Searching Through the Bamboo ;?

Our adventure together really began when we all met up at the airport for our flieght to Bei jing. It was a little over a month since I had seen my Peng You-s' Lesley, Trudy,Natalie, Steve ( not a chinese med student but has been listening carefully), Jonna, Jason, Mike, Ian, and Maryanne. We were all arriving from diffrent parts of the world. Bei jing was a 3 day trip to help us adjust, and a good place to warm up to china. We visited the Great Wall, visited the Forbidden Palace, walked threw palace gardens, and checked out the Wang Fu Jing Market ;)! The city was busy being covered in red for the Chinese New Year. Jonna and I traveled to Lan Zhou for the Chinese New Year. We played cards at the airport enjoying/savoring our popcorn, and finally memorized "Xin Nian Kuai le!". Yes, we high-fived! Lan Zhou is where met up with our TCM sister Yan. It was New years day, and as we left the airport in Lan Zhou, it began to snow! Yan's hometown was exploding with colorful decorations and fireworks. It was strange to see children that young playing with fireworks. We learned that a ban on fireworks was lifted off of big cities this year. Sooo people were basically going ape crazy over lighting them. We celebrated new years eve eating at a beautiful restraunt with Yan's family. It had floor to ceiling windows and were able to watch the fireworks and street action. I presented a bottle of Tuaca to the gentlemen in the family to celebrate. Then they introduced me to Bai Jiu. Bai jiu is strong! All of Yan's family also had a double shot glass of tuaca. When I presented the bottle to them I tried to say " Strong enough for men, and sweet enough for the ladies" in mandrin. I did not pull it off the first time I spoke, but 3x later I presented the bottle again and did it right! It may seem ridiculious to get so happy about that but, easy tasks can be exhausting when you try to speak mandrin. I found that out my first 3weeks in Chengdu. Setting up our fantastic apartment was easy thanks to Yan. It has been a wonderful retreat from the daytime hustle. Our neighborhood is full of trees that line a river, and almost all of the locals are friendly. Hmmmmm, I forgot to mention that all of us having been laughing alot through out the entire trip together. Jason and Jonna are my current roomates, and we have group movie nights at our house. We have all learned how to play Ma Jiang and sometimes play it in our free time. Ok, Gotta get into some more adventures here! - Eliz