Shell in China

Well, we have been in ChengXian for just over a week now. In that time we have attended a banquet held in our honor, taught English lessons to students who have never spoken to an American before, had several adventures trying to buy specific things at the grocery store, visited TianShui and got caught in a rainstorm! What a week it was!

(The picture at the left is ChengXian in the evening. Thad took this from our apartment.)

First of all, the banquet. Last Sunday we were summoned to the front gate, which is always our meeting point when the college wants us to do something or go somewhere. We were told that we were going to a student performance, which was put on for National Teacher’s Day. Apparently we were the guests of honor, as we were the last to arrive, but were escorted to the front of the gym, where there was a front row table and reserved seats next to the college president. After the performance, we all went downtown for a banquet. The food was really good and luckily the drinking was held to a minimum. The other volunteers here also do not drink, so I really think that is going to make the alcohol situation a little easier to deal with. You see, in China, it is common at banquets for everyone, but especially the men, to be pressured into drinking a good deal of strong liquor as part of the dinner. Drinking together is seen as a way to solidify friendship, so we were worried how we were going to get away without being a part of that and still have good relationships with everyone. Since none of the Westerners drink though, I think it will be easier to just stick to tea, juices or other drinks.

Monday was the start of our classes. I teach five classes of Freshman Oral English, one each day of the week. These classes all have about forty-five students in them. The students have pretty good English in terms of reading and grammatical issues, but when it comes to functional English, like speaking, they are very low. They have never been taught be a foreign teacher before, so not only is my accent and way of talking different, but I think it is a bit intimidating to see me walk into the room. Each class last week started with me walking in and them standing and applauding. I guess that is a normal way of welcoming a teacher, but it was awfully strange to me! (I may have mentioned this before, but the students stay in the same classroom all day long and it is the teachers who come and go from the room. The kids kind of see the room as their second home. They keep stuff in their desks; they go back there in the evenings to study, etc.) Those classes all went well. They were mainly introductions of me, my family, America and then they practiced meeting and introducing people as well. The biggest change for them this week was that I made them put their desks into groups of four. All of the classrooms had the students in rows, which just isn’t going to be very functional for speaking to one another, so I had them regroup themselves. The directions took quite a bit of explaining because I think the group thing was a pretty new concept to them, but I think they liked the new perspective on the room. It would get old sitting in the same rows day after day.

I also teach a Western Methodologies class. This was supposed to be co-taught with a Chinese professor, but she decided she was too busy to do the planning together, so she took one section and I have the other. I have really enjoyed this class so far. These students are third-years, getting ready to do their student-teaching this winter. (Our college is a three-year institution, so they are just finishing their schooling.) This group of students is much more confident in their English and they are so close to becoming teachers that they are beginning to look at the classroom from the other side of the desks. We have talked a lot about being a good teacher and what experiences they have had with teachers in their past. I am planning to do a lot with multiple-intelligences and learning styles with them throughout the semester as well.

(The picture at the left is me and Sarah and Tomas headed into town. We took a back path that you can take and walk along the river. It was a nice change from the cars. We saw some BIG spides with massive webs...I wasn't a fan of those!)

Then, on Saturday we went to TianShui, which is the town where we normally get off the train. We went with Tomas and Rachel. We took a bus, which honked for two hours straight, into town. Honking is seen in a different light in China. When you drive, you honk to tell someone you are behind them, you are passing them, you have just passed them, you can see them, etc! The honking is pretty constant! In TianShui we just did some shopping, we didn’t really buy a whole lot, but we looked around and had a nice day. We came back on a mini-bus, which was quite a tight squeeze! It was five kuai cheaper than the big bus, but I think the big bus is worth the extra five!!

On Sunday, I was bummed that my attempt to Skype home was unsuccessful. There was something wrong with the headphones on my end. I could talk to my family for about two minutes and then it would cut out. I could still hear them on the other end, but they couldn’t hear me. I was pretty disappointed, but since they were up in the woods, there wasn’t even a computer that I could just chat with them on. So, Thad and I went into town and found a new set of headphones. We haven’t tried them out yet, but he thinks they will solve the problem. I really hope so! I enjoy getting to talk to people at home every few weeks!

When we went into town, we also went to the new grocery store that just opened on Friday! Woo-hoo! This is excitement in small-town China! Sadly, the new store is just about the same as the old one. Not a whole lot of new products to choose from. Thad did make friends with the aisle girls that work there. He made the mistake of saying “hello” to them, so them every time we passed them they said “hello” to him. It got a little old after awhile. Also, while I was standing in line to buy our stuff, I noticed one of the worker girls had her cell phone out taking a picture of me with it! This is actually pretty common, since TianShui has never had Americans living in it before. She was really embarrassed when you realized that I knew what she was doing! J hehe… We then went to the jiaozi joint in town for lunch—they have really yummy food. Then it was off to the market. Sarah pointed out a market to us on Friday night, but it is a bit hard to find, since it is off the main roadway in an alleyway type thing. It took Thad and I a couple goes up and down the street before we located it, but once we found it we did a bit of shopping. I bought some rugs and a throw for the back of the couch. We have a really nice apartment, but it is kind of sterile and I want it to feel more like home. That was my goal for the day, make it more like home, since we will be living here for the next two years. While at the market it started to rain, so by the time Thad and I made it home, we were drenched! It wasn’t necessarily cold, but we were wet through and through. I wish I had thought to take a picture of us looking like drowned rats before we changed into sweatpants!

I have so many other odds and ends stories to tell. There were our attempts at cooking jiaozi at home, stories from class, freshman military training, and so on. I guess those will have to be fodder for the next blog, as this one seems to have run much longer than I intended.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. If you have any questions or comments about China, please let me know. I would love to write topic-specific blogs if there is a question or something that you are really curious about! The third goal of PC is to educate those back home about the cultures that we serve, so ask away! It is my job as a Peace Corps volunteer!! J

Yeah! I am officially a PCV now! Up until now we have basically been on one long job interview (kind of like The Apprentice, except Jon Derrah, our country director is the one saying "you're fired!" and he has said it to at least two of the trainees!) Being official means that my two years officially starts now. ;) The last two months have just been trial time, not official service.

Swear in went well. I have pictures that will eventually go on the blog, if I can get the picture part of it working again. :) We had the ambassador and Christopher Hill, the assistant Sec. of State at the ceremony. The swear-in part was all of 30 seconds and had to be done in a closed meeting, as it is an oath to our country and that isn't well received on foreign soil. Then they opened it up and there were speakers and lunch. Overall it was about 2 1/2 hours long. Afterwards, some of our people left with their schools right away. Those of us going north didn’t leave until Friday (swear-in was Thursday) afternoon, so we just hung around town all day.

Well, after a whole big mess, we have finally arrived in Chengxian. Wait until you hear this story!

It all started Friday morning. We were supposed to meet our dean and waiban (they guy in charge of foreign affairs at our college) in the hotel lobby at noon. The plan was to go get some lunch and then come back for our luggage and go to the train station together. So, Thad and I were in the lobby, at noon waiting. Well, wait we did! At 1:30 everyone else was on the way to the station with their schools, but ours had never shown up. One of the other waibans started calling around and couldn't find our people. We decided to go with her to the station because it was getting late and we didn't want to miss the train. SO, Thad and I lugged 7 bags to the train station! We left a note at the hotel in case our school people came there. We got on the train (which was a whole hassle in itself since we all had so much luggage to load and there really isn't a good option for checking luggage.) So, we are all sitting around and there are a good 5 or 6 people on their cell phones trying to find our school people. And, off goes the train with no school officials! Just as we start going, someone gets a phone call saying that our people just got to the hotel and got the message that we went to the train station. So, we were offical-less, which wasn't a big deal since we had made the train trip before without them. They called ahead and had a car meet us at the station this morning and bring us out here. They both came over on Sunday and apologized for missing the train. Apparently they both got pretty bad food poisoning the night before we had to leave Chengdu and Mr. Pu (the waiban) ended up having to go to the doctor for an IV of fluids. They are both doing better now and back in Chengxian.

What was supposed to be our settle in and lesson plan day, Sunday, quickly became run around with school officials day! At ten our dean and waiban came to the apartment; they had just gotten in from the train ride. So, they came over and we had them look at the hot water, which has been non-functional since we've been back. They messed with some pipes, broke one and flooded the bathroom and then fixed it, we think!

Then we went to the lunchroom to get meal cards and then into town for lunch. Thad mentioned wanting a basketball, so then we went to the store to get that. We got back to the apartment in the afternoon, but then had to meet them at 4 for a student performance. Sunday was the National Teacher's Day, so there was an hour and a half singing and dancing performance that we were given front row seats to. After that it was off to dinner with the school officials. Dinner was pretty tasty. J It was a banquet, so there were lots and lots of dishes, which works out well for me because I can pick and choose the ones I want to eat.

Oh- we also met the other foreign teachers. Sara is from England and Tomas and Rachel are from Sweden. (Rachel is actually American, but has been living in Sweden for seven years with her husband.) They all seem pretty nice and I think we will probably be spending a lot of time together. They are all volunteers as well, so they live on the same small budgets that we do! Sara is with the British version of PC and Tomas and Rachel are with Amity.

Well, Thad and I survived our first day of class. Granted, it wasn't a long or tough day, as we teach on a university schedule, so we don't teach all day long. Thad had two classes and I had just one. Each class is actually two hours long, so Thad taught from 8-12 and I taught from 10-12. We both had Oral English classes. My class had 44 students in it! That is a lot to try to do activities with--I will definitely have to be creative with these classes. Today we just did introduction stuff.

For lunch Thad and I ate in the school cafeteria (they call it the canteen!) It wasn't bad. I think each of our meals cost 2 kuai. Can't beat that. We both had noodle dishes. Mine was a little spicier than I would have liked, but with the cafeteria, you can’t really order food made the way you want it. You go through the line and get it dished onto the plate. For dinner we ate across the road for 3 kaui each. Those prices are less than fifty cents each! Although you do have to remember, I live on less than $200 (American) each month, so the cheap meals are good!

Tomorrow I teach another Oral English class and then I have my first Western Methodology class. I think I have decided that I will teach the first few, but then they are going to be assigned lessons to teach. They do their practice teaching next term, so once we have talked about some basics and lesson planning, I think this will be a good, safe place for them to experiment. Most English teachers actually teach in Chinese, so getting them to teach a whole lesson in English will be a good thing!

It was cool outside again. Not cold, I wore a skirt, but I also carried a jacket with me. My toes were a bit cold. I can see that keeping my feet warm is going to be an issue when winter really gets here.

It is nice being moved in and starting to get into a bit of a routine. I think we are going to have a lot of free time on our hands though, since a college teaching schedule is quite different from what we are used. Also, since we teach mainly Oral English, we teach the same lesson plan all week long. (The kids only meet once a week, for two hours, for their Oral English classes.) On top of that, there isn't a whole lot of grading outside of class, when the point is to get them talking in class! I hope to have a tutor set up by the end of the month so I can continue my language classes. I am a little leery about finding the right person, so I want to get to know some people around campus before I actually hire someone to do it.

And so this is Peace Corps
And what have you done?
Your old life is over,
A new one just begun.

And so this is China.
You’ll stay here two years.
Unless you can’t hack it,
Or you drink too much beer.

Do you feel apprehensive?
Do you want to go back?
Or are you optimistic
That you’re on the right track?

You made it through staging
In San Francisco.
Your per diem was sky high.
Your cash here will be low.

So you’ll be a pauper.
But you won’t miss money.
Look at the other 12s here:
They’re your new family.

And when you feel lonely,
You can give them a call
Think peer support network.
Think late night booty call.

But remember it’s Peace Corps
And word travels fast.
There will be no secrets
So cover your ass.

And so this is Chengdu
Where it’s humid and hot
Don’t be fooled by McDonald’s,
San Francisco it’s not.

Help yourself to the street food
And enjoy the hot pot
Soon you’ll have diarrhea
Better learn how to squat.

Welcome to Training,
There’s a lot to be done,
We’ll try to prepare you
For two years of fun.

Have a very merry service,
And a happy two years,
Welcome to the Peace Corps
We’re so happy you’re here.

Have a very merry service,
And a happy two years
Welcome to our China,
They’re so happy you’re here.