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.

And the Band Played On...

The band had broken out in the strains of "Nearer, My God, to Thee." Moody saw all this in a vision that filled his brain, while his ears drank in the tragic strain of the beautiful hymn that the band played as their own dirge, even to the moment when the waters sucked them down.

Sinking of the Titanic by Logan Marshall

This was a looong week! We began teaching “model school” with real-live Chinese students in real-live sweltering classrooms with 6 fans pushing the heat (and all of my teaching materials) around the room. The students were great though. They think that I am very enthusiastic and seem to enjoy the change from the traditional Chinese teaching style.

On Thursday a student died from heat exhaustion at another university here in Chengdu. They say that this is the hottest it has been in 30 years in the city, so the powers that be decided that students could go home for the rest of the summer if they wanted to. We heard rumors about it on Friday. Today our classes were wiped out. Many teachers have few or no students remaining. Naturally, we wanted to know what to do. We were told to keep on going as best as we could. Much like the band on the Titanic, we keep going amidst the chaos. Whenever we encounter something here that we don’t understand we have jokingly taken to saying “Hey, that’s China!” One of the lessons we are all learning early is to roll with the punches and work through the problems. Getting upset doesn’t help.

I was stuck in the middle of the biggest rainstorm that I have ever seen. Torrents of rain caused a flowing river down the middle of the road and lightning and thunder were simultaneous. It was so loud that every time thunder sounded all of the alarms on the little cars around here produced a symphony of beeps and squawks. Angie (another volunteer) and I waited for awhile and made a dash for it. I sprinted 200 yards and looked like I had been dunked underwater. The good side was that I was finally cooled off for once and the rest of the day was pretty cool too.

On Saturday it was field trip day. We hopped on the bus and went to the train station and pretended to buy a ticket out of the city. Then we went to the bus station and did the same thing. It was an interesting experience. After that we went to barter at a market. My watch broke so I went to buy another one. I have discovered that everyone likes to watch the laowai try to deal with people, so we ended up being traveling entertainment. At one store a man popped his head in, saw what was going on and said “You are very handsome,” to me and then walked out. Strange…..but...

Hey, that’s China.

P.S. Some of you asked about the song "Mouse Loves Rice." Here is the song and a copy of the lyrics (in pinyin, and in English.) Now you too can sing Chinese love songs to complete strangers!

Mouse Loves Rice on Yak Night

"wo ai ni, ai zhe ni (I love you, I am loving you)
jiu xiang lao shu ai da mi" (As the mouse loves the rice)

So the inevitable happened. I went to KTV, which you probably know as karaoke, with a few of my classmates. Before I tell you about my experience let me just preface it by saying that there is a reason I chose to be a social studies teacher. Christina A. has more musical talent in her left tonsil than I have in my whole body.

That being said, I can tell you that I belted out a song that I have just learned in Chinese (Mouse Loves Rice) and several American favories. I was a Rhinestone Cowboy with Glen Campbell, I Want[ed] it That Way with the Backstreet Boys, and I Just Called to Say I Love You with Stevie Wonder and it all sounded like a duck gargling with gravel.

After several hours of KTV we went to a Tibetan food restaurant where I soothed my aching vocal cords with yak butter tea. Have you ever made macaroni and cheese and added too much milk? The liquid at the bottom of the pan tastes a bit like the tea. I wasn't a fan, but others liked it. I also had baked yak meat bread (It must've been yak night.) and fried yogurt. It was all pretty good.

After that we went to a restored older part of Chengdu that houses the tomb of an old kingdom emperor. I was almost hit by a bus on the way over. We were in the middle of the street and I looked behind me. Just then a man said "Run like a rabbit!" to me in Chinese and I looked up to see a bus slamming on the brakes in front of me. I darted out of the way just in time, it was a little too close. I didn't go see the tomb because it was late but the street was beautiful with much of the artistic talents here in China at one location. There was silk screen art, puppet shows, and calligraphy to name but a few.

After that we all grabbed a cab home because we were pretty exhausted.

By the way, if anyone is interested in talking with either Michelle or I for free we have Skype now. If you have a computer with sound and a microphone it will work. Also, we love to get email from back home so feel free to drop one to either Michelle or myself anytime!

Photos:

First, is the large statue of Confucius that is in the middle of Sichuan Normal University.

Second is also a statue. I liked the way it looked so I thought I'd share.

Third, we have the SNU PC Posse in full effect. We were waiting for an announcement from the administration. It was hot out there, as it always is. There are a couple of training volunteers in there too.

Fourth is Derek getting in touch with his emotional side at KTV. You can really see the depth of his feeling. He is reading the Chinese lyrics.

Finally, the last one is a photo of the restored old part of the city you can see all of the lanterns hanging from the walls. Just like everywhere else in China, there were tons of people. I should have taken a picture of the guy eating his corn on the cob and then spitting it to the koi in the pond. That would have been nice too.

Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full?

That is the saying I saw on the t-shirt of a passing Chinese man as I walked to the park. As I get working on one of the most difficult tasks that I have ever undertaken, the t-shirt question pops into my head from time to time.

We have moved in with our host family. There is our host mother, father and their eight-year-old son. They are very kind and patient with us, considering the language barrier problem. She speaks some English and we have halting conversations. I try to give when I can muster the Chinese phrases. She tries her English and we get by fairly well. Sometimes we both scurry off and have a dictionary show-down, but after just a week those are getting fewer.

Everyday we have at least two hours of language, usually more. Then we have "technical training" which consists of teaching classes for the many who haven't taught before and EFL (English as a foreign language) training. We are in school from 8-5 every day. It is always hot and humid here. I am covered in sweat from sunup to sundown. When we get home I snuggle with the air conditioner as much as I can, but it is a losing battle.

When we go out, small children call out "Hello!" and "How are you!" to us frequently. When we respond they giggle and hide their faces. It is cute. We have only been called laowai and waigouren a few times. We are in a place that has a few more foreigners so it isn't too bad. When we get placed at our schools it will intensify, I am sure.

With the constant staring, strange new food, difficulties of trying to bend my mind around a new language and the stifiling heat, there are elements here that are trying. Despite all of this I look at what I am giving and getting for the challenges and
am grateful for the opportunity. My glass is definitely half-full.
Photos: the first photo are fried chicken feet you can get in the meat section of your local Chinese grocery. You can buy them raw and cook them the way that you love them too.

Second is a famous Chinese poet. My host mother told me his name but I forget it. The flowers at the base of the statue are poinsettias. This was taken at the "walking street" market area of Chengdu.

Third is me in my pink house slippers. When inside, one always wears house slippers. They bought the biggest ones they could find and they just happened to be bright pink and they barely fit. Michelle's are blue, lucky girl.

Li Zixiong

That's me.

Part of this whole experience is that we are each given Chinese names to help get by because they are easier for people to pronounce. Li is a family name (one of the most popular, it translates to Lee in the U.S.) and Zixiong means "hero." It is a good name and a lot to live up to as well. I'm not quite sure how they choose the names. Michelle's name is Li Yu Tong, Lee again and then the last two words mean rain and tree.

So today was a big one for us. The way training works is that all 61 of us are together for orientation week. Then, they split us up into groups and we are assigned a university within Chengdu for our studies. Whichever university you go to narrows down the province where you will serve. Today was our university assignment day. We will move in with a host family and stay with them for the next nine weeks beginning tomorrow. Imagine moving in with a family where you don't really speak their language and they don't speak much of yours. It will be interesting, but I have heard nothing but good things about the experience. Our family has a mother, father and eight-year-old son.

At any rate, we were assigned to the main campus of Sichuan Normal University. I don't know if there is a Sichuan Abnormal University, but I know a few people back home who could get a full ride scholarship there! This means that we will either serve in the Sichuan or Gansu provinces.

On another note, we are getting by quite nicely in Chengdu. We go out and eat by ourselves and went on a long walk to the city center, where we heard there was a park. It was all torn up and under construction so we had to turn around and walk right back. We grabbed a cab and made it back home in time for a 4th of July barbecue. The volunteers who will be going home in August set it up and we had as many skewers of meats and vegetables as we could eat. They just kept pouring the food on. It was amazing.

We are taking language classes during the day as well. This will continue throughout the next 9 weeks.

Oh yeah. If you have rabies, you can chew on my arm as much as you want. I have been innoculated. We were issued the first three of the 16 shots we will be receiving. Rabies, Japanese Encephalitis, and Hepatitis A & B are first.

Here are the pics that I have uploaded in order:

First is a photo of B.J. and Chandra. They are another married couple serving with us. We are eating at a Muslim food place.

Second is a photo of me enjoying a midday snack of chilled yogurt. Quite delicious!

Third is a mural in front of an elementary school. It stood out on the street because of the 3-d quality and the size.

Fourth is a bicyclist with one of the sun visors that many of the people wear here. This is very common on days with even a little sun peeking through. They remind me of a welder's mask.

Fifth is some fellow volunteers getting ready to cross a street. It shows well what we are up against. You can see other people waiting to get across the street too.

Sixth, they sell fun in China! That is Rob's head. He's a volunteer. He has a body too.

Seventh and last is the brush salesman. The only things on his bike were brushes and mops. Yes, that is a car on the sidewalk beside him too.

Finally, I filmed a short clip while we were getting lunch today. It took FOREVER to upload so you won't see many of these. There also won't be many pictures for awhile while we are with our host family. I'll still post and check the site though.

Take care!

Ni Hao!

We are in Chengdu after 27 hours of traveling and staying awake. We followed the sun so it was almost always daytime too. We were wiped out!

Here is a picture from our window.

There are a couple of unique things about Chengdu. First, the city (11 million people) sits at the base of the Himalayas. This means that there is a lot of cloud cover and not a lot of wind. This makes the place a big sauna in the summer. Go to your bathroom, turn the shower on to the hottest setting. Sit in the bathroom for awhile and voila! Chengdu! Men here cope by pulling their shirts up and exposing their bellies.

Next, children can go clothing-optional. At least that is what I was able to tell from the boy with no pants in a store or the other boy "watering" the tree on the sidewalk.

They are feeding us very well. Both lunch and dinner were enormous. There were about 15 dishes of food for everyone to eat. I even knew what a few of them were! There is nothing like getting a fish dish and seeing the fish head look back up at you. Shell is being a good sport about the food. There are a lot of sauces and things are cooked in oil frequently and she likes neither. It is, overall, still healthier than a Big Mac, but it takes some getting used to. We are working on the etiquette part of dining. With this and the language, it is very much like being a child again because one must rely on others to get by. Luckily, everyone is very kind and understanding.

Finally, there are not pedestrian rights here. Crossing the street is like playing Frogger. You have to be crafty and nimble.

Life is hectic, but good. We are in training for most of the days. Today we went through the first of several health lectures, received our medical kits and got photos for our "foreign expert" cards that we will receive soon.

I will post again soon with more pictures. Right now my bed is calling. Jet lag is bad news...