We'll be home soon...

This might be my last time blogging from the mountain because tomorrow is our last day here. We will be heading out to Chengdu a day early to ensure that we don't miss our flight. Overall, although this trip had a rough start, we caught on to their lifestyle pretty quickly; the cold weather, the squat pots, the flying phlegm, all the good stuff. Quite frankly we have made ourselves comfortable here.

During this trip, I saw a lot of things and met a lot of people. I probably learned more on this trip about Chinese culture than I did on my past study abroad trip. Unlike cities like Beijing or Shanghai, Ya'an, a little mountain town, was able to give me a more personal experience with the people of China. Without being tainted by Western values, many traditions and beliefs can still be found in Ya'an. I am very glad to have met many friends in Ya'an because it is them who have really taught me about the Chinese people.

In addition, the level of hospitality we received is unheard of in the NYC scene. Bar owners treated us out, the girl that helped us activate our cellphones took us out, the whole mountain we live on pretty much partied with us. At first I thought to myself, "these people are just trying to take us out so they can some how rip us off down the road." Now, I feel like an asshole for thinking like that. Not only do they ask nothing of us, they treated us as their close friends. Although we are excited to return to NYC, we will definitely miss Ya'an and the friends we have met here.

I will attempt to blog while I am in Chengdu, but if I can't, SEE YOU IN NEW YORK!

Here are some more pics:

Trip to Chengdu and chillin

A new volunteer came this week. His name is Ron and he is from London. Pretty cool guy.

We took a one day trip to Chengdu and it was pretty awesome...imo it may be even nicer than nyc. Definitely not as dirty as nyc.

We had dinner at a hot pot place and they had this specialty "hot beer." They brew it themselves with beer, dried dates, rice, sugar, lemon peels, and some little orange colored seed things. It tastes VERRRYYY good. Im definately going to try to make it when I get back to nyc.

We also went bar hopping in Ya'an. We pretty much went to every single bar in the city within one night. Our conclusion, Ya'an bars suck. All of them were empty. One bar had a dance floor, and to make it seem less dead, the owner made all the workers get on the floor. Good try...lol

I played dice in one of the bars with the bar owner. She was pretty bad for a bar owner. I ended up getting her pretty drunk. +1 to Tai!


Oh oh oh...and btw...Lawrence and I found this puppy rollin around the mountain...luckily someone found him an owner.

Our first weekend

We partied pretty hard with the locals here...all of them are heavy drinkers and smoke like chimneys. We were taken to a karaoke bar and Lawrence killed it American style with some Michael Jackson. Our coworkers brought some "hot" girls. Maybe to them they were good looking...but to us...oh man....lol...no good. Good times!

Here are some more panda pics and pics of our outing in Ya'an:

Pandas and etc.

Work is getting better as the days go by. We are getting used to the cold and the environment. There are about 150 people that live on this mountain and they are all talking about the "American Chinese guys." Random people would talk to us on the road and ask if we are the two Americans.

At work, we currently take care of four female pandas. It is very interesting that each panda has her own personality. Some eat certain types of bamboo, some prefer apples over carrots, some like to climb trees, some don't like the rain, etc. The more we work with the pandas, the more we realize what smart creatures they really are. Depending on the weather and temperature, pandas would eat different parts of the bamboo.

Oh, and btw...Lawrence almost got killed by a panda because he got a little too close to her.

Here are some pics of the mountain we live on and the pandas we work with:

Panda volunteer pics preview...more to come

We have been volunteering for 2 days now and we are still getting used to the work. Our duties include: feeding, cleaning the panda cages, washing their play areas/living quarters, breaking down bamboo for the pandas and picking up panda shit. We labor like slaves, but it's fun.