Quarantine: Day 2

Swine flu has been found on campus, and so the authorities that be have insisted on a total lock down of the campus. Some students cannot even leave their dormitories at all, not even for meal times at the cafeteria -- which, by the way, is not at all equipped to accommodate 10,000 students and all the faculty. Classes were canceled yesterday afternoon, and it's anyone's guess how long this will last -- I have heard a few days, at least a week, or more...

I have a stock of instant noodles, instant oatmeal, oreos, weird Chinese bread, and half a bottle of corn-flavored peanut butter to get me through this. I will soon be desperate enough to begin planning an escape attempt à la Steve McQueen and his fellas in The Great Escape, so wish me luck.

I've also gotten some texts from a couple of students, one of which was so long it had to be delivered as eight separate messages:

Dear Alison, are you OK? How do you have your meals? Do you miss us? Before going to bed, you had better drink a cup of milk, which will help you fall asleep. Besides, wash your feet with hot water is also helpful. What are you doing now? Have you got any interesting books? Are you lonely? The disease is very serious, so you should, Oh, no, you must take more care! Clear? Will you go home in the winter holiday? Hope we can have our lessons early! Remember to take good care of yourself! Yours, Hmily

Chengdu: home of pandas & other less-important things.

Back from my long weekend in Chengdu, thanks in no small part to my guanxi with Policeman Zang, who helped me buy bus tickets in the crazy traveling fervor that accompanies Chinese festivals. This past week was not only Mid-Autumn Festival, during which I had to choke down a moon cake to celebrate while failing at making a paper boat to sail on the river, but also National Day, commemorating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. The train we took back to Hechuan was completely packed with standing-room only tickets, and I was boxed into my window seat by a four-generation Chinese family, complete with a six-year-old child who flinched every time I looked at him and his spicy instant noodles.

Amidst the temple-hopping that accompanies any Chinese sight-seeing, there were also frequent breaks to take advantage of the abundant Western food restaurants in the city (seeing as there are none in Hechuan), including Pizza Hut (Hawaiian pizza!) and a Tex-Mex restaurant (burritos!); I also managed to meet up with a couple of friends I studied with last summer in Harbin for 烤肉. And of course, I also went to the Panda Breeding Center, where I spent five minutes watching three pandas fight each other, clearly the highlight of the trip, and possibly my life.

Today: headed into Chongqing city to celebrate Peter's birthday in style, seeing as everything closes in Hechuan at 11:00 p.m.