
As Luodai is not a typical spot for foreign tourist to go to (I guess because it's pretty far out from Downtown Chengdu and requires the know for Chinese bus traveling) I pretty much was the only Western looking like person in between all the Chinese visitors and having pointed out this, you can imagine I had the undevided attention and fame factor again for a whole day. This time I asked people coming up for pictures to also take one for me, just so when back in Germany I can still feed my ego with the fame I experience here ;-) One of the pictures reminded me of Jesus surrounded by his disciples, especially with the flour ring on my head. :-D
After our trip to the "Great wall of Southwest China" we headed back to the main street - which meant Chinese tourists wedged in the back of a mini van and me sitting comfortably on the only front seat getting complimented on how smart and glorious the German nation is - haha, I couldn't help but grin the whole car ride - Eleven treated us to some Milktea before we made our way back to the bus terminal and by entering the bus back to Chengdu ending a great day in China that's worth memorizing forever. I took tons of pictures, and tried to upload as many as possible up here, so you can be part of what I want to call my best day ever yet. And the best thing about it - I'll meet Eleven again next week - with the plan to experience the ultimate Sichuan specialty - Hot Pot !

..and with that I mean the largesf (attention: largest, not tallest!) building in the world. For now. I'm sure there will soon pop up an even bigger one in my Chinese surroundings. But for the moment the Global Center in Chengdu owns this title. So I had to go and check it out. So Sunday was set for my trip to the Global Center, which hosts next to a huge department store with supermarket a huge movie theatre, an ice skating ring, even a whole waterpark and various hotels, and for sure plenty of eateries to indulge in. If you don't believe me that some place like this exists, google it. I tried to fit the whole building on a picture but did not succeed. I think it takes a couple of hundred meters distance to achieve that.
Stepping out of the subway station, my first thought was "Holy Cow, is this huge!" But I have to say to me it seems bigger from the outside than it actually was inside. Even though it takes some time to get around in there. Luckily I reserved a whole day for this. And I didn't even try out the waterpark, skating ring or the movies (way too expensive anyway).
The center really hosts mostly brand stores which are pretty pricey, but they do have H&M for example too. Sure enough they also have plenty of opportunities to feed your munchies, and I have to admit that I actually spent a whole hour walking around the center figuring out where to eat :-) I ended up in a Korean restaurant where I decided on a rice, veggie and meat bowl + soup and salad (for all of you who can never get enough dressing this one would have been perfect! - veggies actually swimming in the vinaigrette). Delicious. True Asian food never dissapoints here.
So at the end of my day in the Global Center I walked out with 2 dresses and one - in my opinion - super cute and elegant top. Found some good deals in there and bringing home my prey was a pretty good feeling. My first purchases in China. Yippie! Good that there's still plenty of space in my suitcase. We'll see how this looks like in 5 months ;-)

Hello to all you loyal blog reader out there!
I think before I start this blog entry I truly have to appologize for playing dead this whole last week. I don't even know what was going on, but I was so busy both working and being out of the house exploring that I had neither time nor energy to write a new story for you guys to read. So today is a new day, rain is pouring down from a dark grey sky and now and then a little thunder and lightning. The perfect day to stay home and organize the kid's playroom for 2 hours (which they will mess up in 2 minutes after they get home from school) - said no one ever. Oh, hold on! I can hear one crazy Cultural Ambassador sitting deep in Lushan, Chengdu. Yes, so now you know what I did all morning long, getting everything in place, sorting through puzzles, throwing a massive amout of broken and unused toys away. Man, this is more efficient than any exercise, trust me! You should try it occasionally. I think I will get this sort of exercise pretty frequently, if I count that everytime the family goes somewhere the kids basically get anything they just slightly get their eyes on. Even though. Already have 4 stuffed animal monkeys, yes, that 5th one is essential, mommy!
So as I said last week was busy, mostly because I was busy studying Chinese. As my goal for those 6 months in China is to really learn the language and to be able to understand the people here without problem I'm really motivated and focused on trying as hard as I can. So besides the 2 Chinese classes I have every Tuesday and Thursday for about 4 hours I study by myself in total probably around 6-7 hours each week. I think that is just the most productive way of dealing with it if I want to get somewhere. And I can already see a big improvement, in my understanding of the language and in recognizing the charakters, because the more characters you learn, the more you notice similarities and some sorr of structure behind it. It gets easier and easier, and it's a great feeling. Yup, I'm a bit proud.
Sunday I went to the city to check out probably the busiest shopping area in Chengdu, Chunxi Road. To get the full experience, I recommend you go on a weekend when there is summer sale. Like I did. Who didn't even ask for this experience. Who was sort of terrified. You can't imagine the massive amount of people all shopping at the same time, the different kinds of music coming out of the stores mixed with the music they already put up on the street, sales people trying to get the shopper's attention by shouting out the deals of the day as loud as they possibly can. Don't get me wrong, even though I am definitely no shopping queen I can handle this szenario for quite some time, but after one hour the latest you just get the urge to find a dark, cozy, lifeless corner to hide. Did I mention the humid 33 degrees yet?! I sort of found this little hiding spot when I looked for some place to eat other the big fast food or milk tea branches that pop up at every corner in Chengdu. My recoomendation: try the little side streets, the ones where just about 2 people would fit through at the same time. Those mostly host a great variety of in the wall eateries - the cheap, but cozy and delicious family run eating places, where they usually serve all sorts of noodles, jiaozi/shuijiao (dumplings or maultaschen) and tofu dishes. So in no time I found myself gobbling up this delicious veggie noodle soup for ¥7. FYI not even a buck. Neither a euro. That's how you eat Chinese style, baby! For dessert I treated myself to a piece of durian fruit. You know those huge yellow fruits you're not allowed to take into public transportation for their smell of rotten eggs? Let me tell you, it's REALLY just the smell that might leave you sceptical about this exotic fruit, but once you try a piece of it you will be convinced. This food tastes awesome! It's sweet, has a lot of healthy fats and is now ranking together with the persimmon as my favorite fruits on this planet. So glad I tried it! Please make sure you try liúlián once you get the chance. You won't regret.
So after this shopping adventure in the crazy heat I was ready to head home, studying some more and getting some more rest before starting into a new week of work. And this week will be sort of special. Not only because it is my forth week here, which means I've been here for already a month and I will have my weekend off (plus my salary), but also because Thursday is the mid-autumn festival which is a big holiday in China. Since 2 weeks here there are always mooncakes laid out as snacks during the day, ranging from red bean filling to candied fruit and nuts filling to meat. But to be honest, none of them are really worth having a big piece. To me, as most Chinese bakes goods and sweets, it's just too sweet and sugary, leaving you with no real flavor boost. But the family happily gobbles them up. So it's fine :-)
Alright, so I hope to tell you more about the moonfestival at the end of the week, even though my hostparents are crazy busy this week with their new hospital opening up on the same day as the moonfestival. So I'm not quite sure if we will really celebrate. But I'll keep you posted! :-)