blue skies and baijiu

I arrived in Ningxia a few days ago, and so far, it's been great. The weather here is lovely, and by lovely I mean I can see the sky all the time. It's amazing. I live quite near the Great Wall, which at this point looks more like a natural ridge than a wall.

I traveled to Ningxia with Jake, and when we arrived we met Blandine who was a previous intern at Ningxia CEPA. With her were two other French women, Julie and Silva, who were doing a report for France's new 24 hour news network about microfinance in Yanchi County. With them was a Chinese translator and a French teacher from Beijing. We were then given a tour of the city before they were dropped off at their hotel (it looked quite swanky) and I was taken to my apartment where I will live for the next four months.

Squat toilet aside, I have a great little room and a glassed in porch. I share the apartment with three Chinese people who work for CEPA. Judging by the bunkbeds in the apartment, we might have at least 3 more people move in. The more the merrier.

My bed is a plywood platform covered with blankets. Luckily, I like a firm mattress, and I have my faithful pillow. Unfortunately, I did not sleep well the first night. After I had dropped my stuff off, we came back to the hotel where we met Mr. Long, the head of Ningxia CEPA.

We began a delightful meal of desert onions, lamb, tofu, etc. But about 20 minutes in, the jinging began. A jing is a toast you make with baijiu (白酒）or white spirits. About the strength of vodka, it is served in tiny little white cups, which I'm guessing hold about a shot, if not less. Everyone cheered everyone, many people drinking beer instead of baijiu...I was jealous. After we had made everyone feel sufficiently good, the shaizi came out. Two cups of 3 die each are placed on the table, and one person steps up. In this case, it was Mr. Long.

This meant that Mr. Long had to play everyone at the table in a three game match. Each game carries the penalty of a cup of baijiu to begin with, but those stakes rise depending on the person that is challenged. The French girls (with the exception of Blandine) were drinking beer, but even as time went on, they were challenged with more and more drinks. (Jake told me a story about one of my colleagues' father who in one go had to drink 45 drinks of baijiu. Each game was 9 jiu, and he lost 5 times in a row. Brutal.) If either person during the match loses all three games, it must be repeated, unless the winner drinks with the loser.

After a few trips to the bathroom to void my stomach, the night finally ended with Jake and I doing the old Soule Hall cheer. That consists of one knee on the ground, elbow up, and your glass against the forehead of the person you're drinking with. I drank the the six shots down, and they promptly came back up. I barely made it to the bathroom (some might say I didn't).

By the time I was out, things were finished and I was ready to go home. I set my alarm to go off every fifteen minutes so I could wake up and drink a bottle of water. Even with that precaution, I woke up at six with a pretty awful hangover. Not good for your first full day in the desert.