Saturday was a cool and rainy day. My goal of Saturday was
to figure out how I could do my laundry. I was told that I could give my
laundry to the front desk, and they would take care of it for me, but this
small task was difficult because I can’t communicate well with the lady from
the front desk. I tried to communicate with the woman through an application I
have on my phone, but this was still very difficult. Eventually I had to call
Jiaqi to translate for me. It will be nice to have some clean clothes soon!
In the afternoon I met Shen Shuwei at the lab to go hiking
up a small mountain that is close to campus called Danshu Mountain. He had 4
other classmates of his that went with us. Unfortunately it was a pretty rainy
day, but it was still so fun to see the beautiful scenery and to meet so many
new people! Below are some photos from climbing Danshu Mountain.
The mountain only took about an hour and a half to climb up
and back down, but it was still a great exercise! Afterwards we went to dinner
and a movie. The plaza that held the movie theater and restaurant was
beautiful! Below is a photo of an opera performance and a large camel statue
found in the plaza. My favorite part of dinner was the milk tea that we got to
drink. I asked for mine to be chocolate flavored, so it tasted a lot like
chocolate milk!
After dinner, we saw the movie X Men. The movie was in
English and had Chinese subtitles. Though I haven’t seen the other X Men
movies, I still really liked it! Overall, this was one of my favorite nights so
far!
Spending this night out with Shen Shuwei and his friends has
emphasized to me one of the beautiful parts of Chinese culture. Though everyone
has been extremely welcoming and generous towards me, I think it is inspiring
to see the generosity that friends show toward one another as well. This night
out everyone contributed in their own way. One friend swiped his card for
everyone to get on the bus, one bought us drinks, another the movie tickets,
one person volunteered to pay for dinner, and yet another paid for the taxi on
the way home. This night was composed of everyone offering up what they could
to make this a great night for everyone. There was never someone asking for
money or fighting over who would pay. I think this kind of generosity it not as
common back in America. If this night was an evening out in America, everyone
would have paid for their own drinks, food, movie ticket, and transportation. I
have felt uncomfortable here because things are not split evenly the way I am
used to, but as I have continually seen people being generous throughout this
trip, I have begun to see the beauty in the generous culture of the people.
On Sunday I had a pretty relaxing day. I slept in and went
on a run on the track in the morning. In the afternoon I went into the lab for
a little bit to do some work and catch up on emails. Overall, this has been
another amazing week!
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