Dispersed

We are home.

We have been sworn in as official Peace Corps volunteers. There was an elaborate ceremony with dignitaries such as John Darrah, the PC China Director and Asst. Sec. of State Christopher Hill was in attendance (It isn't every day that you can meet a person who has personally spoken to Slobodan Milosevic and Kim Jong Il.) It was a nice ceremony. Right after it was over many of our friends had to leave. It was tough to see them go after such a long time together, but we knew it was coming.

We finally made it to Cheng Xian. It was a rough journey (see Michelle's blog for that whole story) but we made it.

Now everything slows down a bit.

We got here on Saturday, were escorted around by Mr. Li (English Dept. Dean,) and Mr. Pu (Waiban Director) all day Sunday and we taught on Monday. Mr. Pu invited us to a performance with singing and dancing at the auditorium here. We were given seats in the front and center and we were applauded when we arrived. Mr. Pu also asked us to sing a song for everybody. I declined because I don't believe in abusing my students.

So I teach six sections of Oral English to colllege sophomores here. The same class all week. I only have to prepare one lesson for the week. Coming from Liberty, where I was juggling five different lessons a day, my workload has dropped precipitously. So I am trying to decide what I will do for a hobby. Any suggestions? There are many options. I am leaning toward learning calligraphy I think. It is artistic and it will help me learn Hanzi (Chinese characters) better. Despite my basic knowledge of the language, I am still functionally illiterate here. It is hard to know where you are going if you can't read. I can learn Tai Chi or an instrument or a host of other choices. I am pretty sure we are starting an English language film club here. We have access to a 3000 seat auditorium and the students get bored here at nights so it should work out. We bought somewhere in the vicinity of 30 DVDs in Chengdu that we can use for the club.

It is getting cold here in the mornings and evenings and the heat doesn't get turned on for 2 months yet so we need to get some cold-weather gear soon. We'll be buying space-heaters and electric blankets soon. I hear that winters here can get a bit chilly, particularly before the powers-that-be turn on the heat. We are lucky though. All of the other provinces don't have the luxury of heat at all during the winter so we are grateful.

For those of you who are interested, I have access to hundreds of Chinese students who would like to have an American pen pal. If you'd like to try it out drop me a line and I'll arrange it.

Also, some of you have asked for our address, now that we have stopped moving around so much. Here you go:

Thad Ross
Longnan Teacher's College
Construction Road, Hedong Area
Cheng Xian, Gansu
China 732500

Please don't write to the old address. We'll still get it there, but it will take much longer to get mail.

Pic 1: My bad self, John Darrah PC Country Director, and Michelle.

Pic 2: On the train bunks: Front to back, left: Danielle, half of Emily, Ben, Kristen. Right: half of Thomas, Michelle, Pierce, and Niffy. We were all chatting about the little problem Michelle and I experienced getting on the train and it looked like a good photo opportunity.

Until next time: keep your powder dry!