JDDMV (Jello, Duck and DMV)

I was just supposed to move into my new apartment and spend the evening unpacking. Instead I ended up eating turtle jello and barbecue duck with my new Chinese roommate while explaining the evils of the DMV.

Today was the first day we were allowed to sleep in, and my roommate and I planned on taking full advantage of it. We took our time getting up and ready. The foreign student dorms were empty when we first arrived, but now they were nearly full. I heard several French girls moving in next door to us. A group of Chinese men were being housed down the hall a bit. They always leave the door open, and their smoke pours into the hall. The foreign student dorms are loud and bug infested.

Shortly before noon, my roommate and I decided to see if we could find breakfast and a supermarket we had been told was nearby. We left our dorm and headed towards the West gate of the campus.

An eight-foot wall surrounds the entire campus. The main gates are North, South, East and West; each guarded by several high-school aged guards. Let me assure you, they’re very intimidating.

We exited the West gate and decided to turn left. I explored this area the night before and found both sides of the street lined with tiny shops and restaurants. My roommate had read the directions to the supermarket to me, and I vaguely remembered something about turning left. We walked about fifteen minutes to a ‘T’ in the road. Left again. And right again, followed by another left. Left. Right. Left. Left. Right. It took several hours of wandering before finally stumbling upon the supermarket.

A little later that afternoon, we stopped by a bakery to pick up a snack. None of the bakeries had any place to sit, so we again wandered off in search of rest. Eventually we stumbled upon a few benches on the sidewalk next to a drainage stream. My classmate sat down to eat her breakfast while I peeked over the guardrail to the stream below. The water flowed slowly down a paved pathway. Several rats ran through small piles of garbage, and dead plants littered the ditch. The water was white in color. Now I want to be perfectly clear here; it wasn’t white because it was reflecting the clouds, it was milky white. In fact, I think it was iridescent. Almost silver. I remembered the map of Chengdu I had seen earlier; that stream leads right into the river.

Later that evening I returned to my dorm and prepared my things to move. A few hours later, several of my classmates showed up to help me. It took four of us to carry my classmate’s and my stuff to our new apartment. We had to walk to the North Gate, about ten minutes from our dorm, in order to hail a taxi. All four of us had decided to cram into one taxi, and pile the luggage on top. We waited on the side (read: in the middle) of the road until a taxi finally pulled over. The driver gave us a disparaging look, but agreed to try and shove all our junk into the trunk. Everything fit by Chinese standards, and to my relief nothing fell out.

We arrived at my new apartment in one piece, and were received warmly by my new housemate. She kept offering us food; so I finally consented on the grounds that she just give me something small. She ran off to the kitchen and returned with a teapot, cups and a container of jello. The tea was good, although the jello was-Um… interesting.

I pulled back the plastic lid and stared at the treat. It was black. I smelled it- smelled like molasses. I took a bite- strange, but not too bad. My new housemate dug right in, all the while muttering something about it being “traditional.” As we ate, we discussed her work and my classes. We ended up talking about her driver’s license, while I explained the DMV. She talked and talked and talked, all the while shoving quivering chunks of black jello into her mouth. I stared as the concoction turned her teeth black, while wondering what it did to mine. Pretty soon she announced that she was tired and was heading off to bed. I went to my room and was soon fast asleep.