"The Straw that Bit the Shoulder"

The Peace Corps experience is not an individual one. In order to survive this experience or others like it, volunteers develop networks with one another that span hundreds of miles and dozens of cities. Through programs such as Skype, Gmail Chat, regular ol' email, and occasional visits, we provide support to one another. Talking to family and friends back home is wonderful, but, when push comes to shove, the people who will best understand how it feels to be curled up around a toilet at 4 am wishing you hadn't eaten the bad dumplings or why you cannot hear "Helllooooooo!" one more time that day without losing your mind are the people going through the same thing. It is basic social psychology: you become close to those with whom you share the same experiences.

With that said, from time to time, I am going to tell you about a few of my fellow volunteers here in "the Gansu" as one person refers to our province. There are 16 of us here together (from this year's volunteer class) in this far-flung province and everyone has a unique life story, goals, quirks and reasons for volunteering. You have met Pierce already, the next person up is none other than:

Simon

I first spoke to Simon in San Francisco while we were waiting for the bus to take us to the airport. He was very reserved and almost shy. He didn't have much to say. Fast forward to today and Simon is much more outspoken and is known by his famous Simon catchphrase, "Come on!" It is used when someone is teasing him, they don't believe him, or won't agree with him about a particular topic. (Simon was speaking to Pierce and I during training one day and he tried to say, "The straw that broke the camel's back." Because he forgot the saying, it came out "The straw that bit the shoulder." Whenever we tease him about it we can usually count on a "Come on!" from Simon.)

Simon hails from West Virginia/Pittsburgh and is, in my opinion, one of the more quirky people that I have met here. Half of his family is German and he is fluent in the language. He studied for a while in Germany and he has just recently gotten his undergraduate degree (in the U.S.) He loves college football (he even played on his college team) and thinks that the Ohio-Michigan college football game is better than Christmas.

Simon has plans to accomplish the things in life that make him happy. Sound strange and vague? That's Simon! He has a relatively straightforward view of life: He wants to have a full life while he is still young and that includes things that I didn't expect.

For example, one of the goals he has while he is in China is to learn the violin. The Peace Corps provides language/culture funds for volunteers who want to learn while they are in China. You can use the funds to take lessons covering virtually anything as long as it is either taught in Mandarin or it is relevant to the culture. Most volunteers lean more toward language, writing, tai chi, martial arts or other art forms. Simon chose a different path and is giddy about his new love for the violin.

Simon sees the world in these terms: Provide for your basic necessities first, after that try to accomplish the things you want with as little resistance as possible. Setting goals isn't as important as enjoying life is for him. While this runs contrary to how many people think a person should conduct their lives, for Simon, it works.

Here is a portion of a conversation that he and I had one night regarding this particular topic:

(Incidentally, I think it is pretty funny how everything he says starts with "simon...says." It makes me want to play the game!)

[11/17/2006 10:39:31 AM] simon ... says: a person needs food, clothing and shelter to survive
[11/17/2006 10:40:21 AM] simon ... says: anything you do that is not directly related to these things is, in terms of simply living a life, wasting time
[11/17/2006 10:40:41 AM] simon ... says: you dont' need to do these things
[11/17/2006 10:41:39 AM] Thad ... says: So you want to waste your time really well?
[11/17/2006 10:41:50 AM] simon ... says: basically
[11/17/2006 10:42:00 AM] simon ... says: i want to enjoy it
[11/17/2006 10:42:13 AM] simon ... says: i want to feel like i'm not really wasting it
[11/17/2006 10:42:23 AM] Thad ... says: How do you decide what things are worthy and what aren't? Violin = good, Computer = bad? Seems arbitrary.
[11/17/2006 10:42:36 AM] simon ... says: it's how it makes you feel
[11/17/2006 10:42:47 AM] simon ... says: it's a personal decision
[11/17/2006 10:42:59 AM] simon ... says: for me, working out wouldn't be wasting time
[11/17/2006 10:43:09 AM] simon ... says: but for someone else it would be
[11/17/2006 10:43:24 AM] Thad ... says: So you want spend the maximum amount of time in your life doing things that you like and not doing things you don't like before you die.
[11/17/2006 10:43:41 AM] simon ... says: yes
[11/17/2006 10:43:50 AM] simon ... says: it's my life, i should do what i want with it
[11/17/2006 10:43:53 AM] simon ... says: i should enjoy it
[11/17/2006 10:44:10 AM] simon ... says: and beyond doing the necessary things to survive, everything else should be enjoyable
[11/17/2006 10:43:59 AM] Thad ... says: What about doing things that you don't like in order to get to the things you do like?
[11/17/2006 10:44:05 AM] Thad ... says: Are those okay?
[11/17/2006 10:44:29 AM] simon ... says: well, nothing in life is simple
[11/17/2006 10:44:36 AM] simon ... says: peace corps is a good example of that

When he is finished he will spend several months bicycle-touring the U.S. Starting in the east, he'll make a large circle seeing as much as he can. He has routes, costs, and daily distances calculated. Other volunteers have plans for after Peace Corps, but I think Simon's is, by far, the most unique.

One of the benefits of my time here that I didn't expect is the friendships that I have built with my fellow volunteers. Now, I know that some of them will fade as time goes by and we leave this place, but even if I come away with just one new friend that stands the test of time, isn't it worth it?

Pics

Photo 1: Simon in repose. He looks a little tooooo relaxed.

Photo 2: Taken during our Thanksgiving meal. He was not happy about having the boa wrapped around his neck and was doubly unhappy about being photographed. I asked him why he let it happen and he said he was too busy eating his meal. He was proud that he finished 5 helpings of food.

Photo 3: This was taken at our swearing in ceremony. It is Simon and Aaron, another volunteer in Chengdu. They had jackets made for the event.

Photo 4: During training, as a means of exposing us to culture, we had a watercolor lesson. Simon was a good sport for awhile, but then he got frustrated after realizing that his picture of peaches was some other fruit instead. He decided he didn't wan't to paint the sky behind it after that and came up with this, an easier solution.

Ruby Slippers

In the movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy was able to go home by clicking her heels together three times and repeating the phrase, "There's no place like home." On days like today it is hard not to wish that I was wearing the ruby slippers (The world would run out of rubies if they made them in my size.) so that I might be whisked home to be with my family and enjoy this holiday with them. There have been new additions to the family and everyone seems to be pretty happy with life there. On the other hand, back here in reality, I am thousands of miles away from that. While I don't necessarily want to leave this place, it is a bit harder some days than it is on others and the holidays are usually the hardest days to be here.

It doesn't help that, in China, nobody eats turkey, cranberries, or stuffing, and while I have heard rumors of mashed potatoes, I haven't seen them yet. Oh well, kung-pow chicken is a good turkey substitute. We'll be going up to Lanzhou this weekend to spend the holiday weekend with our friends too. There will be football and a large meal together, so all is not lost.

When you sit down to Thanksgiving dinner today, eat a little extra turkey for me! Take care!

Itchy Feet

My feet were itchy. It was time to get out of town for a while, have an adventure, see what China has to offer. What better place to go than Xi'an?

If you look at a map of the provinces in China, you'll see that our province, Gansu, is long and skinny with a small peninsula that juts out to the east. Our friends, John and Erin, live right in the middle of the peninsula in a city called Xifeng. They live close to the very popular city of Xi'an in Shaanxi province. We decided to meet there to see what all the brouhaha was about and found some pretty impressive and fun things to do while we were there.

We started out by taking the standard 2 1/2 hour bus ride to civilization (better known as the booming metropolis of Tianshui) from there we hopped on the train and it was only 5 hours to Xi'an. We met up with another friend, Niffy, who joined us on our trip.

Xi'an is one of the ten largest cities in China and it was the largest city in the world, way back in 582 A.D. It was the capital of the country for 700 years, off and on. The city is over 3,100 years old. By comparison, St. Augustine, FL (the oldest continually occupied city in America) is 441 years old. Xi'an is over 2,600 years older than any city in America. This means, of course, that the possibility of seeing some amazingly old and fascinating historic relics is very high.

Translation: I was giddy.

We stayed in a hostel in the middle of town, right next to the Bell Tower. The Bell Tower and Drum Tower were used by government officials to sound warnings, change guard, provide information and a host of other things. They are large structures with a series of bells and drums used to relay the information across the city. When we arrived in town we found the hostel, had some dinner and then went to bed as it was late. The next day we went out to see the world-famous Terracotta Army.

The story is a good one and it has two parts. It goes something like this:

First, way back in 246 BC, the first Emperor of the Qin Dynasty (we'll call him Qin, okay?) became one of the "founding fathers" of modern China by unifying the country's many fighting warlords. If you've ever seen the movie "Hero"(you should, its quite amazing,) Qin is the king in the story. Given the volatility of the time, he was very paranoid and was constantly under the watch of bodyguards. Qin felt that he must have guards in the afterlife as well, so he ordered 700,000 workers to build his mausoleum and an army of warriors to protect him after his death. Once completed, he was to be buried with the army. He ended up dying of mercury poisoning after his physicians gave it to him to help him become immortal (whoops!) and, according to plan, he was buried with the army. Qin's mausoleum was spoken of in Chinese history texts as being gilded with gold and copper and having a replica of the earth and the universe, with a sky inlaid with pearls representing the stars, and rivers of running mercury to symbolize the bodies of water. Nobody really believed such stories about it until the army was discovered. Once the army was discovered, a renewed search for the burial chamber began. They found it a few miles away after doing a magnetic scan of a nearby hillside and discovered an alarmingly high amount of mercury in the ground along with many copper coins. Some people think he was buried with his money. China has chosen not to open the tomb yet, partially out of respect for the founding father and partially because they want to be sure not to cause any damage to the tomb when they open it. They are taking their time. It is pretty impressive that they are taking such painstaking care to preserve the relics.

Part two takes place in 1974. two men were drilling for water in a field and they started pulling all of these pottery pieces from the ground. Sensibly, they brought their discovery to the government's attention. They had accidentally discovered one of the most amazing archaeological finds in the world! Fast forward to today and there are now 8,099 pieces unearthed and there is much more to go yet. Quite a story!

After spending the day immersed in Chinese history, we went back to town and had dinner and then wandered around the Muslim quarter for a while. This is a touristy area where merchants sell pretty much anything Chinese to the various foreigners who come by. Many of them were impressed that I spoke Chinese to them and I had some fun bargaining too.

The next day brought an end to our short trip. We tried to get a train back but couldn't find a seat and had to get on a bus. Not nearly as comfortable but, it worked and we came home. We stopped by my favorite restaurant in town when we got back to Cheng Xian and I ended up with food poisoning to boot. Oh well, at least it didn't happen before the trip!

Travelling in China takes way more energy than travelling in the States does, I have discovered. But when you are able to see some of the amazing sites in this mysterious and ancient country and be with good friends to boot, it makes it all worth it.

Photos: Okay. They are all up now...take that Blogger!

Pic 1: This is in a western food restaurant in Xi'an. When you live 2 1/2 hours from the nearest American food, you get it when you can. Erin is on the left and Michelle is on the right. This picture turned out much better than I thought it would.

Pic 2: Menu in another restaurant. We weren't exactly sure what "Crackling Puberty Dove" was, and more importantly, we didn't want to know what made it crackle. There's also "Breathtaking Fresh Sleeve-fish," and "Fried Crisp Prairie Oyster." All of your American favorites!

Pic 3: The Drum Tower in downtown Xi'an. You can see one of the drums on the left of the tower. For a few kuai, you can bang on a replica drum and have it heard for miles around. Everyone's gotta make a buck somehow I guess.

Pic 4: This is the signature wall of the Bell Tower Hostel in Xi'an. People from all over the world have signed it. One of the goals of hostels is to help bring cultures together in an inexpensive and friendly environment. We decided that it was a great place to stay and that Australians are loud. This was one of the best too. We put a Peace Corps sticker on the wall for our signature.

Pic 5: These are some of the hand-crafted puppets that are made for shadow puppet performances that are a popular art form in china. The puppets are placed behind and illuminated white screen. The puppets are translucent and the colors can be seen in the shadows.

Pic 6: Some of the stuff being sold at the Muslim quarter in Xi'an. I bought some Chairman Mao poker cards and a Mao alarm clock too. It is fun to bargain with the merchants (well some of them anyway.)

Pic 7: Close up of one of the warriors (This pic turned out great!) at the museum. You can tell the rank of the soldier by the armor they wear, the height of the statue, and the knot in the hair. Each knot symbolizes a different rank. This one was a mid-level officer if I remember correctly.

Pic 8: A small portion of the unearthed warriors. You can see where the wooden crossbeams were on the walls beside them before they rotted away. Their arms are extended out because they were each holding a real weapon of some type that has since rotted away. They had bows, crossbows, swords and halberd-type axes.

Her Everest

Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop away from you like the leaves of Autumn.

John Muir

Finally, I am updating this thing. We had an unexpected holiday last weekend because our students all had to take a major country-wide examination. This meant that we were not teaching on Thursday or Friday. Those days also happened to be exceptionally warm and we (Tomas and Rachel, the Swedish volunteers from the Amity Foundation) decided to hike up a couple of mountains around Cheng Xian. The first one (I can't remember the name of it) was a short bike ride outside of town and then a hike halfway up the mountain to a Buddhist temple there. It was an easy half-hour hike and on the way up we came across a bunch of my students going up to see the same thing. We all went together and were greeted by the people who live and keep the temple.

They were very kind and I could actually speak to them with the help of my translators. They seemed to like me quite and we had a good talk. I got out my camera to take a few photos and one of the monks told me not to photograph the altar. I told him that I wouldn't and took pictures of many other things around it. After talking to them for a while, one of the monks nudged me and whispered something to me...he motioned me outside and told me to photograph the altar. It was a bit awkward because I didn't want to make anyone mad, but this guy was being very kind, so I quickly snapped a couple of pictures and scurried away before anyone saw me. We walked back down and bought dinner for our students at a local restaurant. It was so nice that we ate outside and had a good time chatting. It was a pretty good day.

Two days later we took on a much more daunting mountain: Ji Feng Shan, (roughly translates to Chicken Mountain, apparently it looks like a chicken) the largest mountain 'round these parts.

On this trek we had one of the college faculty go with us. He is a Chinese Department teacher named Mr. Ren who has a very good grasp of English and a decent knowledge of American history. We hit it off pretty well. Imagine that! Again, Shell and I went with Tomas, Rachel, and a few English Department students as well. I wasn't so sure Michelle would like the trip. Looking at the mountain, it was rather large and it didn't seem to be something that I thought she would like. I asked her a few times this week if she was sure she wanted to tackle it. She told me, annoyed, that she was going up that mountain.

Turns out that it is about 6,000 feet from base to top and it is some rough climbing in places. Armed with water and some dried fruit we set off early in the morning. The weather was very nice and we made good ground. All along the way we walked between terraced fields and the small homes of local farmers. It was beautiful country and nice to see how rural China lives.

All along the way, we would stop for breaks. These were short and always ended with an overly-enthusiastic "Let's goooooooo!" from Mr. Ren. When we neared the top, we came across more temples, mainly Taoist. The people there were very kind and offered us tea and a place to rest while we ate our food. I happened to meet one of the temple keepers up here too. A very kind-faced, 80 year-old man who liked my camera. I took a picture of him and then showed it to him on the viewer. He was tickled to see it. We took a picture together and then Tomas, Mr. Ren, Smile (a student), and I went to the peak of the mountain. It was like looking at the land from a low-flying aircraft. I could see Cheng Xian, and several other cities for miles around.

Our trip down was much easier, but a little slippery. There is a burgeoning Green movement here in China to combat some of the pollution problems that are cropping up. On the way down, as a way of showing my support for it, I filled a bag full of trash that people left along the trail. Hopefully, the next time the students come up Ji Feng Shan, they will bring along bags of their own and do the same. Every little bit helps, right?

All throughout our journey, Michelle never complained once, even though I was pretty sure she was about dead after the whole ordeal. The fact that she was able to do this was, in a way, much more brave than an experienced climber hiking up a larger mountain; and while I know she didn't do it to impress me or prove anything, that is exactly what she managed to do on this little excursion. She's a pretty tough person.

Pics

Photo 1: The first, easier, mountain that we hiked up. The temple that we visited is about halfway up the mountain on the left side of the photo.

Photo 2: The view from the temple of the first mountain. You can see the road we traveled down to get to the base of the mountain.

Photo 3: One of my students getting her fortune(?) read at the temple. She shook a large container of those small sticks that they are holding and then pulled out three of them. There is writing on them that corresponds to a fortune in the book. I am not sure how the whole thing works exactly, but she did say that she will have good luck.

Photo 4: Dinner time with the students after we came back down. Yum! We ordered 10 different dishes and it cost 88 kuai, or 11 dollars. 11 bucks to feed 10 people! Can't beat that deal!

Photo 5: Ji Feng Shan from the bottom, the tallest peak on the right side is where we ended up.

Photo 6: A farmer plowing his field with an ox at the base of the mountain. No tractors here!

Photo 7: The peak that we are about to climb. It looks like a tower with a temple at the top. Tomas said it looks like something you would see in a movie. I think he may be right.

Photo 8: The 80 year-old man that liked my camera and me. He said he has been living there for 30 or 40 years.

Photo 9: One of the Taoists altars on Ji Feng Shan. There are many of these, each with a different figure in the building. You can see the incense that is burned during prayer.

Photo 10: The view from the very top of the mountain. You can see the farmland for miles around. Quite a view and quite a dropoff!

Duty

Greetings from China!

If you are of legal age to do so, please go out and vote! Trust me, it is a privilege that you should not take for granted. Exercise your voice.

If you are not of legal age, get someone else to vote who normally doesn't.

As an enticement to get you to vote, here is a picture of a bunch of puppies. You love puppies, right? Who doesn't love puppies? Don't make the puppies sad. Vote!

P.S. New post tomorrow night!