Du Fu, Where Are You?

Cab Driver: Where are you going again? I forgot...
Thad: I am an American!
CD: But where are you going?
T: I can speak English! Can you?
CD: No, where are you going?
T: I will be teaching in Gansu!

Okay, so the Mandarin isn't perfect yet. That is okay because I am getting better. Before, I never would have been able to figure this out, but now after frustrating the poor man for awhile the language slipped into gear and we were in business. We were going a little goodbye party for a volunteer and his boyfriend. It was at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Chengdu. It was the most delicious enchilada I have ever had. I miss cheese...

The week was absolutely hectic from beginning to end. Aside from four hours of language, three hours of model school and debriefings, all of the volunteers have the adventuring spirit and want to experience the culture. Tuesday we went to the Sichuan Opera. This ain't yo' mama's opera. It was amazing. The opera was at a tea house and cost us about 48 yuan ($6.) For your money you get to see acrobatic tea pouring (on stage, not in our cups), a magician, an erhu player, a comedy/acrobatic skit, dancing, a shadow puppet show of "fancy stories" and finally the mask show in which the performers dance and change masks in front of the audience at the speed of light. Pretty cool if you ask me!

Wednesday, our teacher announced that we were going on a field trip. He took us to Huanhua Xi (Flower Washing) Park. The park is placed in the area where the poet Du Fu (AD 712-770) lived for several years and wrote many poems. The park is now dedicated to Chinese poets and there are several statues and works by the great poets. My favorite poet is Li Bai, his poem, "A Tranquil Night" is very appropriate for most Peace Corps volunteers:

Abed, I see a silver light,
I wonder if it's frost aground.
Looking up, I find the moon bright;
Bowing, in homesickness I'm drowned.

Friday is the night to unwind for most volunteers so I went and played poker with some of the crew. I won 20 yuan (about $2.50)! It isn't much but I can eat lunch for four days on it. I didn't stay too late because the weekend was looming and we had plans.

On Saturday, we awoke at 6 am and we were all out the door by 7:00. We were going on a trip with our host family to "the mountains." The mountains were outside of a city called Peng Zhou in Sichuan. We stayed at a farmer's house that was on the side of a hill and ate at his home. Michelle took a car with the host mom and her son and the dad and I went by bus. When we all arrived, we were whisked to a rainforest-like area that was very lush and green. There were a few waterfalls and a cement walkway embedded into the side of the hill with many rickety suspension bridges that had seen better days. The scenery was beautiful though and, despite the zillion stairs we climbed to get up the mountain, it was worth it.

We came to the farmhouse and the family tried to teach me to play mahjongg. There is nothing like watching a laowai try to play mahjongg to draw a crowd of people. Everytime I said or did anything they would laugh at me. Oh well, it was fun.

The next morning we awoke and went to the market area of the town. There were many people trying to sell everything from live chipmunks to special rubbing liniment (with free demonstrations. I saw more of one 60-year-old woman than I ever wanted.) We had lunch and then made it home after a 3 or 4 hour bus ride.

Most of the volunteers here go home exhausted every night, but it isn't a bad thing. It is that tired-but-happy feeling that you get when you know that you have filled your day. In the end, perhaps keeping busy is how many volunteers cope without seeing the faces of you at home, whom we miss so much. It may not be a perfect solution, for we still think of you a million times a day, but it helps.

Take care everybody.

Pictures:

First is the opera. This is one of the dance numbers at the beginning of the show. Those are her sleeves that are thrown out and pulled back while she dances.

Second is our dinner at the farmers house. The creature is a rabbit. And yes, he was looking at us. He also still had his teeth. He looked like he had been spit roasted and then Shake and Baked.

Third, we have the pubu, or waterfall. This wasn't the biggest but it was pretty nice.

After that is the container of snake wine. Snake wine is a jar full of snakes that are left to ferment in rice wine. It is supposed to be good for your bones and tendons.

The fifth picture is me puzzling out mahjongg and some locals watching me play. I feel like a rock star!

Sixth is one of the many suspension bridges with our host dad and brother on it. You can see the suspended hillside path going around the bend in the background. It went miles and miles.

Last is our host family. I thought you'd like to see the folks that are looking out for us. They make sure that we are surviving and keep us *very* well fed.