Bus Leaving Chengdu

*posted by Amy*

Bus Leaving Chengdu 6 July

We had a good time at the barbeque on the fourth. We had a the reception before hand, and they put out a huge spread for us. They were doing a la minute foie gras, which of course I ate, fried rice, and fried chicken. Quite the culinary combination. After, we had the party for all the UW students, and we were told it was in a “farmhouse,” which ended up to be a guest villa in the suburbs. There were about fifty people and we had a good old time. The food was pretty good, but I had ended up eating too much at the reception.

The next day, the 5th, we didn’t have any commitments in the morning. This finally gave us time to work on our presentations for that afternoon. I was in a group with Jason and Rachel, and we chose to look at the water system in Lijiang. All and all, the presentation came together pretty well, and we were polishing the presentation up until the last minute, which paid off. We then had dinner, broke up into our teams for Taoping, and have dinner. Dinner was at the XLY MoMA in Chengdu. The exhibits in the museum were pretty interesting. There was a display of some beautiful dining room sets and a display of alcohol bottles that were designed by a Chinese design firm.

The dinner was fine, nothing memorable, and then we broke into our teams again to meet each other. The team I am in is lead by Bob Freitag, a professor specializing in hazard planning and mitigation through natural systems. Our TA is Josh, and then J-bo, Nathan, who was in the seminar in the spring, but just joined us here in Chengdu two nights ago, are the Americans. We then have seven Sichuanese students on our team, only one of which I had met before, Zhang Di, one of the two that picked me up at the airport. I’m pretty sure I spelled his name wrong a few different ways before, but now I’m positive this is his name. Each team has two student leaders, a point person if you will for the instructors to give assignments, and a person to relay the info. How I became one of our team’s leaders, with Zhang Di, remains to me a mystery. The joke was the decisions were based on Mandarin understanding, so that has been a source of a joke between J and I. It’s pretty fortunate that J and I have been getting along as well as we have, seeing as we end up in groups together. I hope that doesn’t intimidate other students and, I hope they will see us as being approachable, and not reproachable.

We are now on the bus to Taoping, and we will first make a stop at an ancient water works project, of which I cannot remember the name. We will visit the area, have lunch there, and then off on the bus again to Taoping by tonight. I’ll let you guys know how that is, and I have a feeling we won’t be seeing a whole lot of internet access out in the hill. At least in won’t be as hot and humid as it is here in Chengdu.