Chengdu

Plane ride. Landing. Scary.

It was night by the time we arrived in Chengdu, it was completely dark outside, and everyone was beat. One idiosyncrasy of this particular adventure (the two-week trip around China) was that the origins of my classmates and my fatigue were almost entirely unclear. Were we still struggling with the acclimation of the 12-14-hour time change? Was it because we had stayed out until ungodly hours, the previous night? Was it because of the strenuous physical activity, which included but was not limited to dragging around a stuffed backpack, trekking over large distances by foot, bicycling, dancing, hiking, and the occasional romp in the bedroom for those who brought their boyfriends/girlfriends along? It was constantly up for debate. Two things were certain: 1) We were all almost always tired, 2) We all almost always wanted to skip sleep in order to do other interesting things.

Chengdu was... unusual. Enormous, gritty-looking buildings loomed all around, and the sky was overcast for almost the entirety of our stay. Although we broke our second rule and did go to sleep once getting to the hotel, the next day we awoke bright and early to go see the Chinese National Treasure, the Great Panda. Cute? Check. Fluffy? Check. Languid? You betch'ya. Everything you ever imagine when you think of a panda, I saw... and then some. They also had RED pandas, which were possibly even cuter. It was ridiculous how cute they were. Ridiculous. Did I mention they were cute? There's really not a whole lot more I'm willing to say on the matter. You ought to go see them.

After that, we all came together to try the infamous HOT POT. For those of you who don't know, HOT POT is characterized by the large bowl of boiling hot soup-like liquid in a hot pot (very intuitive), usually very spicy soup-like liquid, in which you dip raw meats and veggies to cook. The meats and veggies are infused with the flavor of the hot pot soup-like liquid, and you have a delicious bite. After many bites, this is considered a meal. It was delicious! Also, it was very funny to watch all of my classmates sweat in their seats from the heat of the chili in the dish. Don't get me wrong, I got my ass kicked as much as the next American; however, I had the distinct advantage of eating green chili at least once a week for the last 19-or-so years. (Shout out to mom and pop!)

Now, I had spend the first day and a half in Chengdu dancing in my seat, listening to techno and hip hop tracks in my head, because I had, for two weeks, skipped my Wednesday dose of dancing/singing at Wild Horse. At this time, I began to tap my new-found friends on their shoulders and suggest a trip to a Chengdu KTV, the Chinese karaoke chain/franchise (another constant of the trip: there was a KTV on practically every corner of practically ever city we visited). After praying that the taxi drivers (both of them, as we needed two cabs) knew how to get us to the KTV, we poured out into a karaoke paradise where one could purchase a room furnished with chairs, tables, three microphones, a karaoke machine, and 40 beers for a shamelessly low price. Four hours later, we poured OUT giggling like crazy, singing different tunes (I was Madonna for the evening), and decided to walk back to our hotel however-many blocks away.

Needless to say, my karaoke prescription was filled.

The next day we were up and out by 5 A.M. and on our way to Lijiang.