Shell in China

We are down to less than a week with our host families. We move out next Tuesday morning. I am feeling a bit conflicted about it. I have really liked our family and they haven't been the nightmare that some have been. (It is the culture here to really not be open to private times. People here think that if you are alone, you are unhappy, so some of the families have been a bit intrusive. Ours has not, thank goodness!) On the other hand, I look forward to doing what we came to do and I look forward to having a place of my own. I am going to have to quickly acquire some cooking skills or else we will be eating out a lot! Maybe some of both…

This last weekend we went to Lashan, which is a very popular tourist place for both the Chinese people and foreigners. I think I saw more laowai there than I have in the two months I’ve been in Chengdu! Lashan is famous for the Giant Buddah. We took a bus there and back, which was only about two hours each day, so it made for a good day trip. The day was long, but it was worth the time. It is home to the world’s biggest sitting Buddah statue, which is over 71 meters high! ! It cost 70 kaui to get in to see it, but if you are a student the rate is half price, or in my case, if you show your American driver’s license and no one knows what it is, they will assume it is a student ID and you get in for 35! Yeah for discounts! Officially I am a student right now! (So, those of you coming to visit, bring your school ID cards- they will save you money!) Before we went I thought that it would be cool to see, but I can’t explain how impressive that really is! The thing is huge! The pictures really don’t do it justice.

Overall, things in China are going well. We have to take our LPI on Friday, which will tell Peace Corps how well we picked up the language during training. We then will take it in a year or so and they will compare our scores to see if we are improving at all. Also, if you don’t pass it they make you get a tutor at site. Thad and I both plan to get them anyway, as that will be the best way to continue learning Chinese; besides, PC pays for them if we want them so it would be dumb not to take advantage of that opportunity. This is our last official week of training and then we go to a hotel for a couple of days, have our official swearing in ceremony and then we head off to site! I’m excited and ready to go!

We are having problems getting pictures onto Blogger for some reason, so I created an account at Photobucket. Basically, when you click on the link it will take you to my "photo album" and you can look at them there. In a way it is nice because it makes them easier to see and I can put lots more there, but it also doesn't let me put long captions, so I did my best to label them well. Let me know if for some reason this doesn't work...

http://s93.photobucket.com/albums/l69/anything4shoes/?action=view&slideshow=true

Alright, I have yet another initial disclaimer. I swear that I put these pictures into the blog in the order that I describe them below, but when I just checked it, they were all goofy! So, please excuse the order and I think it is safe to say you will be able to tell the difference between the bathroom and the kitchen! Sorry about the oddness of it all!






This first picture is of me on the train. I am happy and refreshed because this is just the start of our sixteen hour journey to Gansu! At this point we are still enjoying the novelty of the train. This was my first ever train ride and boy was it an experience. At first the train employees were not super friendly, especially those in the dining car where the Americans all gathered to play cards, but after a bit of schmoozing, we became their best friends. It is a little something that the Chinese like to call "guanxi." We had the same crew on our train up to Gansu as we did coming home today, which worked out well for us. Today I got free breakfast in the dining car, some free snacks and one guy spent a good deal of time trying to convince me to join the Miss World pagent being held in China.



The next few pictures are of our new digs in Chengxian, Gansu, China. There is a picture of our living room with the comfy couches. The only problem with them is that that when it is hot, we stick to them!



Then there is our kitchen. It is found on kind of like a patio thing at the back of the apartment. It is really small, but knowing how much I cook, it should work out just fine! We have a rice cooker, a microwave, a two burner propane stove and a small sink. I think I may try to find and buy one of those cupboard top oven things as well. We didn't cook at all while we were in Chengxian, since our dean took us out to eat for every lunch and dinner, but I think this kitchen will be sufficient. The biggest worry about it is that I think it may be freezing cold when winter comes!




Next is the bathroom. We are lucky to have a Western toilet, as many people have the squatty-potties! This was a welcome sight to see! I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but the bathroom is just one square room; shower stalls are not common in China. All the water just drains into a single drain on the down-slanted side of the room. Our washer is also in the bathroom and we just set out a drain tube and that water goes into the same drain as everything else. It is a little odd to get used to, but really can be quite convinient!




The final picture is of our new campus, looking out from the kitchen window. The building on the right, with all of the trees in front, is the library. As you look down the lane you can see the cafeteria towards the back of campus. It is a really small area, so you are looking at over half of campus! Some of the classes meet in the library, so I may be teaching there. That will be nice when the freezing cold winter arrives!


Thad and I split up the pictures I took, so you can see more of the apartment on his site. I think he has more train pictures, the computer room, etc... The pictures posted really small, but if you click on them they will get bigger!

We are back in Chengdu for a couple more weeks. We will swear-in as offical Peace Corps Volunteers during the first week of Septmeber and then we will head back to our site in Chengxian, Gansu. We are looking forward to making the permanant move and to hearing from everyone at home!

I love and miss all of you! (Just for my Natural Helpers--GUESS WHAT!!)

Well, tomorrow we leave our new home. We have been here since Monday, but have to go back to Chengdu for a few more weeks of training before we can officially move in to stay. I have a bunch of pictures of the apartment, but we didn't bring the cords needed to upload them to the computer, so this post will be pictureless, but I will put them on this weekend once we are back in Chengdu! That means keep checking the blog!

The week has been a good one. Really it has been pretty relaxing. Although we love our host family, it is nice to finally have a place of our own again. Our apartment has three bedrooms. One is an office with a really nice flatscreen computer and internet access and a printer. The office also has several cabinets for storage and a computer desk and regular desk. There is more than enough room for both of us to work on lessons in here and not be in the way of the other. The second bedroom is a spare room that actually has a single bed in it, so for those of you considering coming, we are ready for you! This room also has a desk, but otherwise it is pretty bare. The third bedroom is ours. It has a giant king-sized bed and a huge armoir (sp??) for our clothes. There is an end table on each side of the bed with lamps, which is convinient for reading, when there is power! (I'll get back to that point in a minute!)

Then there is the dining room and kitchen. We have a small fridge/freezer and a propane cooking stove thing. It just sits on the counter and has two burners on it. There is no oven, but that is pretty standards. We also have a rice cooker! Imagine that! :)

Finally, there is the living room which is fully furnished with a couch, loveseat, chair, coffee table, TV and DVD player. Everything is either brand new or in really good condition, so apartment-wise I think we are really lucky. It will be interesting to compare notes with the others on Monday when we all get back together again. I am looking forward to hearing how everyone's site visits went, what their schools and apartments are like and what they think of the whole experience!

We met with our dean again and talked about classes this week. Right now it looks like I will teach about 12 classes a week and Thad will have 10. The difference is that while we will both teach oral English, I will also teach a "western methods" class for teachers. That should be interesting. I wish I had all my middle school books from Walden!

The campus here is really small...it is just a big square. The library is right next to our housing building and that is where we may teach some of our classes. They don't have those assignments made yet. The other building we would teach in is about a 5 mintue walk and that really is about as far as campus goes. There isn't a huge campus like we think of at US colleges. There is a cafeteria on campus for teachers and a couple for students. Otherwise, a few more buildings and then dorms. There are trees here in Chengxian. We are in a very small valley, so the mountains are not far off and they have trees and a lot of farm stuff on them. Campus has trees and grass, but not necessarily grass as we would imagine it on a campus.

We had a pretty easy-going day. I woke up and stumbled into the kitchen this morning only to step in a giant lake! Apparently something under the sink was leaking and there was not just a puddle, but a lake! I spent a good deal of time soaking that up with the two hand towels that I had at my disposal! Then, our power went out again this afternoon. I am hoping that the electicity will become a little more regular. We have been told that this is not normal and I hope they are right! Other than that though, we didn't do a whole lot.

We went to dinner at the neighbor's apartment on the 4th floor. We made jiaozi with them. (They are dumplings.) IT wasn't too bad. It isn't my favorite meal, but it is really popular here, so I am learning to deal with it.

We leave tomorrow to head back to Chengdu for a couple more weeks. When we get back there, I will post pictures of the new apartment and campus for everyone to see.

I know everyone is getting ready to head back to school. I hope you are all excited and looking forward to the new year. I know that this year will have lots of challenges and learning experiences for all of us and while I plan to record mine here, I also can't wait to hear about yours too! Keep in touch!!

Drum roll please!



Chengxian, Gansu, China!! Longnan Teacher's College.

That will be our home for the next two years! We are excited to go this weekend and find out what it is like. I just got home from the annoucement ceremony, so I haven't had a chance to research it on the Internet or anything, but at least we have a home to go to! :) We got a little packet that tells a bit about the school and housing arrangements.

Our school is a teachers' college that serves about 4500 students. It is pretty small as far as a college in China goes. They have not had PC volunteers in the past, so this will be new for them and us!

Our apartment is apparently very large, but that doesn't necessarily mean nice. We are on the 6th floor again, in a country that doesn't really utilize elevators! I guess I might as well get over complaining about the six floors up each day here in Chengud, since I am looking at two more years of it. Our floors are cement, so I think I will be finding a place to buy some rugs to soften and warm those floors in the winter! It sounds like the apartment is on campus, but we don't know much else right now. The papers say one thing, but once we get to site and actually see (and hopefully stay) at the place, I will update everyone.

We were given an address, but it is in English, so I don't know how well that will work. I am going to check into what the address should actually look like on the mail and then I will let everyone know when I have it.

I've included a few more pictures as well. The one in front of the lion is at a temple in downtown Chengdu. We went there on a class fieldtrip. The other one is a bunch of us hanging out on campus to celebrate the birthday of one of our trainers.
I am in the orange Brown's shirt (I know it doesn't make sense, which is why I hate them!) Ane finally, there is me with a waffle and maple syrup. There is a western food place in downtown Chengdu called Peter's Tex-Mex, but that have all sorts of western food. We went there to celebrate Gil's going home from PC. He finished his two years and wanted to go there before leaving for the States. It was yummy!!

Hello to everyone back home in the States! This last week has been a very busy one for us in China.

To start with, we finally finished the “Model School” phase of our pre-service training. This was basically a teaching boot-camp, a type of student-teaching for everyone, regardless of teaching background and experience. While it was easier for some of us who have taught before, it was a lot of work to get ready for lessons each afternoon. I think all of the China 12’s would agree that we are glad we are done! There was beer (and Coca-Colas for me!) and poker last night to celebrate.

Also, this last week was a big week because we had site-placement interviews. These are done to help determine where we will spend the next two years of our lives! Pretty important!! Thad and I had our interview together, as did the other couple. When asked what our preferences were, I said that we would like a smaller city that is within a few hours of a large one, we would like to be in Gansu and if possible we would like to be the first PCVs at a new site. The site manager seemed to think she had a place that was similar to what we were looking for, but of course she wouldn’t tell us the name of the town. Everyone went through the same process and now we are just waiting for – Wednesday- the magic day when we find out our assignments! I think we are all excited and anxious to know where we will end up!

Today I went with Wang Laoshi, my teacher, to the Sichuan University Museum. It is recommended by Lonely Planet and we had a great time. My favorite section was the clothes of the different dynasties. Most of them were royalty clothes, so they were very fancy silk pieces with massive amounts of embroidery done of them. They were bright colored background with the intricate handwork depicting famous stories and myths. I was unable to take any pictures since it was a museum, but it was a great experience.

Pictures:
1. This is my host mom and I in the mountains last weekend. In China, squatting like this is a very popular way to sit. I don’t know if it my long legs that get in the way or if I am just not doing it right, but I can only sit like this for short periods of time. After that my legs go to sleep and then I can’t walk right!
2. This is another one from the mountains last weekend. This is a small waterfall right outside of town. We didn’t stay here very long, because like everywhere else in China, there were a million people. (The sheer numbers of people that are always around is amazing to me. Chengdu has nearly five times as many people as Idaho does!)
3. The last picture just shows some of those gazillion people. Notice how many of the women are carrying umbrellas. It did not rain and did not look like it was going to rain! Umbrellas here are a constant fixture in the hands of the women. Obviously they are great for rainy days, but the women also use them regularly to block the sun. Light skin is the ideal here, so women use them as shade. While this may seem like a great idea, I have come to hate it. Since I am tall, their umbrella height is about my eye height and more than once I have been nearly stabbed in the eye with a wayward “parasol!”