“Bizarre Must Awesome Should”

Chengdu 17-July

We made it back to Chengdu. Travel days are always a beast. The bus ride was about four hours and we did a little drinking last night to celebrate leaving Taoping, and Lindsey’s birthday. The bus ride was uneventful, which for Chinese traffic is amazing. We are now staying at the dorm I originally stayed in when I first arrived, which doesn’t seem as dingy as I remember it being before. Anyway as we arrived, we came across Fong. I must confess at this point, I am guilty of forgetting about mentioning her and what was going on. I mentioned that Ching had a bit of a fever, and then it moved along to Fong, and she got it a little worse than Ching. She ended up coming back to Chengdu with Bob and Manesh. She was staying at a hotel, and had a few Sichuan students looking after her, but not really. It was good to see her on her feet again, but she still isn’t up to snuff.

Josh and I are sharing a room here at the dorms, and it is really nice to have our own bathroom and shower. And not one that stands over a Turkish toilet either. After we checked in, Josh and I headed out to get a late lunch. We started walking, and just about as soon as we were out the door of the dorm, it started to rain. We had both brought our rain jackets, so no problem. Our current living quarters are on the opposite side of campus from all the amenities with which we are familiar, so we had a good twenty minute walk across campus. The rain let up, and we finally decided on eating at this place that caters to the expat crowd called Peter’s Tex-Mex. Josh had a hamburger, and I had a Philly Cheese Steak, and they were damned good. Josh and I were discussing how we felt we hadn’t eaten much protein in our time in Taoping. We had a lot of bacon fat, plenty of veggies, rice, potatoes (new crop of ‘em harvested while we were there), and noodles. So, lots of simple carbs, but no protein. Big meat sandwiches hit the spot.

As we were finishing up dinner, we had noticed the rain had come back, and this time it was really coming down. We decided to go to the grocery store since we were only four blocks away, and then the rain started coming down harder. By the time we arrived at the store, Josh’s shoes were soaked through, and our pants, not waterproof, were drenched. We bought some food stuff, yogurt for breakfast, some beers, and chocolate, silly Americans. When we got back outside the rain was letting up, but that was short lived, as the rain came down even harder. The walk back was long and wet. We were thoroughly soaked by the time we got back to the dorms. I haven’t seen rain like that in a long time, and then the claps of thunder started. It has been a long day with the travel, so early to bed for this trooper.