Shell in China
Friday, August 31, 2007
What A Summer!!
What a summer! Since the beginning of July, Thad and I have been all over China. We started with a trip to Chengdu to help train the new group of Volunteers (who are currently on site visit and getting ready to be on their own finally!) in Chengdu. Then it was off to Jiuquan, which is in the north part of Gansu province, where we did Summer Project, training current teachers (this is also the venue of the bus pushing/flood incident!). From there it was onto a whirlwind trip of China with Mom and Dad: Beijing-Shanghai-Chengdu-Chengxian- Xi’An (and then they continued on to Japan). So, with that crazy schedule in mind, I will try to give a brief rundown of the first part of our fabulous summer. Getting the whole summer in will take a few entries…
Let’s start at PST: Pre-Service Training. The China 13s got into the country on July 1, so Thad and I had a chance to come down the second week of July to do some training. We were asked to talk about teaching lower-level students, since that is what our school is for the most part. Thad put together a great Power Point that we used as the basis of the session (his goofy pictures were a hit!) and from there we just told stories about our experiences with the students and tried to answer as many questions as we could. We were only with each training hub a couple of hours, so we really didn’t get to know the new Volunteers very well, but we are hoping to be able to hang out with the Gansu kids this fall sometime. One night we took the three married couples out to dinner to talk about how life as a married Volunteer is different than single. I remember doing this last summer and thought it was a nice evening, so I asked our program manager if she could arrange it again and she happily did. Thad and I enjoyed getting to chat with the marrieds and they seem to all be off to a great start.
Overall the training was wonderful. It was great being in-town on Peace Corps business since it meant we got bused around by them! While in Chengdu we also had to do our mid-service medical visit, which was no biggie, other than the dentist. I am not a fan of the dentist at home, so having to go while abroad was not an idea that I relished. Of course, I had two cavities! (How is it that no matter what I do, I always have a cavity when I go to the dentist? I think it is some conspiracy against me!!) That meant I had to go back the next morning and get them filled. The dentist kindly offered to do it without Novocain if I wanted. I quickly turned that proposition down!!! I got my two cavities filled in the morning and then headed out to the train right after that to head to Lanzhou.
The next stop on our summer agenda was Lanzhou, for just a day. Peace Corps wasn’t able to get train tickets all the way from Chengdu to Jiuquan since it is so far away, so we went as far as Lanzhou, bought tickets for the next night and hung out with some Volunteers in town. While Thad was in buying tickets, I stood outside the train station guarding the backpacks. As I stood there, I noticed a familiar face in the crowd. Julian!! Julian was one of the Volunteers who when home last summer, but before going home he was the head trainer for our group! It was crazy to just be standing outside the train station and see him. He was in the country with his brother, who is studying Chinese. We chatted for a few minutes, but he and his brother had a train to catch, so after a brief discussion, they were off again. With out tickets in hand, we headed to Kristen’s to hang out. Along with Thad and me, her apartment was home to John and Erin and Ben. As last comers, I got the couch and Thad got the floor! No problem though!
From Lanzhou, it was off to Jiuquan for Summer Project, which warrants an entry of its own, but I’ll leave you with this image: Thad and I rode the 8-hour train north with Simon and Thomas, who spent the ride playing a “wonderful” baseball game called Strat. When they would hit the 7th inning stretch in the game, we, along with the entire train car would be serenaded with a beautiful rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” Just trying to meet that 2nd goal of Peace Corp- sharing our culture with others!!!
Stay tuned for Summer Project and Traveling with the Parental Unit…
Let’s start at PST: Pre-Service Training. The China 13s got into the country on July 1, so Thad and I had a chance to come down the second week of July to do some training. We were asked to talk about teaching lower-level students, since that is what our school is for the most part. Thad put together a great Power Point that we used as the basis of the session (his goofy pictures were a hit!) and from there we just told stories about our experiences with the students and tried to answer as many questions as we could. We were only with each training hub a couple of hours, so we really didn’t get to know the new Volunteers very well, but we are hoping to be able to hang out with the Gansu kids this fall sometime. One night we took the three married couples out to dinner to talk about how life as a married Volunteer is different than single. I remember doing this last summer and thought it was a nice evening, so I asked our program manager if she could arrange it again and she happily did. Thad and I enjoyed getting to chat with the marrieds and they seem to all be off to a great start.
Overall the training was wonderful. It was great being in-town on Peace Corps business since it meant we got bused around by them! While in Chengdu we also had to do our mid-service medical visit, which was no biggie, other than the dentist. I am not a fan of the dentist at home, so having to go while abroad was not an idea that I relished. Of course, I had two cavities! (How is it that no matter what I do, I always have a cavity when I go to the dentist? I think it is some conspiracy against me!!) That meant I had to go back the next morning and get them filled. The dentist kindly offered to do it without Novocain if I wanted. I quickly turned that proposition down!!! I got my two cavities filled in the morning and then headed out to the train right after that to head to Lanzhou.
The next stop on our summer agenda was Lanzhou, for just a day. Peace Corps wasn’t able to get train tickets all the way from Chengdu to Jiuquan since it is so far away, so we went as far as Lanzhou, bought tickets for the next night and hung out with some Volunteers in town. While Thad was in buying tickets, I stood outside the train station guarding the backpacks. As I stood there, I noticed a familiar face in the crowd. Julian!! Julian was one of the Volunteers who when home last summer, but before going home he was the head trainer for our group! It was crazy to just be standing outside the train station and see him. He was in the country with his brother, who is studying Chinese. We chatted for a few minutes, but he and his brother had a train to catch, so after a brief discussion, they were off again. With out tickets in hand, we headed to Kristen’s to hang out. Along with Thad and me, her apartment was home to John and Erin and Ben. As last comers, I got the couch and Thad got the floor! No problem though!
From Lanzhou, it was off to Jiuquan for Summer Project, which warrants an entry of its own, but I’ll leave you with this image: Thad and I rode the 8-hour train north with Simon and Thomas, who spent the ride playing a “wonderful” baseball game called Strat. When they would hit the 7th inning stretch in the game, we, along with the entire train car would be serenaded with a beautiful rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game.” Just trying to meet that 2nd goal of Peace Corp- sharing our culture with others!!!
Stay tuned for Summer Project and Traveling with the Parental Unit…
Sunday, August 05, 2007
You Wouldn't Believe!!!
Yeah, that's right...you are not going to believe the "day off" I had yesterday!
(Day off? I know you are probably asking yourself what the heck I am talking about, so let me back up just a little and fill you in on what has been going on in China. You see, during the summer when all of our students are home on vacation for six weeks, Peace Corps doesn’t want us just sitting around or killing time in Thailand, so we are required to do a Summer Project. These are provincial, so ours was in Gansu. Our training was two weeks and three weekends long, and overall it was great. We spent the time with teachers from the local schools and talked about methods, how to use the textbook creatively, culture, etc. I may have to write a whole different post on it, but for now, I want to share the craziness that was last Sunday- our “day off.”)
The local education department leaders decided to take us out for a day to see the mountains, so we thought it sounded like an okay idea. (I won't say a great idea because any trip with the leaders is only so-so at best! Usually it ends up being more like work than a relaxing outing, but we decided to go for it anyway. It was a chance to see something new and they were paying, so we went!) They told us to have breakfast and be ready to go at 7:00AM. Well, they showed up thirty minutes late and asked if we had eaten yet. We said yes and they then went and ordered breakfast in the hotel restaurant!! We were all sitting on the curb waiting, literally!
We finally got on the road at about 8AM and drove for three hours into the mountains. It was a really interesting ride with lots to see, so that was fine. I saw several giant fields full of sunflowers in bloom, which that was pretty amazing. Before getting to the mountains, we traveled through some really remote desert areas that I was amazed anyone even lives there.
Once we got off the paved road and headed up the mountain, the road got really bumpy and we drove through several dry-creek beds. Then, as we came around one corner, we saw a bunch of other buses and massive amounts of people picnicking. While we were looking forward to a quiet day, the people weren't as much of a problem as the trash! A beautiful mountainside looked like a garbage truck had exploded. I can’t' even explain how much trash there was on the ground. So, after the picnic meal that was packed by the leaders (of which I ate VERY little because it was tons of meat and beer, which although I am not a vegetarian, I don’t really like a lot of meat), we decided that rather than going to "climb the mountain" we would do clean up.
We scrounged up a few plastic bags and went to work picking up the trash! The leaders watched us and giggled a bit, but didn't ever pitch in. After about an hour, it was starting to drizzle rain, so we loaded the trash bags onto the bus (You should have seen the look on the leaders' faces!) and told them we were ready to go home.
Just as we all got on the bus, it started to hail like crazy and then the rain came down. The steep dirt road that we had driven up became a river...we are talking flashflood type rain...At this point we had no choice but to wait out the rain for awhile. Two hours (!!) later the driver decided he would make a go of it. We were doing alright until we got back to those dry creek beds...which were no longer dry!! When we got to the big one, there was one giant bus stuck in the mud, which in true Chinese fashion, we pulled over, turned off our bus and sat and watched for half an hour.
Then, our driver decides he is going to ford the raging river. The foreigners, once we realized the plan, made a hasty exit from the bus!! We stood, huddled and freezing, on the bank and watched as our driver gunned it and went through. From our vantage, it seriously looked like he closed his eyes and slammed on the gas as hard as he could! I thought the whole bus was going over! Once it was across, rather than driving on the road, he headed into the bushes, where the bus promptly got stuck!! We all crossed the river, carefully and then watched as he dug himself in deeper and deeper. After a few minutes, the leader tells us to come push! Now, I don't mind pushing if everyone does, but the leaders stood and watched as the PCVs pushed our bus out of the muck! It was ridiculous!
So, we are finally back on the road, but the leaders decide to stop the bus and sit and watch the other buses attempt to cross the river. After about 20 minutes, Kristen and I decide to go find a bush to take care of business. Once we are up the hillside and doing our thing, our bus driver decides it is time to go and starts to drive. She and I had to run down the hill, buttoning up and we went! Grrrr!!
But, by this point, we were just happy to be back on the road. After about another half an hour of driving, the bus pulls over at a street vendor in the middle of nowhere that is selling honey! It takes them half an hour to decide to buy NO honey!!!
Finally we hit paved roads again and has a quiet 3-hour ride home. Well, quiet until we got to the city, where the rains had flooded parts of town and the bus couldn't get through. This meant that we all piled off the bus, said goodbye to the leaders (they wanted us to continue to sit on the bus, like the flood waters would recede in ten minutes or something!) and head up the road. In true trooper fashion, we rolled up our pants and headed into the knee-deep, murky water!! We walked several blocks through the nasty sewer water until we got to the hotel. Needless to say, many pairs of socks were thrown away last night! My shoes spent the night soaking in the sink, but I think they may never be the same again!!! I only have one pair of good tennis shoes here and now they have a bit of a brown hue to them, but they will have to last for another year. I don’t even want to know what our medical officer would have said if she had seen the sludge we were walking through!
What a day off! Was it relaxing? Heck no!! Was it enjoyable? Umm…parts of it. Was it memorable? YOU BET!!!
(I will try to get some pictures of the day posted once I am back at site. Right now I am at Angie's apartment in Lanzhou, hanging out for two more days until we fly to Beijing to pick up Mom and Dad!!)
(Day off? I know you are probably asking yourself what the heck I am talking about, so let me back up just a little and fill you in on what has been going on in China. You see, during the summer when all of our students are home on vacation for six weeks, Peace Corps doesn’t want us just sitting around or killing time in Thailand, so we are required to do a Summer Project. These are provincial, so ours was in Gansu. Our training was two weeks and three weekends long, and overall it was great. We spent the time with teachers from the local schools and talked about methods, how to use the textbook creatively, culture, etc. I may have to write a whole different post on it, but for now, I want to share the craziness that was last Sunday- our “day off.”)
The local education department leaders decided to take us out for a day to see the mountains, so we thought it sounded like an okay idea. (I won't say a great idea because any trip with the leaders is only so-so at best! Usually it ends up being more like work than a relaxing outing, but we decided to go for it anyway. It was a chance to see something new and they were paying, so we went!) They told us to have breakfast and be ready to go at 7:00AM. Well, they showed up thirty minutes late and asked if we had eaten yet. We said yes and they then went and ordered breakfast in the hotel restaurant!! We were all sitting on the curb waiting, literally!
We finally got on the road at about 8AM and drove for three hours into the mountains. It was a really interesting ride with lots to see, so that was fine. I saw several giant fields full of sunflowers in bloom, which that was pretty amazing. Before getting to the mountains, we traveled through some really remote desert areas that I was amazed anyone even lives there.
Once we got off the paved road and headed up the mountain, the road got really bumpy and we drove through several dry-creek beds. Then, as we came around one corner, we saw a bunch of other buses and massive amounts of people picnicking. While we were looking forward to a quiet day, the people weren't as much of a problem as the trash! A beautiful mountainside looked like a garbage truck had exploded. I can’t' even explain how much trash there was on the ground. So, after the picnic meal that was packed by the leaders (of which I ate VERY little because it was tons of meat and beer, which although I am not a vegetarian, I don’t really like a lot of meat), we decided that rather than going to "climb the mountain" we would do clean up.
We scrounged up a few plastic bags and went to work picking up the trash! The leaders watched us and giggled a bit, but didn't ever pitch in. After about an hour, it was starting to drizzle rain, so we loaded the trash bags onto the bus (You should have seen the look on the leaders' faces!) and told them we were ready to go home.
Just as we all got on the bus, it started to hail like crazy and then the rain came down. The steep dirt road that we had driven up became a river...we are talking flashflood type rain...At this point we had no choice but to wait out the rain for awhile. Two hours (!!) later the driver decided he would make a go of it. We were doing alright until we got back to those dry creek beds...which were no longer dry!! When we got to the big one, there was one giant bus stuck in the mud, which in true Chinese fashion, we pulled over, turned off our bus and sat and watched for half an hour.
Then, our driver decides he is going to ford the raging river. The foreigners, once we realized the plan, made a hasty exit from the bus!! We stood, huddled and freezing, on the bank and watched as our driver gunned it and went through. From our vantage, it seriously looked like he closed his eyes and slammed on the gas as hard as he could! I thought the whole bus was going over! Once it was across, rather than driving on the road, he headed into the bushes, where the bus promptly got stuck!! We all crossed the river, carefully and then watched as he dug himself in deeper and deeper. After a few minutes, the leader tells us to come push! Now, I don't mind pushing if everyone does, but the leaders stood and watched as the PCVs pushed our bus out of the muck! It was ridiculous!
So, we are finally back on the road, but the leaders decide to stop the bus and sit and watch the other buses attempt to cross the river. After about 20 minutes, Kristen and I decide to go find a bush to take care of business. Once we are up the hillside and doing our thing, our bus driver decides it is time to go and starts to drive. She and I had to run down the hill, buttoning up and we went! Grrrr!!
But, by this point, we were just happy to be back on the road. After about another half an hour of driving, the bus pulls over at a street vendor in the middle of nowhere that is selling honey! It takes them half an hour to decide to buy NO honey!!!
Finally we hit paved roads again and has a quiet 3-hour ride home. Well, quiet until we got to the city, where the rains had flooded parts of town and the bus couldn't get through. This meant that we all piled off the bus, said goodbye to the leaders (they wanted us to continue to sit on the bus, like the flood waters would recede in ten minutes or something!) and head up the road. In true trooper fashion, we rolled up our pants and headed into the knee-deep, murky water!! We walked several blocks through the nasty sewer water until we got to the hotel. Needless to say, many pairs of socks were thrown away last night! My shoes spent the night soaking in the sink, but I think they may never be the same again!!! I only have one pair of good tennis shoes here and now they have a bit of a brown hue to them, but they will have to last for another year. I don’t even want to know what our medical officer would have said if she had seen the sludge we were walking through!
What a day off! Was it relaxing? Heck no!! Was it enjoyable? Umm…parts of it. Was it memorable? YOU BET!!!
(I will try to get some pictures of the day posted once I am back at site. Right now I am at Angie's apartment in Lanzhou, hanging out for two more days until we fly to Beijing to pick up Mom and Dad!!)
Blog of a Peace Corps China volunteer serving as a TEFL teacher in Cheng Xian, Gansu, China.
About Me
-
- Name: Michelle Ross
- Location: Chengxian, Gansu, China
In America, I teach 8th grade English and reading and really enjoy spending time with middle school students. Some people think I am crazy for it, but Marsing has a great group of kids and I love being a part of their lives as they grow up! Right now I live in China and teach English and teaching methods to students who want to be teachers. I am here through Peace Corps, which I think is a fabulous experience and something that more people should look into doing! The application process can be a bit of a pain, but it is well worth the time and effort. Check out Peace Corps and give something back to the world that has given you so much!! Teaching runs in the family, as just about everyone is involved in education in one way or another. My dad is retired, but he was a teacher, counselor and principal for 30+ years, my mom is an elementary counselor, my sister and husband are both teachers and my brother will finish his teaching degree this next spring! "Those who can, do; those who can do magic, teach!"
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