First week in Huarong

Bridge people also exist in China :(

New buildings being built for no apparent reason... 

Love :) 

This is one of my favorite things ever. Just all of it. Just take it in.

Goodbay tears, goodbay.

Construction outside of the school

Street right outside of campus

More cemeteries on the hill

 I LOVE LOTI (?)

And there we can see what later turns into my lotus fruit

The river that runs through Huarong

Knew I'd find my cows eventually <3

Other side of Huarong

First impressions of Huarong

I have been in my Huarong one week now. It's definitely been an adjustment from Orientation- where we were constantly in a big group, lived happily in our hotel rooms and had full schedules every day- to now living alone in an area where I am the only foreigner for miles. Huarong is an interesting city. It has a population of about 100 000 and is considered rural. There is construction everywhere and I cannot really explain to you the feeling of Huarong- other than it being a "rural city". A lot of the new buildings stand empty or are not fully completed- they won't have windows or doors, they are just empty shells. It seems like the city has many high hopes and then gets distracted before finishing one task. I often think things look post-apocalyptic. 

These next series of images are just of things I've seen walking down the streets of Huarong.

 Our walking street- nearly empty.

This series of images is all on the school campus:

My apartment- 3rd floor on the right! It's very big and nice.

The laboratory building of my school (also the tallest building- I can usually see it from a distance and use it as a reference point)

The fountain?

Another school building

As soon as you exit the gate

The street that leads to my school

Behind the school, still on campus

Behind the school, still on campus. There is a little hill that is a part of the campus and it's just a giant cemetery 

Last days of Orientation

three best friends

Our sweet practicum class :)

Orange Island in Changsha- 

with the famous statue of Mao Zedong

So, I will sum up the remaining pictures in this paragraph because blogger is being very annoying. Beverly and I found the old street full of bars while we were walking aimlessly around walking street in Changsha. 

Bavaria- Holland?? I think not.

At night is when Changsha really comes alive. Students will sing in order to raise money for their school fees. Groups of shirtless men will sit around a public TV.

The picture of the old men outside during the day time took place in a park by the river. Once Chinese people retire, many of them congregate in parks (by the river seems to be a common theme) and sing Chinese opera. They take turns and everyone sits there and listens. In my picture, the man smiling his giant amazing smile was SO happy to see all of us foreigners. We stood there for about 10 minutes and this man never lost interest in our foreign faces and smiled his huge smile throughout- I just had to have a picture. The other two old men were how most people react to foreigners.

The next series of pictures were taken on the old historic street in Changsha, which of course has been renovated so its not really old anymore. A picture for my German friends- Popo Juice! Ja, es gibt Popo Saft in China.

Then we found a little modern art "museum"/hangout where HIP I repeat, HIP CHINESE were singing and making art and doing their thing. It was crazy! The first hip Chinese I've seen so far. 

Then on the way back I got some tofu with sugar, which a man was serving out of his buckets on the street. It was very good.

The last two pictures were from our last dinner before we all left for our placement sites. The napkin holders were glorious in the Mao restaurant. The food was our typical Changsha dinner food and absolutely delicious.