Birthday and Such

Hello everyone! This is probably one of my last posts before I come home! I have a week of school left, and then a week more in Chengdu. After that I go to visit my friend outside Shanghai for a week, and then from Shanghai fly home!! This month I've had some adventures that I'll show you via pictures. It's hard to believe it's been almost 6 months since I came here, and even harder to believe I'll be home in less than a month! Enjoy, and can't wait to see you guys!

This was the first real celebration I had with foreigners in Chengdu!  A friend of mine planned a surprise party for me, and we went out to this absolutely AMAZING international buffet!

This is what happens when you're a foreigner in China... They brought this place of sushi flowers out to, without an explaination as to why... They said they just wanted to give us a gift!

So on the way home, I saw an Eiffel Tower like statue on top of a really tall building. Being in China, we decided to go up to it. After 3 different elevators and 3 different staircases, we got to the top.

On the top

Sichuan Province is known for pandas, and thus we had to go visit them... This is one eating.

These are some babies sleeping

When you're a panda, all you really do is eat and sleep. This is what half the pandas in the park looked like.

These are called red pandas... They're like really really cute raccoons.

Some pandas walking, probably to find a place to sleep

This was a camping trip a had with some Chinese brothers and sisters (Sorry, can't really show their faces)

As is Chinese custom, we had a giant roasted buffet the first night of camping.

Right before we left, I decided I wanted to show my friends how to bend a tree to the ground by climbing it... I tried it, and ended up just tearing the tree out of the ground... A pretty dumb last thing to do...

Ｃｈｉｎａ

So my friends computer is where I found some good internet, and she also has lots of awesome pictures of China! So, here is another dose of China, or rather our city 成都（chengdu)!

The front gate of my University, pretty impressive at first sight

My university is pretty gorgeous

A pretty average street in China, during afternoon, when no one is out

A more common look at an average street

One of the many nooks of China

China has a forced retirement age (I think it's 50), meaning there are a lot of old people around town... just looking around, with nothing else to do...

The Chinese hold on to their children close... For them, they are the most important commodity they have, assuring them a future of earnings.

With the lack of work, there comes a lot of games. This is Chinese Chess, and although only two people can play, one game will easily attract 10 people. I think it's just as good to watch as to play in many Chinese people's thoughts.

The Chinese love Ramen noodles just as much as Americans. The most common are these noodles from Taiwan.

One of the many residential buildings of our university.

One of the best parts about Chinese meals is that almost every one is a buffet. Chinese like to order a bunch of dishes, then eat a little from each.

Contrary to popular belief, China has a lot of trees... most of which are surrounded by concrete. My University's campus is really old, and as a result, we have a ton of beautiful big trees, which I love!

He's a gangster

Sorry for the delay in pictures. I hope this fills you in a little about what I've been seeing... Only 7 weeks left for me over here... I'm excited to see you all soon!

峨眉山

ok, so after a long drought of two months, I finally did what I had to to find a real source of internet in this place called China. I wanted to show you some pictures of a trip of my friends and I as we traveled to 峨眉山 (e mei shan, e mei mountain), a 10,000 foot mountain that we climbed in 13 hours!

Us at the bottom of the mountain

A rediculously awesome caterpillar that we found along the trail

This mountain had monkeys... lots of them... our first experience with them was finding this big one, who ran up to my friend and stole his water bottle.

We saw a lot of these... And with the fog on the mountain, I was always thinking we were almost there...

Looking down from the top of the mountain... There's a reason this mountain is one of the most famous in China.

Also on the top

The top of the mountain has a giant statute of Buddha, as well as golden and silver temples

Giant Buddha

Other side of the mountain, with lots of prayer flags... Somehow Tibetan prayer flags are found all over, even in places not dedicated to Tibetan Buddhism

This guy was there to greet us right before we left the mountain... if you'll notice on the lower right corner, he's also explicitly disobeying the rules... what a rebel.

They had a lot of strange statues along the way on the mountain... here's a very happy family of monkeys.