Supermarket, Superfood, Superpeople

Waking up in JC, we realized we had been on the move for days - a total of 31 hours of travel by car, shuttle, plane, and van.  We looked out the window and saw the sunrise over the mountains.  Jiaozuo City!  

Good morning, Jiaozuo City!

This is the place we will call 'home' for the next five weeks.  Kam and Mr. Han have already made us feel at home with the people here, so we are excited to set up a little home base for ourselves as well.  That said, in this foreign land we have seen so many things that make us feel out of place.  AJ saw a man carrying a small cage with his pet chipmunk in the hotel lobby!  

Kam drove us to our school, Henan Polytechnic University.  Though this is known as the country's oldest mining school, the academic departments have expanded and now offer a foreign exchange program.  However, it's evidently special that we want to study here, and for such a short time, but the international student coordinators have gathered together some teachers and student volunteers to help us out.  The effort it must have taken to arrange this!  We met one of the coordinators- Mr. Wang- and couple of our teachers and student volunteers.  Wide-eyed and nervous, it was just like we were all starting college again for the first time.  As with Kam, the generosity and kindness of the teachers and volunteers made us feel welcome.

This is great!
The toilet will be clean after our showers.

After a few formalities, we headed to our apartments to start the move-in process.  On the flight to China, we were required to fill out forms for Customs declaring why we visited the country- official business, meeting family, etc.  One of the choices was 'to settle down.'  We laughed at that then, and though we are not truly settling down here, we want to at least settle in.  The apartments for us to settle in are a little different than what we're used to.  Opening the door, we stared with wide eyes at the grime that welcomed us.  Fortunately, we saw it was surface dirt and should come off with only a little effort and lots of cleaning supplies.  We also noticed the kitchen sink didn't work at all, the drinking water that we were told would be here was absent, and the refrigerator smelled a little strange.  Probably the strangest thing, however, was the bathroom.  The shower stall is the bathroom.  Maybe a better way to state that is that the toilet is IN the shower.  

The apartment wasn't what we were expecting, but really, what were we expecting?  We were all a little dismayed, and when we saw what time it was, realized food could at least start to solve our problems.  The teachers and volunteers escorted the three of us and Kam to a private dining room in a campus restaurant.  As with Kam and Mr. Han, Mr. Wang was most gracious in hosting us to a multi-course meal.  Even in a university dining hall the food was decadent!  The three of us were not ready for that much food again, but a meal really did help to overcome the shock of being back in school.  The meal again displayed the importance of family and made us feel better.

To burn off some of the deep-fried eggplant, we went shopping.  The supermarket (emphasis on SUPER, as we shopped on the third floor) had everything we needed: cleaning supplies, cookware and utensils, and the most colorful and strangest foods we had ever seen.  This was exciting and a great way to learn about the culture.  The candy aisle was so colorful and amazing, like we were Charlie and stepped into Willy Wonka's factory!  Emily ended up with 'Golden Monkey Milk Candy' (much better than it sounds!) and 'Cantaloupe Milk Tablets' (about as good as it sounds).  As fun as the candy aisle was, the eggs, rice, and produce were so much more interesting.  The egg selection was unlike any we'd seen before and the rice, of course, was abundant.  We can't wait to go back! 

Kam photo-bombed Megan while she scooped rice.

CANDY!!!!

Lots and lots of eggs.

Emily looking both ways in traffic.....

...GREEN LIGHT GO!!

Kam and co. came armed to the teeth
with brooms and mops.

Loaded up with new foods and cleaning supplies, we went back to the apartment to clean.  Arriving shortly after us, though, were some of Kam's colleagues, including a friend named Mrs. Qin.  These were people we had never met before and should have had no reason to help us, but here they were, smiling, rolling up their sleeves, and ready to help clean!  We were total strangers and like Kam, Mr. Han, and Mr. Wang, they treated us like family.  And not just distant relatives- to them, we were no different than their brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, and sons and daughters.  In fact, they treated us so well, Mrs. Qin asked us to stay the night at her apartment until ours could have a more thorough cleaning.

Of course, before we went home with Mrs. Qin, we had to have dinner.  And what a fine dinner it was!  The last few days were so long and overwhelming for us, with new people and new experiences, this dinner was the first time we felt at ease.  Kam and his colleagues are so warm and kind, that we really did feel like part of the family.  At private dining experiences such as we've had, the menu looks rather like a large picture book and the head of the group orders for everyone.  Somehow, AJ ended up with the menu and though the pictures looked amazing, we didn't want to order, for fear of what might be served if AJ really did order the "Students Gel Food!"  The food was good and spicy.  We dined on seafood, duck skin, and donkey (sorry, Brighty!).

Following dinner, we went to Mrs. Qin's apartment, where she, Kam, and the others made up beds for us.  Mrs. Qin suggested that we just stay with her the duration of our time in China.  What a great experience!  And talk about immersion!  This would be a great opportunity for us to learn the language and culture.  We do want to stay with Mrs. Qin, but are uncertain.  Will she really want to put up with three Americans for five weeks?  And will the university even let us stay off campus?  Leaving several questions hanging, we call it a night and dream of shower toilets, tea kettles, and the culinary adventures that await us!