The weekend before we went to Qufu – Saturday the 31st of October and Sunday the 1st of November – I had the beginnings of a horrible cold, so our schedule was a little miserable for me.
Saturday we went to a mall to watch a new movie, “Mountains May Depart,” in the morning. Don’t worry, it wasn’t for funzies: we saw it to analyze it in the context of Chinese cinema representations of Chinese culture. Reviews are mixed, but I thought it was a pretty good flick (then again, I’m considering film analysis as a potential thesis topic, so I’m not the most reliable source).
I thought the theater’s bathroom sign was pretty wicked. Check it out:
In the afternoon, we saw a professional soccer game! The local Shandong team versus a team from… Hubei? I think?
The Tai’an supporters (Shandong team). LC colors!
Loyal fans who traveled from Hubei to support their team. They put up a pretty decent front RE: team chants for such a comparatively small force, let me just say.
The stadium was HUGE. I think it’s bigger than Safeco up in Seattle in terms of capacity. And the crowd that day was also pretty large – I think someone said 20,000? – so keep that in mind for this shot:
I got what officially classifies as “way too many photos” of this game. But it was great! I love soccer – I played for ten years and have my favorite teams, which I will not mention 😛 – so I thought this was SUPER GREAT, even though I was sick and miserable.
Sunday I holed up in my room to be a gross blob, and then went out for hot pot with some Chinese friends. Even though I was sick I was really glad I went, because our friends are super great, and the food still managed to be delicious despite my sick-destroyed tastebuds.
They introduced us to this kind of sugar-pickled garlic. It was SUPER SWEET and super tasty and absolutely worth the ensuing garlic-breath, so you should try it if you ever come across it:
I then returned to my room to pack for Qufu, work on my research paper, and blob around a bit more. Super exciting, I know.