I finally have pictures of belly dancing! My sitemate, waiban, and I have been going twice a week and our waiban has also been kind enough to practice with us on our campus so we get a leg up.

As you can see, the shirts don't cover too much. We got those white "bra" things from a store after one of our belly dancing sessions. But I had no idea that going to a bra store would be so different from one in the US! The three of us walked in and I immediately saw a bra that I liked, so I asked if I could try it on in the dressing room. Turns out that in China, someone from the store actually accompanies you, asks you to take your clothes off, and then puts the bra on you! Once she finished groping around, she then invited everyone to come in and look! It was embarrassing and hilarious at the same time! I was pretty fortunate that we went late at night and there was only one other person in the store.

I think Chinese women are much more comfortable with their bodies around other women than most American women are. When I went to a massage place, all the women showered in the communal shower and seemed to walk around freely. And when I went to the swimming pool, nobody (except for me) was hiding in a little corner hoping no one would notice. I guess another part to that is being the only foreigner and knowing that you're going to be stared at.

Anyway, in other news, this past weekend we had a Welcome/Birthday party in Guiyang. Every year, there is a party for the new volunteers and there are a few birthdays in September that we celebrate as well. I stayed with Kim, who is a China 13 who extended for a third year and she was one of the people whose birthday we celebrated! Before the party, two groups went out for dinner. One went to bean hotpot and the other had pizza. Since the bean hotpot typically has bacon in it, I opted for the pizza, along with 8 other people.

Here is the Gentleman Adventurer in pirate garb while eating some treasured pizza! He is a ton of fun and even made an adorable picture of the two birthday girls! And he did a drawing of me which is now my facebook profile picture!

Then we headed over to the party, many of us dressed up in pirate costumes since my sitemate had requested that be the theme.

This is the same costume I wore last year for Halloween... recycling is good!

We danced and talked until 2am. I really like the new group... they are a lot of fun! Here are some pictures from the event:

On the left is Ms. K who is tons of fun. She spent two years in Africa with Peace Corps and is now in China for one year. She was on a crew team, so we want to see if we can do a dragon boat race somewhere in China! And in the middle is CT, who is hilarious. He is in a new site in Guizhou which is pretty far away from the main city, but it was great that he and his sitemate (who is also cool) were both able to come!

On the left in this picture is Andy!!! He is one of the coolest people in Guiyang and I love hanging out with him when I'm there! He owns a bar and is currently in the process of opening a restaurant which will serve American style food!!! His English is fantastic. On the right is one of his friends who is going to be one of the chefs at Andy's new restaurant.

And here is my wonderful sitemate with one of the new PCVs, SR who speaks fantastic Chinese and apparently fluent pirate. He even had an eye patch!

The next morning, Kim made some regular, apple cinnamon, and banana pancakes, which were delicious! My sitemate and I left Guiyang on Sunday afternoon since the freshman will be starting classes this week and we wanted to make sure that we were well-prepared. This morning, however, our waiban told us that we would have to go to the police station to get our residence permits renewed. You would think that this would be a quick process, but last year it took 4 hours for them to register us on their computers and then we had to give them our passports which they held on to for one week. Additionally, we had several other errands we needed to do. So I cancelled all of my plans for tutoring and for a meeting with some of my students. BUT, since National Day is coming up (October 1st) and this year marks the 60th anniversary, the policeman called up and told us that they would not have any time to meet us because they will be too busy singing to prepare for the holiday! WHAT!? And we were told today that if it rains, we will have class tomorrow, but if it is a sunny day, classes will be cancelled for singing practice! These are the things that just make me laugh. Although, I really hope that we can get our visas and residence permits renewed before National Day 'cause if we can't, that means we will not be able to travel during the holiday since the police will have to hold on to our passports. Last year, we got stuck not traveling for this reason... I hope it doesn't happen again!

Since my birthday is during the National Holiday, I've invited all the PCVs to spend it with me in Kaili. I think it'll be a lot of fun. Today I got a birthday package from my parents with an ipod mini. I'm really excited about it since my ipod shuffle broke and I cannot run without music! They even sent me an armband to go along with it. If it is a nice day tomorrow and classes are cancelled, I will be taking it out for a run in the morning!

____________________________________________________________________

This next section is dedicated to a loyal supporter of PC China and an avid PC China blog reader- SRG's mom! Here are some pictures especially for you- enjoy!

SRG says drinking is not okay... even when you're a pirate!

This is SRG and another fantastic PCV in Guizhou- JG! :)

Thanks to my sitemate, I have become addicted to the American television show Heroes. We finished seasons 1 and 2 in a matter of a couple of days, averaging about five or six episodes a day! Yikes! Anyway, I've decided that if I could have a superpowers, I think I would want to be able to communicate in any language and be able to teleport to anywhere I want. How cool would that be!? I am on the way to improving my Chinese more with my new translator! I'm pretty excited about it 'cause it has audio tracks, short movies, dictionaries, a translation tool, and a place where I can practice writing characters. It has everything! And on top of that, I have been meeting with my tutor three times a week, which I always enjoy, and I've continued to use Chinese Pod. Since I don't have many classes right now since the freshman don't start until mid-September, I've been doing a lot more work on my Chinese. Weirdly enough, studying Chinese is something that relaxes me. If I have free time, I usually fill it by watching movies or studying Chinese. I'm hoping by the end of this year, I can see a lot of improvement... we'll see.

This year, my Foreign Affairs Officer is leaving because he is pursuing his PhD in Shanghai, so we have a new Foreign Affairs Officer. She seems very sweet. This morning, she brought someone over to try to fix my air conditioning/heating unit and we started talking. I don't know how it came up, but she said that she teaches belly dancing at the gym downtown and asked me if I wanted to come along. I ended up going and it was a lot of fun! She is very good at it. The origins of belly dancing are uncertain, but it is most likely native to the Middle East. There is some debate as to whether some of the core dance moves originated in Northern India with some of the "gypsies", but it's predominately considered to be an Arabic traditional dance. A lot of Bollywood movies, however, have blended belly dancing and more traditional Indian dance moves.

Anyway, she teaches an "Indian style" of belly dancing and I actually knew a lot of the music she put on. I was unfortunately the only beginner, but it was fun nonetheless. She let me borrow one of her belly dancing outfits, which I'm surprised I didn't tear 'cause she's over a foot shorter than I am and maybe 50 or 60 pounds lighter! :) I most enjoyed shaking the coins on the hip belt... ha ha. She teaches the class every Tuesday and Friday, so I will probably be going back. Gotta practice before I go back though... don't want to be the only lost one... again!

In other news, in late-January, I will be going to India to visit my family and I'm super excited. My Mom, Dad, and possibly my brother will be there so it will be a great reunion! And recently, my cousin emailed and said that he is going to have his wedding around that time! They are still trying to find an auspicious date on which to have it... I am waiting until I find out for sure to book my flight. I've never actually been to a wedding (sadly not even my own brother's since I was in China), so I'm happy my first wedding will be my family member's! It is going to be a traditional, South Indian Brahmin ceremony. I miss my family a lot. It's going to be really great to see them in India.

My Ajja (Grandfather) and Me!

My Ajji (Grandmother) on her 80th birthday!

My Mom, Me, and my Cousin

Many months ago, I had my blog added to a website which compiles Peace Corps Volunteers' Journals from all over the world. When I updated my blog the other day, I wanted to see if it was successfully updated on this compiled list. When I checked, however, I saw the title of my entry under the country of Samoa! I was confused, so I clicked.

Turns out, someone posing as a Peace Corps volunteer uploaded their blog onto the Peace Corps Volunteer Journals website, stole a bunch of peoples' entries, put them through a horrible translation tool, and then re-posted those entries onto his/her own site, loaded with "caboodles of incoherent phrases". It's so ridiculous, it's funny. Why would someone take random blog posts of others, mutilate them, and then pretend that they belong to his/her own site? The title of the posts even remain the same! Fortunately, after I wrote him an email, the owner of the Peace Corps Journals site quickly removed that blog from the list.

I must admit, however, the re-created journal entry does add some pizazz to the original. Here are some examples (to check out the imposter's full version of my entry, click here):

Original: Summer went very quickly.

Imposter: Summer went sheer tersely.

It's wax poetic... almost like a Shakespeare Sonnet.

Original: In mid-September, we are going to have a Welcome Party for them (the Guizhou China 15s), which should be a lot of fun.

Imposter: In mid-September, we are prevalent to find a Welcome Party in behalf of them, which should be a caboodle of travesty.

Caboodle has now become my new favorite word... it kind of reminds me of Pirates.

Original: There were a lot of really nice restaurants and cafes and it was fun to walk around.

Imposter: There were a caboodle of unusually punctilious restaurants and cafes and it was travesty to slink all about.

Yes, I've resorted to slinking rather than the more traditional walking I used to do in the US.

Original: I asked my student to hug Ronald McDonald.

Imposter: I asked my evaluator to clasp Ronald McDonald.

Hmm, I guess in a way a student is an evaluator.

Original: Compared to anywhere else I've been in China, it was incredibly humid.

Imposter: Compared to anywhere else I’ve been in China, it was incredibly ineffective.

Poetic license, hm?

Original: We also took a cool boat around some of the lake.

Imposter: We also took a obnoxious yacht all about some of the lake.

How does cool boat become obnoxious yacht!?

Original: I ended up in a sleeper around a large number of kids, some of whom were kicking the underside of my bed constantly.

Imposter: I ended up in a sleeper all about a burly synopsize up of kids, some of whom were kicking the underside of my bed constantly.

I'm not a big fan of burly synopsizes.

Original: Another girl and her father kept throwing trash out of the window, which made me angry.

Imposter: Another damsel and her procreate kept throwing offscourings distant of the window, which made me on the warpath.

This is my favorite sentence! I am frequently on the warpath on Chinese trains... ha ha.

I have an important question: If a mixture of English and Chinese is called Chinglish, what should we call this language mixed with English and who knows what from computer translation tools? Translish? Englator? I welcome your suggestions.

Guess throwing a few sentences of my entries into a translator once in a while could spice things up a bit. :) Readers, expect a caboodle of alterations in the near future!

The China 13s have finished their Peace Corps service, passing the title of "veteran" to the China 14s as the China 15s prepare for the start of their first year. Now they are all officially volunteers and they are starting classes on Monday! This means I have officially survived my first year as a Peace Corps Volunteer in China! Although this experience has been a challenging one for me emotionally, I have gained some valuable life skills (e.g., patience, flexibility), picked up another language, got a lot of teaching experience, and had the opportunity to learn quite a bit about China, Chinese culture, and Chinese people. I hope that this second year is much more successful than the first and that it goes by more quickly!

Now that I am in Bijie regularly, I will be posting more often to this blog. It's unfortunate this site has been blocked in China- makes it so difficult to post. It's really hard to upload pictures since I have to go through a VPN and I can't update this blog unless I happen to be in my apartment.

Summer went very quickly. After a few days in Bijie, I left for Chengdu with some other Peace Corps Volunteers to watch site placement, which is the time when the China 15s are told where they are going to teach for the next two years. We ended up with some great people in Guizhou Province! In mid-September, we are going to have a Welcome Party for them, which should be a lot of fun. Last year, the China 13s held a Welcome Party for us and we got the opportunity to meet all of them and enjoy the first couple of weeks in our new sites.

After spending some time in Chengdu, I took a two day train ride to Wenzhou (温州)in ZheJiang (浙江) province. My student met me and was kind enough to allow me to stay at his home during my vacation. He took me around the city, which had a lot to do. There were a lot of really nice restaurants and cafes and it was fun to walk around. Unfortunately, there happened to be a typhoon while I was there so there were heavy winds and rain while I was there. But, it did make the city much cooler.

This is the center of the city after a lot of the rain from the typhoon!

I really enjoyed going swimming in the city's indoor swimming complex. My student and his friend took me there... apparently they go there quite frequently. We ended up at McDonald's afterward! :)

This is a picture I took right after swimming. I asked my student to hug Ronald McDonald... and he was a good sport! :)

After spending a couple of days in Wenzhou (温州), we went to Hangzhou (杭州) and stayed with friends of his family. Hangzhou (杭州)is a huge city, full of foreigners and western things. Compared to anywhere else I've been in China, it was incredibly humid. Even just standing outside left me dripping with sweat! My favorite part about Hangzhou (杭州) was going to West Lake (西湖), which is a famous freshwater lake. Around the lake is a huge park, where we spent a few hours walking around. We also took a cool boat around some of the lake.

This is the guy that steered us around on the lake... he was really nice!

This is a picture of me and my student on the boat. Behind us is a beautiful temple!

I ended up leaving from Hangzhou (杭州) back to Guiyang on the train and got a call from Peace Corps asking me to go back to Chengdu to do another session on turning lesson plans into a curriculum. I agreed to do the session, so I only spent two days in Bijie before leaving again for Chengdu. The train ride was horrible though- I ended up in a sleeper around a large number of kids, some of whom were kicking the underside of my bed constantly. The parents didn't seem to care too much. Another girl and her father kept throwing trash out of the window, which made me angry. The trip to Chengdu ended up to be fun though. It was good to see the China 15s after they went to their site.

In other news, I just recently bought a translator, which should help me learn more Chinese and I have already recommenced tutoring. Even though it frequently hurts to know what Chinese people are saying about me, I am still interested in learning the language so maybe I can continue using it in the future. Who knows when I'll be back in China!? I do plan to do a lot of traveling in the near future.

I am really looking forward to mid-January, when my sitemate and I will take a trip to India to tour around and also to see my family. My Mom and Dad will be traveling there from the US at the same time so we'll all be able to meet each other! I can't wait! Although I have been to India a few times, I have not yet seen the Taj Mahal, so this will be a good opportunity to do more tourist-y things before reuniting with my family.

On Monday, I came back from Summer Project and from my PST session in Chengdu. Unfortunately, the electricity has been out for most of the time I've been back. But now that it has come back on, I can finally write an update!

Three weeks ago, I went to Chengdu to do a PST session on Pronunciation. It was great to get the opportunity to meet the new volunteers who are really enthusiastic and seem like a lot of fun. Additionally, I spent time with some of the China 13s in Chengdu which was a lot of fun. We had Ladies Night and then went to KTV. Afterwards, I went straight to Summer Project in a small town called 金沙 (JinSha) with four other PCVs. Although it is located in Bijie Prefecture, the town is actually closer to 遵义 (Zunyi). We spent two weeks there teaching primary and high school teachers. The teacher that was put in charge of us was named Brian and he was fantastic. He made us feel really welcome and helped us with whatever we needed. Although it was quite busy, it went surprisingly smoothly. They even took us to the hot spring and we went swimming several times in a really nice pool. My sitemate brought her video camera so I will try to upload some of that at a later time.

The teachers that we taught had mixed levels of English. We did some Oral English lessons with them and then did some teaching methodology courses. In the afternoons, we taught some different things about American culture.

After summer project, my sitemate and I had to go to Guiyang to get some required medical stuff done for the province. Our school put us up in a fantastic hotel for those two nights and the medical stuff went pretty quickly.

It's been a long couple of weeks and I'm super glad to be back in Bijie so I can do some laundry and other stuff before I leave again. In two days, I'll be going back to Chengdu with some other volunteers and then I'll be off for ZheJiang province!!! Since blogger is still blocked in China, I most likely won't be posting very frequently, but I'll be regularly posting when I am back in Bijie!

A couple of days ago, the rains started- heavy and hail-like. They came suddenly and I graciously welcomed them as it has been getting rather hot recently. In fact, last night I went for a run in the evening and got caught in the rain. It was wonderful! I stopped running for a bit and just walked slowly, letting it soak me, blind me, and cool me down while I listened to the music blaring through my headphones and couldn't help smiling. Many students tried to cover me with umbrellas, but I politely refused. They all thought I was nuts wandering around in the rain, since in China most people keep umbrellas handy or run to shelter right away 'cause they believe being out in the rain will make them sick. But I believe my run in the rain was the best medicine I could have been given.

The rain was cleansing- not just in the literal way- but in the purification of my mind. It was the first day since I've been in China that I felt like myself. I didn't care that other people were laughing at me or staring. I've gotten back a lot of the confidence I had lost when I came to this country. I've realized that no matter how hard I try, no matter how angry or upset I get, nothing I do is going to change how people perceive me in this rural, isolated place. Maybe eventually the people in this area will broaden their ideas of the world, but it's not going to happen right away. They are not able to move past stereotypes and it cannot be forced. If they want to question my culture, my gender, my qualifications- I can't do anything about it. And I knew that before, but I guess I've stopped caring. Letting it affect me is not doing me any good.

This has been a great way to celebrate my one year anniversary in China. After my first semester, I made a resolution to be more positive about the experience. Now that the second semester is over, my resolution is to be more positive towards myself. More frequent runs in the rain may just be the ticket! Bring on the monsoons!

So I just got back from Chengdu recently and I had a good time. We were given a better understanding of how the sessions were going to work and how things were going to be organized, which was nice. I also got to each a ton of Western food, which is always a bonus! This year the trainees will be placed at four different sites in Chengdu for training- last year there were only two sites since there were only 37 of us. This year, however, there will be 77 new trainees! Those of us who are going to give sessions at PST also got to meet some of the language teachers. Some of them were our language teachers, but a lot of them are new! One is even originally from Bijie!!! She is really sweet and her English is great since she studied at Guida, a fairly prestigious university in China. I think the China 15s are going to have a good PST.

Drawing Pandas with my host sister! She was an amazing 11 year old artist!

Host Family Farewell Dinner!

Speaking of Guida, after Chengdu, I went to Guida to see a production of Hamlet, put on by some of the Chinese students there. Another Peace Corps Volunteer who works at the school worked really hard with his students and helped them put on the play. They did a really great job and their English is amazing! One of my students also came along to see it and really enjoyed it. I think it was a good source of motivation!

We also hung out and watched Rent and The Chipmunk Adventure, both of which bring back memories- Rent reminds me of college since it was all I listened to. And The Chipmunk Adventure reminds me of my brother since we used to watch it when we were young. Although watching it now, I realize how full of stereotypes it is! It's still awesome nonetheless.

Aww, I love this movie!

Anyway, I'm almost finished teaching. I have my last class this afternoon and then I will have my finals next week. After that, I'll head to Chengdu and meet the China 15s and then go straight to Summer Project for two weeks where I'll be teaching teachers. I'm looking forward to the end of the semester 'cause I need a vacation!

This is one of my classes doing a roleplay!

Oh, an aside: Google.com can be added to the list of blocked sites in China. China 15s, you may want to have email addresses with several different companies just in case one of yours happens to be blocked suddenly. Or find a good proxy or VPN (thanks Rebecca!). See you soon China 15s!

In two days, I'll be heading up to Chengdu for the Training of Trainers (TOT). These few days will be designed to make sure all of the PCVs doing sessions at Pre-service training (PST) are prepared. It should be fun, but it means next week will be incredibly busy at the University since I have to reschedule all the classes I will miss.

A week later, the 80 new trainees will arrive in Chengdu and I'm really looking forward to meeting them all. I've been in contact with some from the internet, but it'll be great to see everyone in person! If any China 15s are reading this, I suggest packing a decent amount of summer clothes as it is incredibly hot in Chengdu. My session will be right in the beginning of PST. I am kind of worried about this, since I remember feeling fuzzy for the first few weeks while I was in China. I just hope they aren't bored to tears and that they learn something useful.

Chengdu is known for its Pandas. This one, along with its brothers and sisters decided to curl up in a tree and take a nap! What is really amazing is that these pandas could sleep in these tiny little trees as they swayed back and forth from bearing all that weight!

Anyway, right after PST, I'll be heading straight to 金沙 (Jinsha), a small city in Bijie prefecture for a two week summer project. Summer Project is a requirement for all China Peace Corps Volunteers. After your first year, you are given a few options of rural areas within your province where you can do your summer project, which involves teaching teachers how to teach English as well as giving them some language training. Because there are very few China 14s, we were given two options. I will be working with four other China 14s. I think it'll be both challenging and a good way to get to know each other better. Additionally, of course, I am hoping this project will be beneficial for the teachers we will be working with. But I am a bit worried since many of the teachers who are asked to come to summer project do not necessarily volunteer.

I have not made any solid plans for summer vacation, but most likely I will travel to 浙江 （Zhejiang） province and stay in 温州 (Wenzhou) for a little while since I have students from that area. I also plan on visiting 杭州 (Hangzhou) as well since I've heard a lot about 西湖 (Xi Hu), or West Lake.

Looks beautiful, doesn't it?

Depending on my financial situation, I would also like to go to Taiwan since I have a friend there and it would be great to see him! If not, I will most likely return to 毕节 (Bijie) for a little while and maybe travel to 云南 (Yunnan) since I've been wanting to go there for a while. Before I actually leave China, I think it would be strange for me not to have ever seen the Great Wall, so I guess that's somewhere in my future as well. China is way too big- way too much to see in just two years!

If you want to feel like a tiny, unimportant speck of dust in a vast world, hop onto a Chinese bus. The public buses are crowded, people smashed against each other and sometimes even against the windshield or the money collecting machine. Often they reek of cigarettes and sometimes there are even chickens in baskets on the ground, clucking and sending feathers flying everywhere. See this picture for a realistic view of a somewhat crowded bus (it gets worse).

The long distances buses are equally terrible. You have a seat, but you will be surrounded in cigarette smoke, spit, vomit, and people screaming on their cell phones. Your knuckles will turn white from gripping your seat as the bus zooms around narrow, curvy mountain roads at ridiculous speeds, passing cars and buses blindly. And don't expect there are shocks on the bus- no, you'll be flying and bouncing around for several hours, like you're on a galloping horse that is out of your control. And no napping either 'cause every few seconds the bus will honk its horn for reasons unbeknown to you.

I do, however, enjoy the trains. Then again, I really like trains in general. In Thailand, there was even a disco on the train, complete with flashing red lights and loud music. It was awesome! Chinese trains don't have a disco, but the sleeper part of the train is fairly comfortable for being on a train and you can sit and watch the Chinese countryside pass by the window.

The Chinese countryside is serene and so much more beautiful than the cities. I went to 成都 （Chengdu） this weekend and needed to take the train. Since I was alone, I took the opportunity to stare out the window and watch the landscape. The countryside around 贵州 （Guizhou) is covered in karst mountains sprinkled with green trees which the government has planted. Along the mountains are crop-filled steps and below are pools of mossy green rice paddies.

Through many of these rural areas are one or two twisting paths between the fields coming from the small villages full of farmers in traditional bamboo hats with poles behind their shoulders carrying baskets on both sides. The farmers often work alone or with oxen, plowing the side of the mountain or knee deep in the rice paddies.

The houses in the small villages are a mixture of traditional, sometimes dilapidated brown wooden houses with tin roofs and cold, tiled houses in a Soviet style which seem obsolete among the Chinese landscape. On the tops of the mountains and on stone walls dividing crops are red or blue Chinese characters with motivating or political messages.

It's interesting that the most beautiful places in China are typically inhabited by the poorest people, while the richer Chinese prefer to live in the loud, crowded, polluted cities. Sure the cities provide a more convenient way of life, with more entertainment and more economic opportunities, but the peace and quiet of a more rural life seems quite attractive (I am sure being a farmer would be difficult- I'm just referring to the atmosphere).

When my mind is allowed to wander on a long trip, I frequently think about the people who live in the different houses I see along the way. I wonder what their lives are like and what they do for fun. I wonder how frequently they take trips away from their homes and where they go. I do this a lot in China, especially when I see hardworking farmers. Do they ever leave their farms? What do they do when they aren't working? Sometimes I think how interesting it would be to be a fly, moving from place to place and observing.

This past week, the Foreign Affairs Office and Foreign Language Department invited my sitemate and I, along with the previous Peace Corps Volunteers from our site who were visiting, to a special banquet. Banquets are pretty common, at least on my campus to celebrate special events, welcome people, or just to appreciate one another's company.

They usually consist of a ton of food and quite often there is some sort of entertainment after, whether it be mah-jong, a walk, KTV, or something else.

This banquet was the best yet. A total of eight of us- our waiban, waiban assistant, dean of the department, counterpart teacher, and us four waiguoren (foreigners) pileld into a van on Wednesday evening and set off for the restaurant that was chosen for our banquet. Usually we have these banquets at a restaurant downtown, but this time we went further into the countryside of 毕节 (Bijie) and wound up at an isolated restaurant set completely away from the noise of the city and placed near a small river, mountains, and fields. It turns out the restaurant belongs to the 彝族 （Yi minority). There are many different nationalities within China and there happen to be many 彝族 (Yi minority) in 毕节 (Bijie). They were wearing the traditional clothing and singing traditional songs. Once we got to our table, we ordered a ton of food, put our stuff down, and went for a walk. There were people working the fields, along with their oxen and some machines. It was quite relaxing to walk around such an untouched part of China. I love the countryside of China- it's very peaceful and the scenery is breathtaking.

Anyway, after our walk, we sat down to eat and several members of the group engaged in 白酒(bai jiu) toasts. 白酒(bai jiu) is a very strong alcohol which can get a person drunk incredibly fast. I've only tried it twice and it burns as it goes down. Needless to say, I stuck to my fruit juice and tea. Fortunately, as a woman, I am not really pressured into drinking this stuff, but men are sometimes coerced into drinking because toasting with 白酒(bai jiu) is a custom and considered a display of friendship. Several toasts later, most of the guests were tipsy or downright drunk... it was quite funny actually since my sitemate and I have never had drinks during a banquet. Little did we know, the fun had just begun!

Looking out the window, my sitemate and I noticed a huge bonfire had been created outside in the center of the restaurant and people were gathering around while the 彝(Yi) men and women were singing. My sitemate and I immediately went down to the fire and the rest of the group stumbled out after a few minutes and joined us.

Once everyone was present, the 彝(Yi) men and women came around us and took our hands to lead us in their dances around the bonfire. There were about six dances and we did each one of them twice. It turned out to be incredibly enjoyable, not to mention we got some great pictures of our tipsy colleagues. :) Below are some pictures of the event.

The restaurant as we went on our walk.

The scenery around the restaurant.

More scenery.

On the way to drunken-ness...

The result! His plea: "I just want to be a lovely boy!"

Dancing 'round the fire.

My sitemate and some 彝(Yi) singers and dancers.

Me spinnin' 'round the circle.

The 彝(Yi) Men

The 彝(Yi) Women

Welcome you to my blog!

One of my favorite things about living in China is the amount of Chinglish phrases you can find all around you! This was obviously the motivation for a Chinglish party. It is so easy to find Chinglish shirts, signs... in fact, when we decided to go shopping for shirts for the party, I bought the first one we happened to see on our outing! If you are interested in checking out some hilarious Chinglish, a personal favorite is Engrish.com, which has frequent updates.

These are kind of awesome!

The most common Chinglish phrase my students say is "I hope you have a Happy Everyday". It comes from the phrase 快乐每一天 (kuai le mei yi tian), which directly translates into happy every day, and is really a sincere wish that every day of your life is happy. It's very sweet, but also quite painful to the ears after a while. But no matter how many alternate phrases I give my students, this phrase does not seem to die.

Another word that my Chinese students over use is "famous". According to them EVERYTHING is "very famous" no matter if it's a hole in the ground. Actually, there have been quite a few times when I've asked other Chinese people about the so-called famous place and none of them have ever heard of it. I love this though because I think it goes to show how proud Chinese people are of their country, especially their hometowns. I think it's refreshing to meet people who truly enjoy what is around them rather than complaining about the things that they don't.

One of the major differences between Chinese and English which accounts for a number of Chinglish phrases is that in Chinese, a word can be used as several different parts of speech. In Chinese, the word 吸引 (xiyin) which means "attract" can be used as an adjective： 北京是个很吸引人的地方， which translates to "Beijing is a very attractive place". The same word, however, can also be used as a verb: 因为中国的文化吸引了我， 所以我来到了中国, which translates to "Because Chinese culture attracts me, I came to China". In English, different parts of speech typically require a change in the word ending, which can confuse a lot of students who are starting to study either language.

An example that is particularly confusing for my students is the word boring, but the reason is slightly different. In English we can say "This movie is boring" and that would be correct. But if we want to say how the movie makes us feel, we could say, amongst other possibilities, "I am bored of this movie". In English there are adjectives that end in -ed and those that end in -ing and this is incredibly important. Words that end with -ed talk about a person's feelings, whereas those which end in -ing talk about the situation or thing that causes a person to feel a certain way. This relates to the use of the past participle form versus the present participle. In Chinese, however, this difference does not seem to exist. "I am boring" and "I am bored" are both 我狠无聊（wo hen wuliao), so students will frequently say things like "I am very boring" or "I am very confusing" to mean they are bored or confused (this is not related to how they feel about YOUR class of course!).

I think that learning Chinese is really beneficial because you can begin to see why they make some of the mistakes they do. Now, I don't believe that all mistakes in a foreign language are due to "transfer", but it's an important factor to take into account, especially when teaching students at a lower-level of profiency.

In order to create a little more balance in this entry (I'm a Libra, what can I say?), I freely admit that when I have lessons with my Chinese tutor, she frequently teases me about speaking "Zhonglish" (the word I use when English speakers incorrectly speak Chinese) and phrasing things incorrectly since Chinese and English phrasing are completely different. So it works both ways!

Additionally, I would like to point out an amusing website which highlights various ways in which Westerners misuse Chinese characters. It's called Hanzi Smatter and most of the pictures are of tattoos, which I think is a bit more serious than the Chinglish t-shirts since ink on your body is a bit more permanent. Now, I'm all for tattoos, but I don't know if I would get words on my body unless I was absolutely sure they said what they were intended to say!

That's all! Thank you for your reading!

I'm very happy to be writing! I just returned from a huge party in the city of 贵阳 (Guiyang), which is four hours from 毕节 (Bijie), but let me start from the last party, since that is the event which happened right after China blocked Blogger. Two weekends ago, there was a party in 六盘水 （Liupanshui） to celebrate quite a number of Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) birthdays, including my sitemate's. To get there, my sitemate and I had to take a six hour long bus ride up and down mountains on a bus going what felt like a million miles an hour. It was scary to say the least and there were a couple of times where I thought we were going to fly off the side of the mountain, but eventually we made it!  六盘水（Liupanshui） is a little larger than 毕节 (Bijie) and we actually found a place where we could play Laser Tag! And it was really intense because it was underneath a mountain and we had to dress up in camoflauge shirts, pants, and hats! How creepy, yet cool does this look!?Do we look like we are ready to fight!? We were the green camoflauge team, also known as the bandits.And this team was the Police!Besides Laser Tag, we also took a long walk around the more rural part of the city and saw some beautiful scenery. Overall, it was a really enjoyable trip and it was great seeing some of the other PCVs I hadn't seen in a while.

I love this picture!After the scary ride back from 六盘水（Liupanshui）, it seems that my Chinese language skills improved. I'm not sure how or why since I didn't speak much Chinese during the weekend, but when my tutor and I had our lesson, it felt a lot easier and she even noticed. It's possible that after the trip I felt more rejuvenated since it had been a while since I had left 毕节 (Bijie). Another possibility was that I was beginning to feel more comfortable with her since we had spent much more time hanging out than before. Or maybe the content of the lesson was just easier for me. Anyway, it was nice that I was able to talk a little more fluidly than I was before! I think the tutoring is in fact helping because I am able to recall a lot more words and I've heard many of the words she has taught me in daily conversations. Not to mention, I have used many of them myself. On the bus back from 六盘水（Liupanshui), I even used the Chinese word for pollution (污染） in a conversation!Anyway, in other news, 太极 （taiji） has been going well, although neither my sitemate nor I are very good at it. It is supposed to help us with our balance and the version we are learning is a mixture of martial arts and dance. It looks really beautiful when done right, but it's difficult to get your hands and feet to do what they are supposed to. We also use these large red fans which make a wonderfully loud noise when you open them (my favorite part)... but the opening of the fans adds to the difficulty of the whole process! The more and more we practice, the easier it'll be I'm sure (I hope). I really like our teacher. She is part of the Physical Education department at our school and she is very young and energetic. She graduated from Beijing Normal University and has taught several foreigners 太极 （taiji） before. I invited her over to Chinese Corner, which is an informal get together I have every Friday with students who are interested in practicing their Standard Mandarin. It was great because many students came and we all spoke Chinese for three hours! And because our 太极 （taiji） teacher is from Beijing, she has a very different accent, which I enjoyed listening to (although I couldn't necessarily understand). For the past two weeks, I have been quite busy. My sitemate left to see some other PCVs in 遵义 (Zunyi) two weeks ago, but I was way too busy with all of the things I was asked to do so I stayed in 毕节 (Bijie). Besides having Chinese Corner, I also had to write an article about 毕节 (Bijie) for a local magazine, prepare finals for some of my students who are graduating (I was told this last minute), and I had to write my speech for my brother's wedding in addition to my regular lesson planning and other things. The school also had a Sports Meet, which was like a huge track and field meet where students of different departments competed against each other in races and field events. Some of my students participated, so I went to cheer them on. They all seemed to have a lot of fun and I enjoyed watching them. The students treated each other really nicely. As the students who raced came to the finish line, other students from their classes would grab them and walk them over to get some water and anything else they needed. Additionally that weekend, my tutor Lois and I went shopping downtown for some spring dresses since none of the clothes I brought from America fit me anymore (to any China 15s who are reading this, lack of a dryer deforms your clothes). I ended up having a wonderful time with her and bought four cute dresses which I can wear to my classes. In China, most of the teachers dress really nicely when they teach so I thought it would be a good idea to follow suit. We shopped from 10am until 6pm! It was the most shopping I have ever done in my entire life! And embarassingly, I had been carrying so many bags and walking around for such a long time, that I pulled a muscle in my back!!! It was incredibly painful the next day, but fortunately it was a Saturday and I didn't have to do very much. I cannot believe that I go running on a regular basis and have started to do 太极 （taiji）, but I ended up pulling a muscle from shopping! To remedy this, I ended up getting a massage later in the week with some of my students. The masseuses were all blind, which is quite common in China. The massage felt good when it was fininshed, but Chinese massages are actually quite painful. They focus on pressure points and they are quite rough on your body. If done right, however, it feels good afterwards. Anyway, the next day (Sunday), I woke up incredibly early so I could get on the internet and get on Skype. Since I am in China, I was unable to attend my brother's wedding so we decided that we would hook up Skype and I could give my speech and watch the wedding from my apartment. Unfortunately the connection was not good and I was unable to see any of the wedding since the call kept getting lost. But I was quite happy that, although I couldn't see him get married, Skype connected for the two minutes I was supposed to give my speech. My Mom is going to send me a video she made of the wedding, along with some pictures which will be nice.Also on Sunday, I went to a high school to help a colleague with his class. One of the teachers in the department named Larry came up to me last semester and asked if he could sit in on my classes. We exchanged teaching ideas and he told me that he wanted my advice about teaching high school students how to speak English. Of course, I was thrilled and I told him that I would also be willing to talk with his class at some point if he was interested. This semester, he asked me if I could, so we met to talk about it and agreed on Sunday. It ended up being a small class of six motivated high school students. We talked about America and about what they wanted to be in the future. It was very informal and I really liked meeting such wonderful students! Afterwards, Larry took me to get some dinner and we had a long talk about Chinese Universities, politics, America... just about everything. Larry is one of three Chinese people in my town (along with my waiban and my tutor) with whom I have felt comfortable discussing deeper issues. It's nice to walk away and feel like you've had a meaningful conversation with someone. This is one of the major reasons I really like hanging out with him. He and my waiban have different viewpoints on various political and cultural issues which allows me to broaden my understanding of China.      Well, the next day my sitemate came back and the day after we had some visitors. The Peace Corps Volunteers who were in 毕节 (Bijie) for the two years before me and my sitemate decided to come back for a few weeks to visit students. They are a young married couple and they are staying with my sitemate during their visit. They also decided to attend the party in 贵阳 (Guiyang) this weekend, so the four of us got on a bus together and headed out. The party was CRAZY! It was a Chinglish party, which meant we all had to wear outfits which had some sort of Chinglish words or phrases on it. My shirt was pretty awesome and incredibly dirty. As you can see from the picture below, the ballet shoes seem quite innocent.

But below the shoes is the phrase "Call to arms all chunkily-penised boys who will do her right and do her good- still mattered." Obviously I was not the only one who thought this was hysterical since another PCV was in the same shirt. And I won third place in the Chinglish shirt contest... yay! There were about 50 PCVs at this party... many from 贵州 (Guizhou) and quite a few from 重庆 (Chongqing) and 四川 (Sichuan). Several people also brought other American and European guests. It was the most Americans I have seen together in the past year. The main reason why so many people came down to 贵阳 (Guiyang) is because the China 13s are getting ready to leave and this party was a way to bring everyone together to say goodbye. We all meet for bean hot pot, which is a specialty of 贵州 (Guizhou). Then we went to a bar that our Chinese friend Andy owns. After that, most of us went to a dance club and danced the night away. It was so much fun. And to top it all off, some of us had pizza at the new Papa Johns, which is always a treat. So although these past couple of weeks have been extremely busy, I feel like I've not only gotten the opportunity to get closer to people in my community, but I've also been able to spend time with other PCVs who are a lot of fun.

Well, after this weekend, I will be updating frequently to my blog since I'm now finally able to use the internet (thanks Rebecca)! I have so many things to share, including trips, visitors, and various adventures around Bijie. I want to first say that I am beyond excited that I can update to my blog, post pictures, and do all the things I've been wanting to do for the past few weeks. Also, I want to say congratulations to my brother who just got married this weekend. I wasn't able to be there, but fortunately, through Skype, I was able to give a speech. My Mom is sending me a video she made of the whole thing since Skype cut out before and after my speech, so I look forward to receiving the package (along with all the other goodies)! This weekend, my sitemate and I will be going to Guiyang for a Chinglish party. It should be a lot of fun and I think there will be many people there. It's not only a Chinglish party, but a kind of "going away" party for the China 13's who are about to finish their service and prepare for their next adventures. It'll be nice to see them all since I've been so busy recently and haven't had much time to see anyone!Pictures will come after this weekend, along with several new entries about various things.

So China has decided to block www.blogger.com in addition to it's blocking of www.youtube.com. We have been unable to access www.youtube.com for several months, but I really hope the blocking of www.blogger.com doesn't last that long! As of now, I can write to my blog through a proxy, but it's difficult and I am unable to load any pictures or put in HTML links easily. Once/If I can get access, I will post pictures at a later date.

I will update my blog shortly with my weekend in Liupanshui (六盘水) and about TaiJi (太极) so stay tuned!!!

I have some students from different departments who attend my classes so they can learn English. I let them come to my classes, but I ask them to participate. One of the boys who comes to my classes on a regular basis is from the Physical Education department. He is a very sweet and enthusiastic boy and he comes running with me in the mornings sometimes. Right after one of my classes, he came up to me and asked if I wanted to learn "太极"! Apparently there will be many people and we will practice very early in the morning in order to prepare for a competition! I think this will be a great way to meet new people, a good way to learn more about China, and a good way to stay healthy. I see lots of people do 太极 in the mornings and it looks very relaxing. It is related to the yin (阴) and yang (阳) in the 道教 philosophy/religion.

This is a picture I took in Chengdu when I went to a Daoist temple!

I just received a call from one of my students asking me to write my impressions of Bijie for the local newspaper. I asked him how long it should be and he said it was up to me. I'm kind of excited, but I have no idea what I'm gong to write yet! I have to think about it for a while. I am thinking maybe I could write a poem (although I'm not sure if it will need to be translated into Chinese). As I've said before, to me China is a land of contradictions and my emotions about China are similar.

I hate/love that China challenges me to rethink things and I hate/love that it frustrates me often. China plays with your emotions and frequently leaves you feeling like a child on his/her first rollercoaster. It's scary and enjoyable at the same time. And whether you love it or not, it's a great adventure!

This is my sitemate and I on our adventure... yes, we're pretending to fly. We're so weird! :)

As a single American woman who has been living in China for close to a year, I've reverted back to my teenage years, drooling over handsome male celebrities. Who's my favorite you ask (humor me here)? It has got to be John Abraham, the exceedingly sexy movie actor you can find in several great movies, including Water and Salaam-E-Ishq. He was also in a recent movie Dostana, which I really want to see.

According to a recent article posted online, he attracts men and women alike with his muscular body and rugged good looks!

For those of you who don't know who he is, I've posted two pictures of him below (brace yourself for hotness).

Okay, I know this has nothing to do with China, but it's a glimpse into my life nonetheless! Plus, my last few posts have been somewhat intense... a little eye candy never hurts anyone! :) Ladies who read my blog- if you like what you see, you may also want to check out Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan. And to the straight men that read my blog, sorry- this type of entry won't be a regular occurrence... ha ha.

In my last post, I talked about some things I didn't understand about China. I decided to ask my tutor to see if I could find out some answers. Here's what she had to say:

When I asked her about the idea of collectivism and how I don't understand how it is reflected in the society, she said that her dad used to tell her "if you want to help others, you need to first make sure that you are competent enough to do so". I think this makes a little more sense because it relates to the high importance they place on education as well as the importance of authority figures. She also said that if you try to help a stranger who is injured, you could get into a lot of trouble because you may be implicated and create problems for yourself. And even though this is also true in the US, I'm sure the laws in China are different.

She also talked to me about how competitive students are and what parents tell their children. Honestly, it sounded a lot like what my father used to tell me. Many parents in China apparently tell their children to make friends with the best students in the class and get to know their strategies for success in order to become number one. But at the same time, it is important for them to do this secretly and modestly. She told me a story about an experience she had in middle school. She was number one in her class and on the day of a test, her best friend asked her if she studied. She responded that she hadn't studied too much because it was a really nice weekend and she spent more time outside playing. Her friend told her the same thing. However, when the results came in, her friend had received the highest score in the class. My tutor was incredibly hurt that her friend didn't even bother to tell her the truth. But that's just how it seems to work. She also told me that when she got the highest grade on the next exam, her friend stopped talking to her.

I think this must be incredibly difficult for students. It's important to get along with others so you are part of the group, but at the same time, it's important to get top scores. Trying to strike a balance between all of this must be quite difficult!

When I asked her about gender equality, she said that women want more respect from men, but they don't want gender equality to affect how much the man loves them and they don't want it to affect what the man does for them. She says they want to be able to have their cake and eat it too. Maybe this is true in relationships, but how about men and women in the workplace and other areas? I would be interested in finding out more!

I also asked her about the treatment of foreigners and her response was similar to every other response I've gotten- they take pictures because they are curious. Also, they want to say they have a foreign friend or teacher regardless of whether it is true or not because it gives them face. She also agreed with me that it's difficult to become friends with Chinese people because they are afraid of making mistakes and losing face. They want to paint a nice picture for us since we'll be here for two years, but they don't want to put themselves out there too much at the risk of losing face. I wish this wasn't the reality, but it is.

Although I wasn't able to ask her all my questions, she did help me understand a little bit more about China and I thought she was very mature about it! Having someone from another country ask you questions about your country could be quite difficult, not only because you may not have ever thought about the questions, but also from an emotional standpoint. I really appreciated her responses. :)

Caveat: This entry contains much of my struggles understanding Chinese culture. Therefore, much of it may appear to be negative. I am not trying to knock China, the Chinese, or the culture in any way. Rather, I am sharing my thoughts to help myself sort things out and to possibly gain some new perspective. Additionally, I know some of my readers are future Peace Corps Volunteers who will be serving in China and the issues I am thinking about may come up in their future experiences. If you are interested in sharing your thoughts, please do so. The only thing I ask, however, is that comments remain tactful and respectful. Thanks!

Before I write about the cultural conundrums I have faced in China, I just want to say Happy Mother's Day to my wonderful Mom! Mom- I know it was hard when I left for China, but you have been nothing but understanding. You have allowed me to fully immerse myself in this opportunity because I know that I have your love and support whenever I need it. Thank you for being my best friend and someone I can look up to. You not only take care of sick people all day, but you manage to always find time to take care of our entire family. I love you Mom and I'm always thinking about you.

To all the other mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day to you too!

Since there is no good way to transition into the main content of my post, I won't. :)

In some of my previous posts, I've talked about the many contradictions that I have found in China and I want to mention a few here that are particularly difficult for me to wrap my head around. I know there are many contradiction in America too, but since I'm an American, they aren't things I think about too much.

1. One of the biggest differences between the United States and China is the importance of the individual versus the importance of the group. In the United States, we believe that individual freedom is more important than group dynamics. For example, children are taught to be independent and make their own choices, if an American disagrees with someone there is often a friendly debate or possibly even a confrontation, and people who stand out from the herd are looked upon as strong. In China, on the other hand, the group is much more important. If the majority of the group has one opinion and you have another, it is better to keep your mouth shut. Children are taught to be understanding and caring towards others so that they can mesh well with others. And if you stand out from the group, it means that you are not accepted.

Now, I can understand that this is a difference. But what I don't understand is why it often seems like the opposite. In America, most people say excuse me if they bump into someone. If someone is in trouble, even if it is someone no one knows, that person is likely to find help. In an American classroom group work is encouraged and students work well together. But in China, people bump into others without so much as a look, almost no one would help a stranger (instead they assume the person must have done something to deserve whatever happened to them), and group work is pretty much unheard of in most Chinese classrooms. When I try to put my freshman into groups, they just start doing things on their own.

I don't understand how such a "collective" society seems to be so focused on their own needs, wants, and desires. Am I missing something? My students always tell me how important a harmonious society is. They tell me that everyone in China is their brother or sister. My sitemate even did a lesson on superpowers and several of her students said they would want to control peoples minds in order to have a harmonious society. I don't think that would be a very common answer in the United States. But despite all this talk of a harmonious society, I don't really see it. Families seem very close on the surface, but otherwise, the society appears to me as very individualistic.

Maybe it seems like I'm being negative (which is, again, not my intention), but what I am really trying to get across is that, even though I've been living in China for 10 months, there are things about the society that baffle me and may continue to do so for the entire two years that I'm here.

2. Many of my female students have voiced their opinion that women and men should be equal. However, it's these same women who tell me how women are weak and not logical. It's these same women who easily accept men in positions of authority, but question the capacity of a woman in the same position. When our male friends came to visit our school, the girls were throwing themselves all over them and the boys wanted to take them out. The dean of my department even said "Let's all take a picture together. I'm especially interested in getting a picture with (insert male PCV's name here) since he is a man". Yes, that is a direct quote.

How will gender equality ever happen if the women don't even believe that they are capable? How can it happen if these women continue to look to men to tell them how to think and what to do? Gender equality can only exist if women encourage and respect each other.

3. Many foreigners in China will tell you that Chinese hospitality is fantastic. To some extent, I agree. The Chinese try very hard to feed you, show you around, and make you feel comfortable. In many ways, it is like being a VIP and you are given special perks just because you are from another country. This is especially true for white Westerners, and the truest for white males. If you are a white male in China, consider yourself lucky.

At the same time, because you are a foreigner, you are different and thus stand out from the crowd. With this VIP treatment also comes laughter, shouts of hello, and lots of staring. And if you are a foreign teacher, particularly in a part of China where there aren't other foreigners, you may feel like a clown on a regular basis. Some students will take you seriously, but others may only think of you as a source of entertainment. For example, my sitemate and I (among many other PCVs) have had several students try to take pictures or videos of us while we were teaching. This kind of thing makes me incredibly angry. Not only are they not paying attention, but it is obvious that they don't respect us.

The other contradiction to this hospitality is that it is very difficult to befriend Chinese people, particularly colleagues. Teachers seem to be afraid of us. At a teacher's banquet, there were three tables- two full of Chinese teachers, and one that consisted of us, our counterpart teacher, the dean of the department, and one other teacher. We have attempted to talk to teachers and they smile and seem very pleasant. But if we invite them to do something, they say they are busy or brush off the offer.

Chinese hospitality can be nice, but how do you move beyond the surface niceties and formalities to real friendship?

4. According to many sources, including my own observations, Chinese value nature. Many of my students write about nature and notice many details about the earth that Americans possibly would not. The land is also said to have an effect on the personality of the people who grow up there. Many restaurants and stores include words like water, flower, and trees and advertisements which show nature scenes are more successful in the East than they are in Western countries. However, all around me, there is construction. New buildings and new man-made creations are popping up everywhere. I know that China is in the process of developing, but it seems like it is at the risk of a lot of the natural scenes they find so beautiful. One major example of this is the Three Gorges Dam project which have affected the fish, flooded relics from China's past, and essentially changed the river from something natural into something controlled by man.

Why are economics and development taking priority over the beautiful landscape? I do understand that development can help the people of China in some ways, but do the benefits outweigh the costs?

5. The last topic I want to bring up is related to clothing. The Chinese consider themselves to be quite traditional and conservative. However, some of the clothing that young women wear surprises me. For such a traditional and conservative culture, many of the women dress quite risque! As I mentioned in my last post, some of the clothing is incredibly cute, but some of it is really short and really tight. I don't understand this. Actually, before I came to China, I somewhat expected that Chinese people would dress in more traditional clothing, like many Indian women do. When I arrived, I was really surprised to see how Western the clothing was... the style anyway.

My sitemate took this picture of a very traditional looking Chinese man when we went to see the Azaleas on the mountains. I like this picture because it represents my assumptions about China before I arrived. The scene looks very serene and the man looks like he belongs... he looks like he is quiet and deep in thought. A more realistic picture would include some cranes, new buildings, and a lot more people, most of which dressed in jeans and t-shirts, and the rest dressed in blue work suits with baskets filled with tools and/or chickens.

I am curious to see what China will be like ten years from now. It is developing so rapidly, I wonder what the effects will be. And with the influence of so much Western culture, I can imagine China becoming even more difficult to truly understand. I hope that as time goes on, I develop a clearer picture of this vast and mysterious country. Maybe more travel around China will help... although more likely, it will present me with more to think about.

This Friday, some other Peace Corps Volunteers were going to come to Bijie to do a presentation on Diversity in America. Unfortunately, two of them were unable to come. But on the upside, we did end up having a visitor from the Southern part of the US, so we focused our presentations on regional diversity. I think it went over pretty well. Thanks for coming SRG... we enjoyed having you here! :)

The night before our presentation, a bunch of students came with us downtown for some street food called "烧烤", which is like barbecue skewers. You can choose from different kinds of meats and vegetables, depending on what you fancy. Then we went out to a Karaoke club, which was a lot of fun because there were both English and Chinese songs.

And after our presentation, the English department took us out to lunch. There were also two other foreigners from England who were in Bijie to visit, one of whom was a previous VSO volunteer at the University. After lunch, we all split up and my sitemate, our friend, and I went with a few students to take a walk in "人民公园" or People's Park. We took lots of silly photos like the ones below and then all went out for dinner together.

Don't ask! :)

It doesn't look painful, but it was!

Good old Charlie's Angels Pose! :)

After dinner, everyone went back to the apartments with the exception of me, my tutor, and her boyfriend who all went to get our hair washed and heads massaged! It was very relaxing and it was only 10RMB ($1.50)! First, they lather your head up with soap and massage it into your head. Then they wash your hair and massage your head more, continuing down to your neck, arms, and shoulders. At the very end, they dry and style your hair! The whole process took about an hour and a half so it was well worth it!

Speaking of pampering, my sitemate and I found a great new place to get our nails done! Here are some pictures of our new nails!!!

Lisa's bright blue nails!

I have fish on my nails!

And while we are on the topic of nails and fashion, I just want to comment on the interesting fashion statements in China. Some of the girls dress in super cute outfits and I think there are a lot of stylish clothes. But, as in any country, there are some scary outfits that should just never be worn. On our way to dinner tonight, we came across one that I just had to put up.

My response: Yikes!

"I'm sliding down the wall.

Trying to get a grip on what I can.

As the world beneath me crumbles." -Jamiroquai

Well, the world beneath me isn't really crumbling, but sometimes it is really confusing! In two months, the China 13s are going to finish their service in China and most will return to the United States. For this reason, I was thinking about one of the things we were told during Pre-Service Training (PST). Our director talked about how important it is to bring our experience back home so we can better inform Americans of what China is like. She asked, "how would you sum up your experience here in 100 words or less?"

I have been here for 10 months and I am not sure how I would even begin to talk about my experiences in China. I wouldn't know where to begin or even what would be important or interesting. And although I have learned a lot of interesting information about Chinese cultural traditions and some beliefs, these are things you can read in a book. The other part of my experience which you could not necessarily find in a book is so personal. But it is just one of many experiences. I live in rural China in an area which doesn't see many foreigners. I do not look like the American they assume I will look like. Mix this up with a million other factors and the effect is various challenges, frustrations, and successes.

But this isn't China... it's a small piece of China through the eyes of one person. And I think after two years of living here, I am going to be at a complete loss as far as what I would want to communicate to American people about China. I could share some anecdotes which highlight some cultural differences or those which emphasize universal human behavior, but those things don't give a clear picture of China nor of "my China". Plus, my perceptions are always changing. Sometimes it feels like the more I learn, the less I really know. As the song says, I grip onto whatever I can. But you can never grab everything.

I remember, after my return from France after several months of living there, not having any desire to talk about my experience. I LOVED being there, but I felt I couldn't truly describe the time I spent there. Plus, I didn't want to bore people. When the other person does not have ties to or prior experience in the country, it's hard to keep them interested. It would be like entering college and continuously referring to friends in high school that your college acquaintances don't know and will probably never meet. Maybe I'm better off saying "China was good". I think that's what most people want to hear when they say "so how was China?" anyway. Oh well, I guess I have another year to figure all of that out!

Anyway, tomorrow three other Peace Corps Volunteers are coming to visit for a "Cultural Diversity in America" panel discussion. It will be nice to have them in Bijie and I know my students are really looking forward to meeting them. Since both my sitemate and I have culture classes, this is a great learning opportunity for those students.

Speaking of which, I think my Freshman students are getting more and more comfortable and confident, which has been my primary goal in teaching them English. Obviously I have more English related goals as well, but in my University, confidence is really important to work on. Most Freshman students are incredibly shy and in order for them to improve their English, they need to be willing to take chances and make mistakes. I've tried to create a comfortable environment and I think they have begun to take more and more risks. My Freshman are three year students, which means they will receive a certificate at the end of three years which allows them to teach English in a rural area of China. But if they can pass an exam in their second year, they can move up to the four year program and receive a degree. So many of them have the potential to pass the exam and I really hope I can push them to work hard and be confident in themselves!

I am really enjoying teaching debate to my Sophomore students. They work so hard and are so enthusiastic, but most of them find it quite difficult. Most of the students can understand the topic and have opinions about it, but many of them cannot provide logical arguments or reasons to support their beliefs. I have been working on this with my students for a few weeks and have even given them some riddles to encourage them to think creatively. They are also taking a logic class, which can hopefully benefit their debating skills. I can think of many possible reasons as to why this is. First of all, debate is a very Western idea. From my perspective, debate in many Eastern countries can come across as arrogant or too direct. It may be seen as an argument which goes against the desire for harmonious relationships.

Secondly, curiosity doesn't seem incredibly important. In my experience, Chinese students don't seem to question the world around them. Instead, they blindly accept what they are told. So many of my students have told me that they believe books are the best source of knowledge and that everyone should trust them and read more. They give my plagiarized articles rather than write in their own words. Maybe it's because they believe that people in books and articles are more important than they are. Maybe they feel that if someone has already written information about a subject, they should just apply it to memory. Why analyze something that has already been widely accepted?

The last possibility I can think of relates to the idea of control. Chinese people, in general, accept things as they are and deal with changes as they come. I think Westerners are more interested in manipulating the world around them, or at least feeling as if they have some control.

Hmm... maybe in my desperate attempts to cling to whatever I can find, I would see a Chinese person sliding down the wall in acceptance.

About an hour ago, a student came over so I could help her and she noticed some pictures of dogs I had on my igoogle page. We got into a conversation about her pets. I explained to her that I used to have a beagle and she told me that she had dogs as well, but she didn't know what breed of dog they were. She described them as "regular, black" dogs, so my guess was that maybe they were a mix.

She asked me what happened to my beagle and I told her that he died after 10 years and that I was incredibly sad because he was like a member of my family. She looked at me in shock and said, "You mean it died naturally!?"

"Yeah, he was just old", I replied.

This student then told me that, in the countryside where she is from, it is not common, nor considered good for a dog to die of natural causes. Instead, she explained, many people raise the dogs and then eat them or sell them to make money.

At first, I was shocked. I mean, I know some people in China eat dog meat, but at that moment, I was thinking of the idea of eating my pet (which is not only disturbing because he was like a family member, but also because I am a vegetarian). My student went on to tell me that she doesn't look at the dogs as pets. They raise the dogs knowing that they are going to be sold or eaten. I guess this is similar to raising other animals like pigs and cows.

I have seen a lot of dog carcasses hanging up for sale in various places I have traveled around China and I have been told it is especially prevalent in the wintertime because dog meat is thought to keep you very warm. But I guess I never thought about the fact that people raise the dogs for that specific purpose. Maybe that seems ignorant of me, since many animals are raised to be eaten, but I guess I never really gave it that much thought.

Another person in China told me a story about how their pet mysteriously disappeared after his father had a conflict with a member of the town who was known to sell dog meat. I guess I just thought the dogs that were killed were strays that people found. Again, I obviously wasn't thinking.

Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because it made me think. Selling dogs is another way to earn money. In the US, we look at some animals as pets that other people see as profit. In the US, some of our "hobbies" are things other people do to make a living.

On Sunday I had two incredibly different experiences with two incredibly different people and both of them made me smile. The first experience made me smile because I was surprised at how thoughtful the person was, while the second experience made me smile because I couldn't believe how crazy the person was. I will present them to you as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Dr. Jekyll: First I must give you some background information. Dr. Jekyll is one of the sweetest people I have met in Bijie. He always thinks of others and is very generous with his time and money. He is not originally from Bijie, but he has a restaurant here. Instead of keeping the money he earns, Dr. Jekyll gives generous scholarships to students in the University who cannot afford the tuition!

My sitemate and I met him downtown and he was one of the few people we could understand since he spoke clear, slow, Standard Mandarin with us. We have had dinner with him a few times and have enjoyed chatting with him.

On Friday, Dr. Jekyll invited us to have lunch with him at noon on Saturday. We agreed, but unfortunately had to cancel because I got sick. I sent him a message and told him that we would love to reschedule for next week. Anyway, on Sunday, he happened to see my sitemate at the grocery store and asked how I was. My sitemate told him I was still not feeling well, but that it was probably just a cold. Out of concern, he bought us 100 RMB worth of fruit cups (see pictures below)! Although, I felt bad that he spent so much money, I couldn't help smiling at his kindness. Dr. Jekyll is a person that I strive to be more like. He's a great role model!

But as they say, the sweet is never as sweet without the sour. I was given fruit and then came face to face with a worm!

Later that evening, my student invited my sitemate and me to have dinner at her house. We, along with some other students, had an excellent meal and then proceeded to go for a walk in the park.

This is the entrance to People's Park!

Unluckily, Mr. Hyde had similar plans.

Mr. Hyde: Before the story continues, we must go back in time to June 2008 before I was even in China. Before my sitemate and I came to Bijie, two other Peace Corps Volunteers (a married couple) lived together in the apartment I currently live in. They were friends with Mr. Hyde who is a private teacher in downtown Bijie.

Fast forward to October 2008, when my sitemate and I just began teaching in Bijie. At around midnight on a school night, I was woken up by my home telephone ringing. Annoyed and tired, I picked it up. It was Mr. Hyde. He was drunk. Instead of apologizing to me for waking me up, he kept talking about how lucky he was to get a hold of one of the new foreign teachers at the University. He wanted me to meet with him and I told him he could come to my office hours or to English Corner on Thursdays if he wanted to speak English, but that otherwise, I was too busy to meet with him. After what seemed like forever, he hung up the phone and came to my office hours a couple of days later. He was obnoxious, which was consistent with his first impression. Anyway, he signed out a book and requested (not asked) that I teach him English. I told him I was too busy, but that didn't stop him. He said he would treat us to dinner on Mondays if we taught him English. Again, we both said no. After much insisting, we finally agreed to one dinner on Monday.

I don't remember what exactly happened, but neither one of us could make it. I believe something came up with the school. Well, since I didn't have his phone number, there was no way that I could cancel those plans with him. Additionally, due to his annoying behavior as well as several other people who enjoyed calling my home phone at 2am, I disconnected it and have relied solely on my cell phone. We had not heard from him since... until last night.

Mr. Hyde came up to me and asked if I remembered him. I told him I did and he proceeded to yell at me in front of my students, telling me that I didn't respect him and that I should have called him. I didn't want to cause a scene and refrained from yelling back at him and embarrassing him. I tried to explain that I didn't have his phone number, but he didn't believe me. Instead, he continued yelling at me about how, since he respects me, he's going to give me back the book he borrowed several months ago. Ugh, what a weirdo!

What scared me about him was that he refused to listen to anything we said. We told him we were sorry he felt the way he did, but that we were very busy people and didn't have his number to let him know we couldn't make it. I can understand a person being upset if you cancel plans without informing them. But if the person explains they didn't have your contact information, I think you should just accept that and let it go. On top of that, I think it's ridiculous to think that just because you became friends with the last foreign teachers means that automatically you are friends with the new ones!

He started to say that maybe it was a cultural difference, which made me want to laugh. I kept my mouth shut, but what I really wanted to say was "Maybe another cultural difference is expecting people to respect you after you call them drunk and then try to force them to teach you English." I don't think that would have gone over too well. :) Plus, I know better than to chalk his craziness up to a cultural difference. He is a bad seed among many many good ones.

I explained what happened to my Foreign Affairs Officer because Mr. Hyde really creeps me out. I don't want him around me and I want to make sure that people are aware of that. Fortunately, my Foreign Affairs Officer is on top of everything!

Needless to say, Mr. Hyde did not help me in the sleep department, nor in the feeling better department. Today, I thought my head was going to explode in class. My plan for tonight is to go to bed early and relax! I need to start taking yoga classes!!!

Last weekend my parents and I talked on Skype and I mentioned some of the Western food that my sitemate and I have been able to create (mostly my sitemate, since my cooking skills are pretty poor). I also told her that we recently bought "饺子皮" which in English is "wonton skins", I think. Anyway, my Mom gave us a great cooking idea- simple, but fantastic! My sitemate had some taco seasoning and some chicken and beans so we mixed the taco seasoning in and put the chicken and/or bean filling we created into the "饺子皮", used water to paste it together and made fork marks along the edges. Then we fried them and poured some salsa on top. They were so amazingly good- we're definitely going to do it again! Here are some pictures of our "Crispy Chicken Fritters":

Also, as the post title implies, my sitemate and I did a lot of shopping and splurging. We walked around an area of the city where I knew there were lots of clothing and accessory stores. In one of the bag stores, I was immediately drawn to a beautiful brown suede bag hanging above the mirror. I immediately rushed towards it and gestured to it. One of the women brought it down for me and as I looked it over and felt how perfect it was, I knew it was mine. Unfortunately, it didn't come at a cheap price.

The bag was really expensive, but I usually don't spend lots of money on things and I wanted a durable bag that I could put my teaching plans and other school materials in. My current backpack is slowly falling apart not to mention that the idea of a teacher wearing a backpack to class in China is not very professional. In fact, in most Chinese people's eyes, the only people who wear backpacks are mountain climbers and hikers. The students don't even wear them.

Plus, the women in the store were incredibly pleasant, which really makes a difference when you live in a foreign country. Many times when my sitemate and I walk into stores, the people laugh and say rude things. I like to think it's because they are taken off guard and they just don't know what to say because they assume we don't speak Chinese, but some of them are just plain rude. The women in this store "红谷", however, were very sweet and helpful. They spoke slowly and in Standard Chinese and I felt quite comfortable talking with them. Their laughter was due to excitement, not because they found us funny.

So after much rationalization in a similar vein, I shelled out 538RMB ($77) and walked away sporting a more professional look. :) I must say it is the nicest thing I have acquired so far in China.

Here's a picture of me with my new bag, but it was pretty dark outside!

Additionally, since this week was May Holiday and there wasn't school on Friday, some of my sitemate's students, my sitemate, and I went to get our hair done. After my first haircut in China, I was really nervous to go back again. But my hair really needed to be fixed. I ended up getting my hair cut a bit short just so it would grow better. I'll let the pictures do the talking! Actually, I really like it because I no longer have a semi-mullet!

My sitemate was not planning on getting her hair done, but she couldn't resist. My sitemate enjoys frequently and spontaneously changing her hairstyle. First, she decided to dye her hair a copper red color. It was soon discovered, however, that she would need to also get her haircut since the "copper red" dye was actually more of a "fiery red". Fortunately, she can pull off bright, funky colors and a short hairstyle. The end result was actually so great that the hairstylist wanted to take a picture so he could be promoted! He is currently hairdresser #2, but if he wins the contest, he will be bumped up to hairdresser #1!

After 5 hours at the hair salon, we decided to get our nails done and take fun pictures. It was pretty dark, so we couldn't take too many photos, so we are going to have a mini-photo shoot tomorrow. :)

Our nails! The lady was in a hurry, so they aren't too great, but it doesn't matter too much.

I think it's really funny because neither one of us were very "prissy" in the US (nor would I consider either one of us to be now, but I would NEVER have gotten my nails done nor taken silly pictures around my campus back home). In fact, most of the time in the US (when I was not studying) was spent watching or playing sports! Getting my nails done would have been a waste of time. But, now that both of us live in a small place where there isn't much to do, we need to find ways to keep ourselves entertained. We have mutually come to the conclusion that doing things like this makes our lives here more enjoyable, although it may seem a little shallow. I think it's better than complaining and being bored though. And it's a much better alternative than some others. It's a good outlet and fortunately one of many which we have discovered- we also run every morning, spend time with students, read, knit, do puzzles, do yoga, visit other PCVs when we have time... it's important to find these kinds of things that keep you positive and healthy, as long as you do them in moderation of course! Fortunately most of our habits are free or pretty cheap.

Anyway, last night I had Chinese corner with a few students. We played charades again since most of the group was new and unfamiliar with it and the one person who played last week really enjoyed it and wanted to do it again. One of the boys that came to Chinese Corner doesn't speak English because he is a Physical Education major, so we put the clues into both Chinese and English or in English and Pinyin (a system of romanization of Standard Mandarin). It was good practice for all of us and lots of fun trying to guess the words in both languages.

A silly picture of the Chinese Corner charades group!

Later on, we went down the street for some "烧烤", which is street barbecue. It is really good and although most of it is meat, there are quite a number of vegetables to choose from as well. I usually get "白菜" (cabbage), "土豆" (potatoes), and "小馒头" which is a Chinese bread which is really good! It was a nice way to celebrate our 10th month anniversary in China! I can't believe it's almost been a year! Time passed so slowly in the beginning, but it seems to be moving faster and faster. Soon, my Peace Corps Service will be but a memory. Hm, I have mixed feelings about that!

Nothing says "Happy 10 Month China Anniversary" like choking your sitemate! :)

Today my sitemate and I went downtown to get some lunch and get our nails done. It’s funny- I never got my nails done in the US, but in China I get them done frequently. Getting your nails done here only costs 10 RMB (~$1.50) so it’s totally worth it. It stops me from biting my nails which not only makes my nails look gross, but with all the dirt and grime, it could be quite unsanitary! Usually when we go to the nail place, the women are kind, but this time there were more women sitting around laughing and talking about us, thinking I didn’t understand what they said. Additionally, there was a young girl who was screaming in our ears, staring, and laughing at us. It was beyond annoying and we almost left in the middle, but we decided to stick it out and just not come back again. They also tried to overcharge me, so now we are on a mission to find a better place. Toward the end, one of the other customers realized I could understand what they were saying and asked me. I said yes and we both walked away. On a positive note, however, I heard one of the women use the word “简单” which means simple. I learned the word yesterday from my tutor and was really excited to hear it used in conversation. In fact, I also heard it another two times from my students later this evening.

Anyway, after we got our nails done, we walked around and did some window shopping. I bought a Chinese magazine because I think it will help me to practice reading in Chinese and I also bought a watch since I miss wearing a watch. I used to wear one all the time in the US, but since I came to China, I’ve just used my cell phone to figure out the time. But I think using a watch in class is much nicer than always having my cell phone around. I really like the watch because it has a picture of a man and woman walking closely together and the man’s arm is looped around the girl’s neck. And on their backs, right in the center of the watch is a picture of a heart. Yeah, it’s pretty sappy, but I think it’s cute! What can I say- I'm a hopeless romantic!

What I find really amusing about the watch, however, is that the couple is wearing the same clothing! You see this frequently in China and they even have a name for it- lover's clothes! Apparently some couples buy the same clothes because they think it's romantic to wear together. According to my students, this usually happens towards the beginning of a relationship, but doesn't usually last too long. If I were in a relationship, I don't know if I would want my boyfriend wearing the same clothing as I was wearing (especially if it were a dress). ;) And just for the record, no they don't wear dresses... usually lover's clothes is the same T-shirt or the same track suit.

Here's a picture of my watch (and my nails)!

I love Fridays ‘cause I get the chance to unwind. I can sleep in and do whatever I want. Fridays are my true day off… I don’t run, I don’t have classes, I don’t have tutoring… it’s my day to do whatever I want. Even when I was in college, I would always give myself one day off to unwind. It gives me something to look forward to. At 7pm, I have Chinese Corner and enjoy chatting with my students and watching movies. I love having my students come to my apartment because I get the opportunity to learn more about China, learn more about my students, and have a good time. Tonight we played charades which was a lot of fun! All my students got really into it and wanted to play again and again. There was lots of laughing… it was great.

I’ll leave you all with a video of tonight’s game!

About a week ago, the lock on the front gate to my apartment complex was changed and my sitemate and I were given new keys. Although hers was cut appropriately, for some reason we had trouble with my key. This past Sunday on my way back from the cafeteria, I attempted to get into the apartment complex gate and my key broke in the door! Unfortunately, because it was Sunday, no one was around and my waiban was out of town as well. I went to the Foreign Affars office anyway, but as I expected there were just a few workers there trying to fix a lightbulb. Fortunately, a student passed by who helped me out. He brought me over to a place where I could find someone to help me. After a few hours, I was given a brand new key as terrible as the first one. It ended up breaking the next day! I currently have a stronger key, but it's still not fantastic. I hope, however, it doesn't break again. I just don't understand why the keys aren't cut right. My sitemate's key is okay, but for some reason the three they have given me just aren't up to standard.

My two broken keys. Notice how they broke in the exact same place!

My Chinese students love mottos and idioms and frequently pepper (heavily) their papers with them. But for some reason, the saying "Haste makes waste" fell through the cracks. I've heard so many stories about mistakes made while building something (e.g., forgetting to include a door opening and having to knock it down... TWICE), products carelessly made so you have to go back the next day to have them fix the problem, and countless students pleading with me to give them a second chance when they obviously put no effort in the first time. The list could go on, but I will not.

I don't quite understand this concept. Why not do something right the first time? It will end up saving time in the future and as my students have constantly said "we can never get lost time back". I don't mean to say this only happens in China, it's a universal problem- laziness and a lack of pride in one's work. I've seen this everywhere, but I guess it is just magnified here. Maybe because I'm living so far away from home, I notice things more carefully. Maybe it's just more rampant in China. Or maybe it's a little of both. I don't know.

Anyway, in other news, in July the China 15 invitees will be coming for Pre-Service Training (PST). I'm really looking forward to meeting them! If you happen to be one of them, congratulations!!! If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I'll respond as best I can. In the meantime, I have some packing suggestions.

Things I packed I wish I didn't/Things I'm glad I didn't pack:

Electrical converters and plug adaptors (unless you have a three pronged computer plug, you don't need it)

An umbrella (can easily be bought here)

A winter coat (can easily be bought here... even if you are bigger than Chinese people you can get one tailor made)

Most things can be bought in China, especially in Chengdu where you'll be staying for three months!

Things I am glad I packed/Things I wish I had packed:

Lots of deodorant (difficult to find and when you do, super expensive)

Female products (also expensive here)

Postcards, US coins, US candy, pictures of home (great to show/give to students)

My camera

My laptop (most places here have internet connections)

Clothes for various temperatures (unless you're short and small boned, you won't be able to fit in the clothes here)

Shoes for every occasion (unless you have small feet, bring lots of shoes... they will get muddy in the summer)

A long-lasting flashlight

A planner (if you want to be organized and are used to having a planner, get one in the US... they don't have them in China)

More clothes to go out in (don't just bring business clothing)

Clothes that doesn't stretch easily (there are no dryers here... your clothes will become stretched out and deformed)

Hope this helps!!!

And for those of you who want to see where I call home in China, I have posted some pictures below!

This is my bedroom... notice all the sunlight and the big bed!

This is my small, but cozy kitchen and washing machine.

My Living Room!

I even have a spare bedroom (hint hint... come visit!). This is also where I hang my laundry to dry.

And this is my bathroom... just the squat toilet and a shower head above. The sink in the kitchen works both as a place to wash dishes and dry your hands.

I really like my apartment. Minus the construction that goes on in the morning, it's in a really quiet location, away from the road. And my bedroom gets a lot of sun! Even more importantly, it's a safe building with a locked front gate. I honestly couldn't ask for much more- I have internet access, a hot water heater, a comfortable bed... it's a nice place. Those of you who are coming to China this year as China 15s are always welcome to visit! :)

On Fridays, I don't have any classes. My sitemate left for the city today to meet up with some other PCVs and I decided to stay in Bijie for the weekend since I have lots of work to do.

I woke up to the sound of loud banging this morning, which is pretty common. I looked out my window and saw two workers doing something right below my bedroom. Unfortunately I think it contributed to the killer headache I had all day. In order to escape from the noise, I decided to grab a book and take a bus to 人民公园 （People's Park), which is a fairly large park downtown. Before taking the bus there, however, I decided that I wanted to get a mango shake. On the way there, I passed by one of my favorite restaurants near the school and saw my favorite little girl. Her mother runs the place and my sitemate and I go in there frequently. The reason I like this little girl so much is because she is incredibly friendly and absolutely adorable. She has a great personality. When I first saw her, she came right up to me and gave me a hug! And now whenever she sees me, she smiles and wants to play. This time, when she saw me, she ran outside, grabbed my hand and led me into the restaurant. Since I had my camera, I took some pictures and let her play with it. She enjoyed taking pictures and then seeing what they looked like and she especially enjoyed seeing pictures and videos of herself. Anytime she saw herself, she would start giggling.

Isn't she adorable!? She's showing me her "tickle" fingers. :)

This is a short video I took on my digital camera. The quality isn't very good, but it can give you a good idea of the little girl's personality. :)

After about 15 minutes, I told her I had to get going and that I would see her next time. I started back up the small hill, grabbed my mango shake, and took the bus to the park. When I got there, I was surprised to see so many people, but eventually I found an open park bench and decided to relax there and read. But when you are the one of two foreigners in an area, people are curious about you and want to talk to you. I guess I should have expected that. Sometimes, I enjoy talking with people in Chinese so I can get some practice, but there are other times I just want to relax outdoors. Within two minutes of my sitting down, a horde of young children started screaming “hello” and the few other phrases and words that they knew. I was trying to read so I pretended I didn’t hear them, but they seemed really eager to talk to me, even coming over and sitting down next to me. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to talk to them; in fact, I might have been the first foreigner they had ever met and I thought it important to give them a good impression. It ended up being good Chinese practice since they were pretty young children and couldn’t speak too much English. They knew some basics and they were really excited to try what they knew out on me. What started out as about five children turned into about fifteen or twenty. They asked me to sing English songs to them and give them all English names. I obliged. :) We also took a ton of photos together and they performed a dance for me, which was really cute. Additionally, they gave me some small mementos. I felt guilty taking them and tried to give them back, but they wouldn't let me.

Here is a picture of a ring one of them gave me.

Even though we had a bit of a communication barrier since my Chinese is very limited, I did enjoy getting to know them. I am glad I put my book down. I think it’s really important to be able to get to know the community you’re living in and a great way to do so is to spend time with the children.

A few hours later, I told them I really had to get going since I hadn’t yet eaten and also wanted to go grocery shopping. They didn’t want me to leave; in fact, they followed me to the park exit, begging me to play with them for a little longer. I told them maybe I would come by again this weekend. I would have loved to stay and play with them, but for some reason, I had suddenly felt nauseous and figured that it was a mixture of the warm weather and lack of food in my stomach. I skipped the grocery shopping, but managed to get some food before going back to campus.

Once on campus, I decided to go around and take some pictures. As I was walking around, however, I noticed that the basketball court was pretty packed and went to see what was going on. It turned out that there were multiple basketball games going on between students of the P.E. department. I stayed for a little while. My student “Anny” ended up coming down to watch as well, so we hung out together.

The two pictures above are what you see from the basketball courts.

When it finished, we considered going downtown to get some food and go for a walk since I was hungry. We also saw another one of my students “Stephanie” so the three of us were going to go. But as we were walking to the bus, we saw a bunch of people walking towards the large performance hall on campus. There was a beauty/talent contest going on. The three of us didn’t have tickets, but we decided that we would try to get in and watch instead of going downtown. We were successful although we ended up at the top of the hall. The show wasn’t that great, but there were a few talented singers and dancers amongst the women in the competition. I particularly enjoyed some of the minority dances and songs as well as their beautiful clothing.

The show continued on for a long time and Stephanie and I were starving so the three of us ended up leaving a bit early to grab some food from the cafeteria. Afterward, we went our separate ways since they have their TEM-4 exam tomorrow and it was time for bed. It turned out to be quite a memorable day. I feel like I got the opportunity to connect more with the community. I am considering making a visit to the schools of some of the students I met in the park just to say hello at some point.

Hopefully as my Chinese improves, I will be able to build relationships with more of the members of the community and be able to learn more about Chinese culture. Also, I hope through my interactions, people will have a better understanding of what an American is and learn more about American culture. After all, it is one of the reasons why I am here- to promote cultural understanding.

Last night, my sitemate and I took 14 of our students dancing downtown (pictures will be up shortly). Everyone seemed to be having a good time and we ended up staying out until midnight, which is late for our female students who have curfews at 11pm. Fortunately, one of the girls has a friend who works in a hotel so they were able to get a room for the night and I have a spare bedroom which one of them ended up sleeping in. What I really enjoyed about the night was that everyone was sober (I would never drink excessively with students) and genuinely enjoyed dancing. I liked not having to worry about someone getting drunk and doing something stupid.

This morning, I woke up around 8am and got the chance to talk to my parents on Skype. It's nice to be able to see their faces. I highly recommend downloading Skype to anyone who is going to be leaving their homes for a long period of time. It's a lot easier and cheaper to talk to friends and family!

When I got off the phone, I heard the sounds of children playing. There is an elementary school that is connected to our University so it's quite common to hear them playing around our apartment building. But whenever I hear children playing in the morning, it reminds me of America. The sounds are muffled since I'm two flights up so none of the sounds are distinct. If I am just getting up and preparing for the day, sometimes I forget I am in China because the voices sound just like any children playing and laughing. This is also true at night when I hear the college girls talking, singing, and squealing in their dorm rooms (my kitchen window is right across from one of the girl's dormitories).

It's funny, even though China is very different from the United States, universal human behaviors can blur the fine lines between different cultures. I've come to realize that there are no dichotomies in life; only multiple shades of what some would see as one color. This is one of the reasons why I love to travel so much and why I think traveling can be so eye-opening. If you stay somewhere for a decent period of time, you cease being surprised by the differences and begin to notice the things that tie us all together. There may be construction that goes on all night, the school bell ringing at random hours, merciless horn honking, or the sound of people hawking lugies on the pavement that may snap you back into the reality of being in China. But it's the laughter, the squeals of excitement, and the singing that make you feel as though you really aren't too far away from home.

Back in November, I and five other PCVs were helping to plan our In-Service training (IST) where all the PCVs are invited to Chengdu to meet and talk about things they have learned and pass on knowledge to others. During these IST planning sessions, I remember one of the Peace Corps staff members asking us what we have experienced in China that is similar to being in the US. We all went around the table and one staff member replied, "sometimes people's faces remind me of people I know back home". I hadn't really thought about that until she said something, but it's very true. Although pretty much everyone I have met here is Chinese, many of them remind me of people I know in America. Sometimes it's facial features, other times it is their body language. And when I was living in France, I had the same experience. It's interesting how similar people really are. Or maybe it's a brain trick... a need to categorize that makes it seem that way.

In other news, today is Easter Sunday. My family doesn't celebrate since my father is Hindu, but my sitemate does. She said that typically she has a big breakfast so we made some omelets on toasted bread and some potatoes. We also decided to make some brownies my Mom sent me (thanks Mom) to eat after dinner while watching Harry Potter and grading papers. It was a pretty uneventful, yet delicious day. This semester, however, has been incredibly busy since I've assigned so much work to my students. But so far I'm pleased with the way my classes have turned out and I feel that my teaching methods are much more effective this semester now that I have had time to prepare.

I just spotted an article from Yahoo News which talks about the cows in India and how they are contributing to the problem of global warming. Although, this is apparently "old news" (according to my parents), it was new to me. I also bring it up because I enjoyed reading this paragraph: “By burping, belching and excreting copious amounts of methane – a greenhouse gas that traps 20 times more heat than carbon dioxide - India's livestock of roughly 485 million (including sheep and goats) contribute more to global warming than the vehicles they obstruct (Cows with Gas, http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090411/wl_time/08599189064600)."

The part that reminded me of my visits to India was the idea of animals obstructing vehicles. My family lives in Bangalore and whenever I go to visit, there are always cows all over the road, usually lying around seemingly unaware of the crazy amount of traffic around them. Although they are cute, they are quite dangerous to motorbikes and other traffic in the city. In fact, several years ago, my cousin swerved to avoid a cow and ended up flying off her motorbike. Fortunately, she only had minor injuries, but those kinds of things probably happen daily. I doubt much will be done about the cows though... they are too much a part of the Indian landscape. I love going to India and I love seeing the cows all over the road... it makes me kind of happy 'cause they seem so comfortable in the rapidly changing environment. I hope after my Peace Corps service in China, I will be able to spend some more time in India. Who knows, maybe in a couple of years, I will be talking about the children playing cricket outside of my window and how their laughter reminds me of home.

This week was pretty uneventful, yet I am completely worn out and so glad it's the weekend!

Two weeks ago, the PC doctor came to visit and I had him look at my leg which has had a huge wound on it that I got swimming in Thailand (no idea how or what it is though). He had me go in for some tests, one of them being a bacterial culture. I think it was one of the more painful experiences I've had in a long time! Because the wound was dry, the doctor had to scrape at the wound... it felt like it took three hours, but it was probably more like 10 minutes. Then she asked me to hobble over to another room on the other side of the hospital with my pant leg up and my shoe half-on so I could have them dress the wound. I thought the scraping was over, but I was wrong. I was thrilled when the dressing was finally on and I could leave. Unfortunately, I was told I would have to come back to the hospital every 3 days so they could change the dressing. Yuk!

So I have been to the hospital way more than planned. One of the heads of the hospital, however, has been incredibly hospitable as has the hospital staff. The Chinese hospitals are definitely a lot different from American hospitals. The most noticeable thing is that there is absolutely no privacy- everyone knows what is going on and it is not uncommon for random strangers to stand there and watch you have some sort of procedure done. And this is especially true if you are a foreigner. In order to make my sitemate and me more comfortable when we go to the hospital, the head of the hospital has made sure we have received a lot more privacy. Now whenever I go to the hospital, the doors are locked and no one but the doctor is allowed in. I think it is really sweet that they have taken such care with us and it is greatly appreciated. It is one thing to be stared at on the street, but it's quite another to be stared at while you're not feeling well in a foreign country.

Anyway, the wound seems to be healing finally and I cannot wait to get the dressing permanently off so I can resume running! Before all of this happened, several students had been joining me on my morning runs which was really great! I have decided to participate in a half-marathon in Xiamen next January if I don't have classes. I have a workout schedule and it was really great to be working out again since it always lifts my spirits.

In other news, I think my Chinese is slowly improving. I have been having tutoring and holding "Chinese Corner" so hopefully by the end of my two years here I'll be able to speak a decent amount of Chinese. Today, some students came over and we watched "Amelie" which was nice. I invited a bunch of them to come dancing with my sitemate and me tomorrow. It should be fun!

Today was pretty relaxing. I slept in 'cause I was exhausted from a busy week of English Corner, reading journals, and going to the hospital. Then my sitemate and I went downtown for some dinner and got our nails done. I never get my nails done, but they looked pretty awful and I thought some paint on them would be a good way to prevent further chewing. :) They turned out really great! They are light purple with white flowers on them and my sitemate got some sunflowers painted on hers. For 10 RMB, it's a good deal. My sitemate also wanted to go shopping for shirts... since I am tall and not built like a Chinese person, this is not something I can ever do, but I accompanied her.

Actually, one thing I absolutely hate doing in China is going into clothing stores. In the US, I wear a size medium, but in China I'm considered fat. Whenever I walk into a store, people laugh or refuse to let me try on clothes because they say "I'm too big". It's a great way to deflate your ego! Unfortunately, I really need some new clothes... hmm, maybe I should invest in a sewing machine!

Well, time for bed! I'll post some nail pictures soon! :)

So it's been a while since I've posted... again. So here's a quick update!

The first semester is finally over and I had a wonderful break in Thailand and Cambodia! A bunch of us went as a large group and spent lots of time laying around on the beach. The rest of the time we spent touring around Bangkok and, in Cambodia, Siem Reap. Ankor Wat was absolutely amazing. We tried to get some shots of the sunrise, but unfortunately it was a cloudy day!

This is a picture of the Thailand group after our elephant rides! :) Actually, I even got an elephant massage, which felt like someone smacking me with a paddle. It was funny!

And this picture was taken at the Tiger Temple in Thailand. It wasn't actually a temple; it was a large piece of land with many tigers on it which you could pet and walk with! And there were even baby tiger cubs which were pretty feisty. The older tigers were super tame and seemed to just want to sleep all day. :)

The break was a great way to relax and get ready for the Spring semester. So far, this second semester has been a lot better! I'm prepared and I know how to get around. And what's keeping me in a good mood is the warm Spring weather and beautiful scenery in Bijie!

My classes are going pretty well and my schedule is pretty nice, although I have kept myself incredibly busy by giving my students a journal assignment. I think it's worked out really well because it gives them the opportunity to get individual feedback and I've gotten to know them all a little bit better.

I've found myself a great Chinese language tutor. She happens to be one of my students so her English is decent too. I really hope that my Chinese improves drastically! In addition to the tutoring, I have been holding a "Chinese Corner" in my apartment every Friday and have invited several students over so we can practice speaking in Standard Mandarin. We also speak some English and watch some English movies so everyone wins! :) My students have also come over to cook dinner for me a couple of times, which has been wonderful. Yesterday, they made a fantastic meal (all vegetarian, of course). And my family actually got to see it since they finally got Skype! :) I am able to talk to them much more easily AND I can even see them since we both have web cams.

Anyway, we have an extra day off this weekend because of a Chinese holiday where families get together and go to the tomb of their ancestors so our foreign affairs officer took my sitemate and me on a scenic trip to the mountains of azaleas about two hours from Bijie. It was beautiful! We took lots of pictures and got a chance to walk around the countryside.

There were a few pagodas like the one above where you could stand and take pictures.

The colors were amazing- lots of reds, pinks, and whites dotting the surrounding mountains. I think my Mom would have really enjoyed herself since she loves flowers.

Well, that's it for now! I will try to post again soon!!!

Wow, it's been so long since I've been able to access my blog and I'm super excited! Since my last post, so much has happened that there is absolutely no way for me to fill you in on everything (although I doubt anyone reads this so I may be talking to myself). :) Instead, I will focus on some brief highlights:

My first semester of teaching in China has finally ended... it was difficult for me, but I looked at it as a way to gauge what my students are capable of and interested in as well as a way to get used to the administration, classrooms, and the entire system. I am looking forward to the next semester now that I am more familiar with everything and have been able to get some planning in beforehand (my sitemate and I were thrown in two weeks late last semester). Next semester, I will be teaching two sections of Oral English with students that I am familiar with and I am going to teach an American Culture class. I'm in the planning stages now and am hoping that in addition to some of my classes, English Corner, and Film Night, I will be able to find a way to do some fun extracurricular activities with students and get to know them better. Also, I hope to improve my Chinese a lot in the next couple of months. I have been working a lot on reading characters, but I really need to keep working on speaking. I would ideally like to meet more people in the community.

I think October to December was a down period of my time in China. Not only was it freezing and my heaters broke, but people were incredibly obnoxious and rude. I can deal with staring, giggling, and the hellos, but the rude questions really get to me. I know I am not a typical white foreigner, but I just don't understand how Chinese people think. They first ask me where I am from and when I say America, they automatically think that I am black. Huh? Do they think only black and white people live in America!? Sadly, many Chinese people (especially in more rural areas) really do believe this. What surprises me is that they cannot recognize someone who looks Indian... India is their neighbor to the south! This question is always really frustrating because they cannot seem to wrap their heads around the idea that there are other cultural groups in America. And my Chinese is not good enough to really explain it fully. I tell them that my father is Indian, but then (even though I have said that I am an American) they ask me all about India.

The question that really really hurts, however, is usually asked by Chinese women (typically in their 40's) which is whether I am a man or woman. Seriously!? Just because I am tall and not "fair-skinned", I am a man!? And who even asks someone that question!? This question not only makes me feel awful about myself, but it makes me feel a lot of hatred towards Chinese people, especially because more than half of the people in my town are of questionable gender and the woman who usually ask me those questions look like they just crawled out of a garbage can, hawking lugies and acting like monkeys. How is it possible for low-class people like this to mistake me for a man? And how low-class can you possibly be to even pose a question like that to someone? I frequently wonder whether people I see on the street are even human, but I don't go up to them and actually ask.

What also added to my negativity was being away from family and friends during Christmas. Not to mention that I sprained my ankle the day after Christmas, which did not help matters. It was slippery outside and I was rushing to catch a bus to Zunyi for a party and since my shoes did not have any traction, I slipped and landed on my ankle. Despite all of this, I managed to get into a taxi and took the bus to Zunyi with my sitemate. The party ended up being really fun and it was nice to see people, but it made for a difficult weekend. It has been over a month since falling on my ankle and I am still unable to run on it, which is disappointing since now that it is vacation time, it would be a perfect opportunity to work out!

After all of this awful-ness, I realized that I really needed to find a way to make myself happy and made two New Year's resolutions: 1. Exercise more since this always makes me feel good, and 2. Try to look at the positive things rather than focusing on the negative. Since I am naturally cynical, the second resolution is going to be a challenge, but I think it's necessary if I want to enjoy my time in China. Additionally, I don't want to come away from this experience with negative feelings; rather I came here to learn and to help. I need to be more tolerant and understanding of where people are coming from, even if they do not reciprocate. China has been closed for so long, I need to remind myself that I am not like anyone they have probably ever seen before. This is going to be a challenge for me, but I think the more I find people in the community that I can talk with and get to know and the better I can speak and understand Chinese, the easier this goal will be to achieve.

So far, I have met some great people in this town with whom I hope to establish friendships. One is a professor in the foreign language department who has given me a lot of insight and ideas with respect to teaching Chinese students. He has sat in on some of my classes, which has been great. Another has been my tutor who is a very sweet and thoughtful person. Her Mandarin is also easy for me to understand so she's a great person to talk to. She has introduced me to some of her friends too who are also incredibly warm and kind. Lastly, my sitemate and I met a man from XinJiang in the northwest part of China. He has lived in Bijie for quite a while now and he's known in the area to be generous and thoughtful. He is really interesting to talk to and he is really hospitable. In fact, today when my sitemate and I were walking downtown, we visited him and he treated us to lunch. His Mandarin is also much easier to understand compared to other Bijie ren.

Additionally, there are always amazingly funny and fun things in China. Here are my top 12:

12. Hearing people say the words "unusually" and "delicious"... even better when they are both in the same sentence. The best is coming to the realization that you are starting to forget English grammar (e.g., "I go-ed there yesterday") and simple words.

11. Getting a permed mullet (which literally took 6 hours) and then bringing my counterpart teacher over to explain how to fix my hair to make it look normal.

10. Trying to walk back home from English corner in the dark and being attacked by crazy toads attempting to crawl up your pant leg... from then on, referring to flashlights as "frog detectors".

9. Trying to fit into the bathroom on the bus which was made for people half as tall... and then trying to actually use the squat toilet.

8. Accidentally making a wrong turn and being surrounded by yak heads and people burning off the hair and slaughtering animals... or making a wrong turn to find the same situation only it is dog bodies (these animal experiences are never funny nor fun... just too memorable not to list). Another one that goes along with this is sitting on the bus and hearing clucking or "cock-a-doodle-doo" sounds coming from the bamboo basket next to you as a large chicken or rooster tries to escape, feathers flying in every direction.

7. Realizing that the "hellos" people scream at us sound like bleating goats

6. People seriously digging for gold in their noses in banks and other public places

5. Creating super long chopsticks to try to get my sitemate's razor out of her squat toilet

4. Cute text messages from students: "I open my pocket find no money. I open my walt find no coins. I open my life find you. Then I know I need you! Happy New Year! Live in China, I hope you can feel warm. Because of me." or "1 day later, happy silent night. 2 day later, merry christmas. 8 day later, happy new year. 33 day later, happy chinese spring day. 52 day later, happy valentine's day! Well! I am so early!"

3. Asking for fries at a restaurant and getting a napkin full of salt

2. Going rollerblading around another PCV's campus and stalker caroling

1. My sitemate and I being dressed up as Brides of Frankenstein for a performance for disabled people (no idea why, but it was fun and my sitemate and I got some awesome pictures out of it)

In other news, all of the Peace Corps volunteers met in Chengdu for a mid-semester conference in early January. It was cool to see everyone now that they are settled at their sites. Afterward, people went their separate ways, enjoying their vacations. I went with another Peace Corps volunteer to Chongqing and then to Kangding, which was cold, but very beautiful. We went to the sulphur springs and walked around the small town. There were many Tibetans wearing their traditional clothing and speaking both Mandarin and Tibetan. We also saw a lot of yaks and drank some yak butter tea (I cannot begin to describe the taste). All around Kangding are mountains, carvings of Buddhist figures etched into some and despite the cold temperature, the sun was shining brightly and the sky was a beautiful blue. I also got the chance to visit BeiBei, an area right outside of the large city of Chongqing. Chongqing was a complete 180 from Bijie. It's huge and diverse and the amount of staring was much much less. In fact, one of my friends in Chongqing teaches at a University which has a large population of Indian students! It was so great to see Indian faces! While I was in Chongqing, I even got the chance to talk to an Indian man from Madras who makes pancakes in one of the malls!

And in late January, my sitemate and I went to Guiyang and spent Chinese New Year there. It was insane! The noise is indescribable... it sounded like what I would imagine a war zone would sound like. My sitemate, two other PCV's, and I went to a small mountain and watched the scene from up there. People were lighting fireworks from the windows of their apartments! And there were explosions all over the city. Police were watching everything happen... people lighting boxes of fireworks everywhere. Actually, I'm surprised more people weren't seriously hurt. It was amazing to see though!

In mid-February, I will be heading to Thailand and Cambodia... so excited! All of us in the group I am traveling with are going to fly from Shenzhen to Bangkok and spend a couple of days there. Then we will spend one day in Cambodia at Ankor Wat. During one of the days in Bangkok, we are going to visit the floating market and the Tiger Temple, which apparently has actual tigers surrounding it. Additionally, we may also ride elephants! The remainder of the time we are going to be spending in the southern part of Thailand on the beach! I totally wish I was able to run/work out before leaving so people don't mistake me for a beached whale, but I guess there's nothing I can do about that!

Well, I really hope I will be able to continue posting to my blog! I have been keeping a detailed journal anyway, so when I get back to the US, I will be able to remember and share my experiences with those who care to listen.

I finally got the package that my parents sent. It had toothpaste, razors, sandals, and some knitting looms inside. The sandals fit and I like them... I will just have to wait until it gets warmer to use them, but now I can throw my broken sandals away. Also they sent me my favorite type of yarn. I am glad to have my knitting looms so I can make some things for winter and my sitemate and I found a great yarn shop where we can purchase a lot of yarn... it's not as good as the yarn my parents sent me, but it's better than nothing! I was able to get a tapestry needle there, which I really needed so that was good. The package has actually been waiting for me for a couple weeks now, but I was never told anything until this week.

This week was awful and frustrating for so many reasons. Wednesday morning I got up and went to my class at 8am as I always do and no students were around. I called my counterpart teacher who had no idea why. She sent the librarian over who also didn't know anything and had to call someone. Finally they found out that my classroom was moved. I was so mad that no one even bothered to tell me. What made it worse was that my class doubled in size from 34 students to 60! Again, no one told me and my lesson was planned for 34 students. Needless to say it was a very painful two hours. Afterward, I went to my next class which had also doubled in size without anyone telling me and I had to suffer through it for another two hours. Right afterward, I had my office hour and some random guy came in telling me that he wanted to meet with me once a week to practice English. He is a private teacher of a primary school in town. I told him that I was too busy and that I wouldn't be able to. He was very insistent so I just left my office. I don't like when people assume that I am going to drop everything to teach them English... it isn't my job to teach everyone English. My job is to teach English to 350 University students. Anyway, it's really important here to find people who genuinely want to be friends with you since many people are just interested in improving their English. Since my sitemate and I are the only two foreigners in town, I have a feeling people will try to exploit that a lot.

Anyway, both of us are very frustrated that we are never told anything about our classes. Earlier in the semester, I was not told I had classes and now I'm not told when my classroom moves or when my class doubles in size. My sitemate has experienced similar issues. My sitemate decided to call our waiban to schedule a meeting to let everyone know how we feel about not being informed of things we should be informed about. Hopefully these things will be resolved- or at least made a little better in the future. I know we're in China and things don't run the same way as they do in the US, but not being told such important details is something I can't work around. I do a lot of group work in my classes and activities which require me to know how many students I will have in my class so having my class unknowingly double in size is not going to benefit my students or allow me to do the job I was asked to do. To make matters worse, I've had some classroom related issues and other administrative issues that I will not/cannot get into here. These things are probably the most disconcerting and I really hope I will be able to remedy them soon; otherwise I might explode.

On the up side, my sitemate and I made some amazingly delicious tacos a couple of night ago to ease our frustrations. We used her Mom's homemade salsa and some slices of her American cheese, along with tomatoes and beans and we toasted it in the toaster oven. They were so good we had three each! It was definitely a good treat after such a terrible week.

Additionally, yesterday’s class went really well and their role plays were fantastic. After my class, my tutor, sitemate, and I all went shopping. I wanted to buy a warm fleece that I could put underneath my sweater, but nothing fit me in the arms. It was kind of fun trying though because I got the opportunity to speak a lot of Chinese. After lots of clothes shopping attempts, we went to the yarn shop and bought some yarn. It was kind of expensive and I'm not too sure the yarn will be thick enough for my loom, but I'll find out soon enough. Anyway, after getting yarn, my tutor invited my sitemate and I to eat with her and her friends. They were very nice- one of them was from Sichuan and the other from Chongqing. Again, neither one of them spoke English so it was a great opportunity for me to speak Chinese. I actually feel like my comprehension is much much better than it was in Chengdu. I understand most of what people say if they speak standard Mandarin. My Chinese is slowly getting better, but nowhere near where I would like it to be. Anyway, after dinner, we went to a singing competition at the school. It was fun to listen to some of the students perform. It was a good end to the week since most of it was pretty awful. I am looking forward to what I hope will be a relaxing weekend of grading papers, knitting, and watching movies!

I celebrated my 27th birthday in China. The plan was to wake up early and hike up to Ning Feng temple and then my sitemate and I were going to get massages. However, when I woke up, it was raining and it would have been dangerous to climb a mountain to go to a temple... not to mention, that it probably wouldn't have been very fun either. Instead, my sitemate and I went shopping for some winter clothes and picked up a birthday cake. Then we met our counterpart teacher who took us to get massages and manicures. After our manicures, we got back to our respective apartments and some of the students came over and cooked a TON of food! They began cooking around 7pm and it took about three hours! They ended up making seven dishes and all but one was vegetarian since they know I don't eat meat. They ended up staying until midnight because it took us about two hours to eat and have cake and everything. It was really great having them over. And I told them that I would really like to have weekly get-togethers with students where we speak in Chinese so I can practice. They seemed to like the idea since we have English corner every week where they all talk to us in English, so hopefully it'll end up being something useful. Throughout the day, I also received a lot of text messages from students wishing me a happy birthday and I had a lot of phone calls from students, my friends in the US, and my Dad. My brother Brandon ended up calling me too and we talked briefly. Being busy on my birthday was good because if I was just sitting in my apartment, I would have been really homesick!

Here is a photo of my birthday feast!

And here are our nails and birthday cake! :)

你好！

现在我会写汉字！ 我的外办送给我“搜狗”拼音。 ：） Now I can write emails to my host mother in Hanzi because my waiban gave me a program for my computer. Pretty good, eh?

Last Friday, I had one of the best classes I’ve ever had… and it was with 60 students! Because it is such a big class and I wanted to encourage a lot of participation, I chose to do an activity that allowed them to all work together and also help them to practice multiple things related to speaking. I wrote out six different stories with ten lines each and made sure that some of the sentences could be left out in case I had any absent students. Then I wrote out each line on different colored paper. I gave each student one line, making sure to give my lowest students the easier lines. Then I gave them about ten minutes to memorize their line by writing it down or telling the person next to them. While they were doing this, I wrote the subject of each story on the board along with how many people had lines related to the same story. I also walked around to make sure people understood the directions. Once the ten minutes was up, I took the strips of paper away from the students and explained that I wanted them to piece together the six different stories. I told them how the groups were set up and demonstrated how there were two red, two orange, two yellow, two green, and two blue lines for each of the stories so they could make sure that they had the correct people in their groups. After I explained all the directions very clearly, I asked the students to stand up and find their group members. It was really fun! Students were laughing, speaking in English, and working really hard to piece their stories together. Afterward, all of the groups wanted to volunteer to “read” their stories, which does not happen very often in China! They clapped for each other and listened to each other too!

After everyone finished reading their stories, I asked them why they thought we did this activity and how it helped their oral English. We went over how it was useful and then briefly discussed the importance of coherence and cohesiveness which I am planning to talk about in the upcoming week. I explained how I felt it was important to go over because during their introductions, they did not really tie their sentences together and I felt it was an important thing to practice.

It was a well needed end to a somewhat challenging week. To top it off, my sitemate and I left for Guiyang last Friday evening and the weekend turned out to be a lot of fun. Once we got into Guiyang, we spent time with a bunch of the other volunteers. I spent the night at another volunteer's place and she made us some French toast in the morning which was fantastic. The next day, a group of us went for massages! It only cost 38 kuai and they do a full body massage for an hour and a half… it was well worth it. Afterwards, I bought a Chinese shirt that I thought was amusing for the welcome party. Towards the end of the night some of us decided that we would extend the time we hung out and we went and got some street snacks and talked for a little bit longer. My sitemate and I left for Bijie the next day, but not before we picked up some American food at the Wal-Mart in Guiyang to take back with us.

The bus station in Guiyang was absolutely awful and made me really angry for the rest of the day. First of all, we took a public bus to get to the train station and I kept getting hit into which is really annoying. Then, once we got to the train station, people kept harassing us and we couldn’t find the ticket booth for Bijie. In order to purchase bus tickets in China, you have to go to the correct counter and there are a million different possibilities. After much running around, we finally found it and I asked for two tickets for 5pm. The lady made a face at me and laughed, then told the cashier next to her to stare at us and laugh. I hate that- especially because she obviously understood me because she gave both of us two tickets.

It’s interesting how different my experiences are each day in China. Sometimes things seem to be going really well and the stares and other small things don’t really bother me. Then there are other days when things don’t go as well and I just get really upset or mad. I try to wake up each morning thinking positive things and telling myself to give people the benefit of the doubt (e.g., the people are just nervous or curious and that’s why they are laughing or saying hello). Doing this really seems to help me because if I brush off the little things, my days end up going very well. The only thing that I can control is how I react to the situations in front of me and since I am going to be living here for two years, I think it’s necessary that I look at things as positively as possible… otherwise I would go crazy. I am living in a country so different from my own and I know I need to expect the frustrations that come with this type of experience… it’s just challenging sometimes. I hope I get better at it as the two years go by!

Anyway, this past week was very busy, but really enjoyable. However, because National Holiday is next week, all of us must make up missed classes by teaching on Saturday and Sunday.

Students have been asking me to spend time with them and I am really enjoying getting to know them. On Tuesday evening, I went to yoga with a student who participates in a lot of the English extra-curricular activities and who speaks very well. Yoga was really fun, but I was incredibly sore afterwards! We actually stayed for two back-to-back yoga classes and then the yoga instructor invited us to eat with her and her husband. It was enjoyable spending time with people who speak Chinese! I feel like I never get a chance to speak Chinese unless I am with my tutor since all of my students speak English and want to practice and when I am not in class, I am usually doing English related activities. The dinner was great and the yoga instructor and I had a lot in common! She is actually the first Chinese vegetarian that I met and on top of it, she has the same birthday as I do (not the same year though)!

On Wednesday, I was incredibly busy because I taught two classes, had office hours, and then had to go to the police station to get my visa renewed. It ended up taking forever. On a positive note, I finally got the opportunity to speak to my Mom whose voice I haven’t heard in three months! When she first called I couldn’t really speak with her because it was film night, but I did get the chance to talk to her afterward for a little while. During film night, 120 students packed in to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Unfortunately there was something wrong with the sound so the actors sounded like high pitched chipmunks, but none of the students noticed and in the end it didn’t really matter. I think the students really enjoyed the movie. Their reactions were great because they would gasp and laugh at all the same parts. And sometimes the things my sitemate and I thought were the funniest were not understood by the students, so we alone were laughing. It ended up being a great turnout and hopefully next film night, we will have just as many students!

Thursday was also an extremely busy day because I had two classes, tutoring, office hour and English corner! In fact, I didn’t even get a chance to really go home until about 9:30pm! Tutoring was good… I met with a student who also tutored the two previous volunteers. I am only going to meet with her once a week and we are doing a language exchange which should be great. She would like me to teach her English pronunciation, which I look forward to. We spoke a lot of Chinese and she was able to explain things to me in English, but also help me to practice speaking Chinese. After tutoring I had my office hour and one of my freshman came in to talk to me. She is such a sweet girl and her English is really good, especially for a first year student. She has a very warm smile and she is very patient. She taught me some more Chinese and she spoke with me about her hometown. During English corner, she even brought some pictures of the Great Wall and of some of her friends and family. After she came, another student who likes me to look at her English poetry, came in and wanted me to help her. I was very hungry so I asked her if she would go to the cafeteria with me instead. I felt really bad though because she ended up paying for my meal, which happens quite frequently in China since they feel it is hospitable and something they should do when they have a guest. Anyway, in the evening my sitemate and I had English corner, which is a little frustrating because we get asked the same questions over and over again even though we have set a theme for the week. Our theme was related to people’s hometowns and sites that they would take a friend to if they were showing them around. We thought this was a good theme because then we could learn more about what to see in China and we could teach students more about tourist attractions in America. But just like last week, we were asked the same questions (e.g., how do you like Bijie, why did you come to China, how are Chinese students different from American students, can you eat with chopsticks, are you accustomed to Chinese food, etc.). It really needs to be reorganized because I think English corner could be a lot more beneficial for students if they could all hear each other's questions and also all be able to ask questions related to a particular theme. Asking the same questions every week is not really helping them.

Friday was a good day, although my class seemed pretty tired and out of it. I had them write the ending to Lady and the Tiger after a discussion about coherence and cohesion. Some groups did a really great job, but some students didn’t seem to understand the story or maybe the directions even though I drew pictures, read the story twice using many hand gestures, and wrote the instructions on the board. I'm not sure how I could do a better job so that the entire class understands. The only other option would be to give them handouts, but it takes three days for me to get approval for my handouts by the department and then another couple of days for the librarian to make the copies. Plus, if I make a lot of copies, the students have to pay for them and I don't want them to spend extra money that they may not have. Anyway, when I came home I made myself some fantastic pasta! I am so happy I got some pasta and tomato sauce in Guiyang!!! Even though it was really expensive, it felt so nice to have some pasta for lunch like I frequently do in America. :)

Today I had my tutoring session with my other tutor and we ended up having a two hour conversation all in Chinese! We spoke about religions in China and India as well as about our families. She also helped me to install a pinyin program on my computer so I can now write letters in Hanzi to my host mother. We also used it as a translation program when we didn’t understand each other. Afterwards, my sitemate and I went to my student’s apartment for a fantastic dinner with her and some of my other students. We also got the chance to walk around the city and have snacks. They are very nice and I hope we can do it again.

I am really glad students are actually inviting us to spend time with them. On Sunday, we are most likely going hiking with a student for her birthday which should be a lot of fun and on Monday a student of mine invited me to have tea. On Tuesday, I will probably be going to the house of a freshman student of mine for National Holiday. She wrote me a letter telling me how much she would love to have me visit and I am really looking forward to it. However, I am also nervous because I am not sure how long she wants me to stay and I will have to take the bus by myself because she wants to go home earlier. I guess I'll just figure everything out when I get there! Tomorrow I am going to buy my ticket with her if all goes well. I hope everyone will be safe during the holiday and have an enjoyable week with their families and friends!

A couple of days ago, my sitemate and I went to an English department meeting to meet the rest of the English teachers. We ended up only staying for about 10 minutes. They asked us to come in and introduce ourselves and we explained our degrees and experience as well as some other information about us. However, when the other English teachers introduced themselves to us, we only got their names. Maybe they were a little nervous, but I would have liked to have gotten to know a little bit more about them because I hope in the future, we will be able to collaborate or at least have some conversations!

Afterward, our counterpart teacher told us that we were going to have a banquet in the evening. We had a good time because we were taught how to play mahjongg and I had a chance to use a couple of Chinese phrases. Anyway, on the car ride over to the banquet, Tang, our Foreign Affairs Officer, told us that he had his freshman classes, which we thought was strange since our schedules told us we wouldn't have freshman classes until next week. I asked him about it and he told me to ask our counterpart teacher during the banquet. When I asked her, she told me to just follow my schedule and she would look into it. I did exactly as she said. However, that Wednesday morning at 11:30am, she called me to say that I actually did have classes, which meant that my students waited for me and I never showed up! I feel so awful, but at the same time, it really wasn't my fault since I wasn't told in advance and my schedule as well as the information we were given on our site visit clearly said that our freshman classes would not start until September 22nd. This situation was really upsetting to me, but I guess there isn't anything I can do about it and next week I am just going to inform my classes as to what happened.

Other than that, this week has been fairly uneventful. I went to pick up my coat from the tailor on Wednesday, but it was too small, so they have to re-do it. I am going to pick it up tomorrow so hopefully it will fit. I had a feeling it was going to be too small because when I went to the tailor, he only measured me for length, arm length, the width of my shoulders, and bust. He did not measure around my hips which is the largest part and no where near what they are probably used to making. So when I tried the jacket on, the length and arm length were fine, but it wouldn't fit around my hips. He was very nice about it, apologizing 20 times and re-measuring me. Again, however, he failed to measure my hips and I tried to show him that he should. He just reassured me that it would be bigger next time... I guess I'll see! I really hope it fits because I don't feel like going back and forth a million times and I'm sure he really doesn't want to have to make it all over again. I am not sure whether the coat will be warm enough or not, but if it isn't, I can always get a fleece made or find something warm to put under it.

Today was a very tiring day. I had two lessons as well as my office hours and later in the evening we had English Corner. My lessons were very frustrating because no one wanted to participate and most of the students had no idea what was going on. I only realized later that I was speaking too fast and they weren’t getting as much of the information as I thought they were. In the future, I will have to make sure that I speak much more slowly and also do more comprehension checks.

English Corner lasted for an hour and a half. Since it was pouring and thundering outside, we went inside the first floor of the art building. There were so many people and all of them were interested in learning more about my sitemate and me. We got asked many of the same questions: What do you like about being here?, Do you like Chinese food?, Do you think Chinese is difficult?, What are your hobbies?, Why did you decide to volunteer?, How does your hometown compare to this area of China?, How is the weather in America?, etc. Though I enjoyed much of it, especially the energy of the students, I could tell that they were not listening to one another because I was asked many of these questions ten different times! But some of the conversations were enjoyable and some students even asked if I wanted to visit their hometown sometime, which I thought was very nice and welcoming. I would love to see more of Guizhou province and China in general so I think I will take some of them up on their offers!

I was extremely impressed by the younger children who came to speak English to us. One of them was a little six year old boy named Dick and he was absolutely adorable! His English is so great and he doesn’t even have an accent. There was another boy named Edison who is twelve years old and also very good at English. Also, there was a young thirteen year old girl who spoke the best English in the entire group… I was very amazed at her ability to converse so clearly! I hope they come next week- I would love to take a picture of them! The smallest boy liked to make jokes and laugh and the other boy liked to ask riddles (e.g., How many birthdays does a person have?). All three of them had very nice personalities. Many of the freshman who came to English corner also seemed very enthusiastic.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to this weekend because I am going to Guiyang for a welcome party. The China 13's are welcoming us new volunteers who have come to Guizhou province. Additionally, many Peace Corps volunteers have birthdays around this time so we will be celebrating those too. It's funny that so many of the PCV's have birthdays in late September/early October. I am excited for my birthday and the packages I am receiving from my Mom and from David! :)

The past few days at the hotel in Chengdu were interesting. All 36 volunteers were finally all together again and it was nice to catch up with some of them. Unfortunately, it went by really quickly and we never really got to say goodbye.

The ceremony went pretty well though. My speech was okay, but I was unable to see the tone markings since they did not put the lights on when I went up to read!

Anyway, my sitemate and I finally got into Bijie after a 17 hour train ride and 4 hour drive and are currently trying to settle into our new apartments and new lives for the next two years. The majority of my time in Bijie has been spent cleaning my apartment, familiarizing myself with the school and town, and also running some errands, such as establishing a bank account and also preparing my resident visa application and foreign export card so I can stay in China! We also got new phone numbers and met a couple of our students along the way. Some of them are really friendly and excited that we will be their teachers! One girl came up to me and started a conversation, asking how she could improve her oral English and two other girls came up to both of us later and tried to speak with us too. One of them even helped my sitemate buy some fruit and they wanted to help carry all of our stuff to our apartments.

The people in Bijie have been really friendly so far. The staff is very welcoming and I have had a couple of classes so far with very nice and enthusiastic students. The first few days in Bijie were a little overwhelming because my sitemate and I weren't exactly sure what classes we were going to be teaching! We were given two schedules and were asked to choose which one we wanted. The majority of the classes are Oral English and the other courses are British culture. Because my sitemate preferred to teach the British culture classes and I wanted only the Oral English courses, we figured out a way to move things around so we would have an equal number of courses and also be able to teach the things that we wanted to teach. I am currently teaching most of the Oral English classes and my sitemate will be teaching all of the British culture courses and one of the Oral English courses. My courses have already started, but hers begin later in the semester because she is teaching the freshman English course. In the beginning of the school year, the freshman students spend the five first weeks doing military training.

I don’t mind that my courses started right away because it has given me something to do. Otherwise I would be spending most of my time in my apartment reading, watching TV, or emailing people. I think it’s important for me to get to know the people in the community and show my face. I enjoy living in a foreign country and not being able to understand everything. The little things in life become a challenge and, although at times this can be frustrating, I enjoy these little successes and failures. If I succeed at my task, it feels really great and when I fail, I know where my limits are in the language and in terms of knowing the culture. Sometimes I feel as if I am three years old because my knowledge of Mandarin is not extensive and I don’t know everything about the culture, but it makes life really interesting. In the United States, it is very easy to get stuck in a routine and life can become very mechanical. In China, however, I don’t think I could truly get into a routine because I don’t have the capacity to be on auto-pilot in Chinese. Sure, I can go to similar places everyday and do similar things, but people here are so curious about the waiguoren (foreigner) that I am frequently meeting new people and being asked new questions.

Tomorrow I am going to meet my tutor, which I am really looking forward to. I cannot wait to speak more Chinese! I just hope my tutor and I click and I will be able to learn the language well. I would first like to go over some of the characters for different foods that I can eat around here. Each province has a different way of preparing foods and they are also slightly different. For example, in Sichuan province, my favorite food is four spiced beans, which are spicy green beans. I haven’t been able to find this dish here in Bijie. Instead, I have had a lot more soups, red beans, and potatoes. Some of the potatoes I have had in Bijie are fantastic!!!

In China, if you are hungry, you can choose to eat noodles or dishes. If you choose to eat noodles, you go to a small noodle shop and order your own bowl. Typically this is less expensive than going out for dishes. Usually a bowl of noodles is about 5-6 yuan. If you decide to order dishes, you order enough food for everyone at the table and they are placed in the middle of the table where everyone has access to them. Typically you just grab what you would like to eat with your chopsticks and place it into your bowl. Rice is typically served towards the end of the meal. At the end of the meal, one person typically pays for the entire thing. Each dish costs between 4-8 yuan depending on what type of restaurant you go to and whether you order meat or not. It is a very big deal in China to treat people to a meal and it is a sign of hospitality. It is also very important to make sure it is reciprocated, but it can be tricky because they will be very adamant about paying in an attempt to show their hospitality back. It is best to secretly give the server the money before the meal is over.

Education here is pretty different from the US. Every morning when I walk to my first class, I see students with books in hand reading out loud. Classes are predominately lecture style and students have been taught to study by rote memorization and by reading things over and over again. Classes end around 5:30pm and students go off and study, spend time with their friends, and late at night if you walk around, you can spot some couples in quiet places cuddling and whispering to each other or walking around arm in arm. It is not really appropriate here in China to hold hands or get close to members of the opposite sex, so the only time this really happens is in the dark of the night. I ran on the track a couple of days ago, and there were many couples slowly walking around arm in arm or in the field talking quietly.

Today was Teacher’s Day in China and I received some Yunnan tea from some of my students, which I look forward to trying. One of my students also wrote me a poem which I thought was very nice. After my two classes were finished, my sitemate and I went to our waiban’s office to meet the Vice-President of the school. He didn’t speak any English so I tried to speak to him in Chinese… it wasn’t very good, but I think he appreciated the effort! He presented us with yue bing, which is Moon Cake. Moon cake is eaten during Mid-Autumn festival, which happens to be September 14th of this year. This festival is related to a Chinese story in which Chang’E drinks an elixir that causes her to rise up to the moon. She and her husband miss each other very much and on September 14th of this year, when the moon is at its brightest, it is said that Chang’E and Hou Yi (her husband) can see each other. People light incense on this day and pray for good fortune and peace and typically set up a picnic outside with family, while eating moon cake and chatting with one another. Moon cake is very expensive and it was a very nice gift to give to us. After meeting the Vice-President, in celebration of Teacher’s Day and the start of the semester, the English department invited us to a banquet, which was lots of fun. The head of the Foreign Affairs Office sang a beautiful Chinese song and we all drank wine and ate lots of good food together. The meal lasted for about two and a half hours and we had many toasts to friendship and good health. It was a very nice day and so far everything is going very well.

So much has happened since I last wrote. Here is a massive update for you all... enjoy!

August 8, 2008

I am doing the seminar tomorrow and I am pretty nervous about it since it will be in front of my peers. Last night I wrote up a list of activities the volunteers can use in a classroom. I think they are all just looking for some practical information that they can take with them in the classroom. In writing up the activities, I spoke about how they help with language as well as content so that they will be able to write up some language objectives more effectively. Tonight I am going to work on putting everything together so it is organized and then making up a couple of class scenarios that they may encounter and see how they would plan to handle the class. Hopefully this ends up being a very useful lesson... at least I have some tangible things that I can show them.

Although I will miss my students, I am really glad we have finished model school because it means we are a step closer to being volunteers! One student bought me a pearl necklace which is really really beautiful and another student bought each of us paper cut-outs of the Chinese animals in Chinese astrology. It makes me feel guilty taking these things from students, but it seems like a pretty common thing for students to give presents to their teachers. The students who took me to the temple last Saturday also ended up paying for my lunch and for admission into the temple. I didn't spend any money because they refused to take it.

My poor clothes... there are no dryers here so all of my clothes has stretched out and looks really awful. And unfortunately I can't get any new clothes 'cause they won't fit me. On top of it, my sandals are really smelly because of the rain and mud and I know I smell awful every day! :) I look forward to the cooler weather!

Anyway, today is the start of the Beijing 2008 Olympics. The opening ceremony starts at 8pm and it should be really exciting. I know China has worked really hard to make sure it is successful and I hope that it turns out to be safe and enjoyable. Ah, let’s hope it’s peaceful!

August 10, 2008

My seminar went well yesterday. People came up to me and said they were really happy with it because they felt they could finally tie things together and get some practical information. Some trainees even asked me to send them my notes and other materials and the Peace Corps TEFL director said she was pleased with how it went as well. They want me to write up the lesson plan so they can keep in with Peace Corps Headquarters.

Today was nice. The whole family took the bus downtown and we went to two streets which resemble old China. They were both beautiful. I felt a little uncomfortable though because they wouldn't let me buy anything. I wanted to buy myself a deck of playing cards that had different scenic pictures of China and my host mom ended up paying the cashier without me knowing! Then they bought me food, drinks, and ice cream all day. To top it off, we walked into a really nice store full of silk clothing and people making the silk and hand painting it and my host family bought me a beautiful silk scarf with hand painted flowers on it!

I am only going to be with my host family for two more weeks. This week I am going to be here, then next week I will be visiting my permanent site. Then I will come back for one more week before going to my permanent site and starting classes. Today my host sister said, "I wish it wasn't just two months... I wish it were two years." I thought that was pretty cute. I told her I would stuff her into my suitcase. :) I also told her that if she ever visits the US, she has to come and visit me.

August 12, 2008

Well, today I got my site and I will be going to Bijie in Guizhou Province, which is where I wanted to go. My sitemate is a girl named Lisa who is really nice. She is training over at Sichuan Normal University so I don't see her too much, but I like her. She's very social and fun so I think we'll get along once we get to know each other better.

Bijie is a very small city in the northern part of Guizhou province. We will be the second group of PCV's there and there are no other foreigners in the town so I guess we are going to be pretty isolated. We are 21 hours away from Chengdu by train and I will be four hours away from Guiyang, which is the capital of Guizhou province. The group that is going to Guizhou is wonderful... I am really pleased. Guizhou province has a lot of beautiful scenery and there are azaleas everywhere. Bijie is a mountainous area and the weather seems to be in the low 70's which is great.

The water and electricity is scarce so the PCVs before us said you don't always get a shower... that's okay though... that's not something that really bothers me too much. As long as I am safe, the site sounds good! Next week we are all going to our sites to check them out!

August 13, 2008

I am going to give a speech in Chinese at the Swearing in ceremony in September! Another guy going to Guizhou who is super nice is also going to give a speech so both of us have to plan them together and speak for three minutes each.

Today was interesting. We had to go to school early and were given a bunch of tasks involving the buses and trains. We ended up having to get on a bus to go downtown and then we had to find the bus station and ask a bunch of questions related to the bus system. Then we had to find a bus that took us to the train station, which was also really far away and then had to ask more questions. At the end a lot of us ended up getting western food downtown. There aren't too many places around here where you can get western food so it was a good treat! The activity helped me realize that I actually have a lot of Chinese. I was able to have conversations with some people about where I'm from and why I'm in China and I was able to do all the tasks on the sheet.

August 15, 2008

Today was pretty crappy 'cause I felt absolutely awful. The doctor came over and looked at me and then did a strep test... unfortunately it was positive so now I'm on penicillin.

After I got back from the doctor, I finished up class because today we had language simulations where we had to go to four different rooms where we would be presented with different scenarios. A different teacher was in each room along with some students that they asked to help them out. If you did not do things correctly, they would kick you out of the classroom and you would have to prepare and do it over again. Fortunately I passed all four without being kicked out! I wish I knew more connector words though so I could tie sentences together and make things smoother. My sentences are really choppy and it takes me forever to formulate what I am going to say. And oftentimes I will have to repeat my sentence in the correct order since the Chinese language structure is different in English and I haven’t learned to think completely in Chinese yet. Hopefully in two years all of this will come!

August 24, 2008

Lisa and I just got back from our site visit to Bijie and I think our experience at the school will be a positive one. I am looking forward to getting there. Unfortunately, all of us will be coming into our universities late because classes actually start tomorrow and they have to wait for us for two weeks. As of now (and I say that because things here frequently change at the last minute), I am teaching 3 classes of freshman and 3 classes of sophomore Oral English as well as two British Culture classes of junior students.

Anyway, today, my host family took me to a place called Longquan, which is where they are moving in a couple of weeks. Apparently they got new jobs there so we went to look for a place for them to live. The city is really nice and the apartment they chose is beautiful so I'm really happy for them.

Afterwards, I asked my host mom to help me to buy a belt since there are no dryers here and my pants are HUGE on me. I have also been losing weight since I got here from being sick too. I got a leather belt for 50 yuan (I bargained from 68 yuan). It was fun bargaining in Chinese. :)

I am currently writing my speech for the swear in ceremony and also studying a little Chinese since we have an exam on Wednesday to see what our proficiency level is. It's a lot of pressure so I am nervous... hopefully it all works out! I have been really sick ever since coming back from Bijie... I think I must have eaten something bad... I hope it goes away soon!

August 30, 2008

A lot has happened since I last wrote. We all had our language proficiency interviews and unfortunately I was incredibly sick during mine and couldn’t concentrate. In fact, I stopped my interview and asked if I could go to the bathroom. It was really unfortunate. I hate that I’ve been sick for so long. I took medication the night before and I wasn’t sure whether it exacerbated my condition because I felt worse the next morning. Fortunately, I do feel a lot better now. I think stress compounded the problem and with so much pressure on me, I had a really hard time with the interview. I was really disappointed in my performance and I am sure my language teachers are too.

Anyway, in other news, I got my qipao (traditional Chinese dress) yesterday and it is really beautiful! Yesterday we had our host family appreciation dinner, which was a banquet at a really nice restaurant. It was interesting to say the least. The electricity went out and caused us to have to move to another restaurant. Then that restaurant momentarily lost electricity. On top of that, the microphone wasn’t very good and it was difficult to find a place to play our slideshow. On the up side, however, the families got a chance to see each other again and I think everyone had a pretty good time. Everyone had a lot to eat and at my table, we had a lot of soda since everyone wanted to make toasts. Overall, I think it was a good night.

Today is the last day that I will be with my host family. We spent the day moving everything from one house to another. I really like their new apartment in Longquan… the living room is really big and there are large windows. There are also two bathrooms instead of the one they have in their former apartment. Interestingly, when they moved into the new apartment, they only brought some of their stuff and left a lot behind. And the new apartment is completely furnished with everything set up and ready to go. It was weird to see that the internet and everything was set up and you don't have to call and put it in your name. In the afternoon, I surprised them with a really huge bouquet of flowers- most of them were carnations, but there were two really big lilies in the middle. I also bought my host mother some earrings because she has been so nice to me. My pictures did not turn out as well as my host father's because his camera is a lot better that mine, so I bought a piece of cardstock, cut it to match the size of the picture frame I bought in the US, and wrote them a thank you message in Chinese and explained that I want them to put their favorite picture in the frame and that my pictures don't compare with my host father's pictures. They seemed to like everything. Additionally today my father’s letter came in the mail, which was a really good thing 'cause I was able to somewhat translate what it said and they were able to get it right before they moved houses! My host mom was really excited about it, tried really hard to read it, and then asked me to translate. Then she told me she wants to respond to my dad’s thank you letter in Chinese and hopes he will be able to find someone to translate it for. My host sister was really excited about how nice the stamps are (people here really like foreign stamps) and she is keeping them. I hope I will be able to figure out what my host family’s new address is in case my real family wants to keep in touch with them.

Anyway, tomorrow I will be moving into a hotel in Chengdu since Wednesday, September 3rd is our official swear-in ceremony to become official Peace Corps volunteers and I have been practicing my speech... it's pretty long so we'll see how it goes. I am just going to try my best and see what happens. They also want me to sing the national anthem so hopefully that works out too! Right after our ceremony, I will be leaving for Bijie on a train with some other Peace Corps volunteers and all our Foreign Affairs Officers. I am looking forward to the next chapter of this adventure!

Yesterday my students took me to a well-known Buddhist temple downtown. It was nice... we also had lunch at a restaurant that one of the students' family members runs. They ended up paying for me, which I thought was very nice. I kept trying to give money, but they wouldn't accept it. Apparently in China, it is common for students to take their teacher out to lunch and pay for it. The students here are very respectful of their teachers!

Tomorrow the Olympic torch is coming into Chengdu and my host parents are going to be directing traffic and cheering. They are actually not currently at home because they are spending these two days getting ready for all of the festivities. It is just me and my host sister, which is kind of nice because I am not forced to shovel in truckloads of food. My host mom likes to throw things into my bowl and say "chang yi xia" which means try a little. By "a little" she means eat three bowlfuls. I usually don't mind it because I know she is trying to take care of me, but at the same time, it's nice to not have to eat as much for the next two days. :)

Today after our afternoon language class, I asked my teacher again if I could get a tutor. He called someone who told me I couldn't have a professional tutor because I am doing well in language class. However, I convinced my language teacher to get a student to help me learn the language and he did! So I am meeting with her tomorrow for an hour and I am going to teach her English and she will teach me Chinese. I am really looking forward to this because I want to learn as much as possible.

When I got home this evening, my little host sister and I went out to dinner and then we got some photos taken. In China, getting tiny photos from a photo booth is really popular and pretty cheap (4 yuan for 20 photos). She was very intent on getting these photographs so we took 40!!! We each ended up keeping 20 each... some are nice and in others we made (well, I made) silly faces. My little meimei (host sister) looks cute in all of them... she is very photogenic!

I know my students really like to take these kinds of pictures too because I have asked them to attach pictures to note cards with their Chinese and English names and several of them had these cute little pictures with designs on them. I think by the end of my two years here, I will have albums filled with these little pictures... it's fun to choose the designs out of the books and posing and making fish faces is always fun!

This Wednesday, I have my site interview, which is pretty exciting. Although I have some idea of where I would ideally like to go, I believe that I can manage just about anywhere (especially if they have these photo booths!). :)

Hey Everyone!

So I have been in China for about one month and I have finally been able to get onto this website! Here's what has been happening so far, in diary format.

June 6, 2008

The plane rides were not terribly bad, but there was some turbulence. We flew west and went over the north pole and mongolia. I ended up with a bulk head seat right near where the flight attendants sit so I had a ton of room which was really really lucky... AND I got the aisle seat. On the second flight, however, I was in the back and I was scared because the plane was making weird noises and there was tape above my seat like the end part of the plane was strapped on last minute.

Chengdu is a huge city... the first thing I saw as we left the airport were tons of billboards. It's also really polluted. But you can find just about anything here... a bunch of us walked around together and found big malls and places similar to Walgreens. I know it shouldn’t have surprised me, but I was overwhelmed at the amount of Chinese characters I saw and was disappointed that I couldn’t decipher them. The 37 of us Peace Corps trainees spent four days of our pre-service training in a hotel together, while we practiced language and learned about safety and security and what our practical teacher training was going to be like. The rest of the trainees are very nice, although cliques formed very quickly. I figured that it wasn’t that important to be a part of some clique since we are all going to be split up anyway, but of course I got the opportunity to meet all of the other trainees and the majority is really cool and down to earth.

Although I think I could manage here in Chengdu, I think I would prefer to live in a smaller place. The people here drive really scary... they don't watch out for passengers and we were told that a lot of the people are beginning drivers (yikes!). It's not as bad as India though in terms of traffic... there are actual streets and a few more rules... and no random cows and oxen.

The people in my group are very nice... there are 37 of us... 14 have been Peace Corps Volunteers before, and there are three married couples. About half of our group is over 30... quite a few over 50. The Peace Corps staff is also very nice.A lot of the other trainees like to go out late, but I am definitely not used to that after being at the Monterey Institute and having to work so much. I went out to Chinese barbeque once, but I ended up leaving a little earlier so I could get to bed at a reasonable time. I guess I’m getting old! I found a couple of people who like to stay in or just walk around and take in the sights so I have been spending more time with those people. Our language classes have been okay, but fortunately, a lot of it is review since I had a great tutor at MIIS and because I was using Rosetta Stone. I was told that we would all be re-grouped based on our performance, so hopefully I will be put with volunteers who are really serious about learning the language and who have had a foundation before coming. I don’t like learning so slowly. I also realized that I have been focusing way too much on writing stuff down. I think I am going to stick with trying to listen, since I can remember it if it’s in my head. I am going to try to only write those phrases which are really useful that I have never heard before. I think that would be a much better way to remember everything. Ooh, I was given my Chinese name and we were all asked to practice them. Mine is Song YingYing which I like. Yesterday, we were all split up into two different universities. There are 17 of us who are in Chengdu University and the other 20 went to Sichuan Normal University. I met my host family and they are very nice. The Mom and Dad don’t speak much English, but the 11 year old daughter and the 24 year old cousin who are living there both do. In a way this is good because I will be forced to try to speak the language and hopefully living with a host family will help me to learn the language a lot faster than if I were on my own or with a bunch of Americans! It’s frustrating, however, not being able to communicate. I feel like I am being rude because I don’t understand them and am probably not doing things that a Chinese guest would do or saying the appropriate things. I am learning some new words, but I keep forgetting words too because there are so many new things to take in. I have been trying to use what I learn with people on the street, but they don’t seem to understand me. I hope with the combination of language classes and being with a host family, I will pick up more. One of the things that I keep having to remind myself of is that I must be patient. I know I am not supposed to know everything- and I need to make sure that I don’t get too frustrated with myself or I will definitely not learn! My host mother keeps worrying about my eating habits and tries to shove food into my hands. It reminds me of being in India. They have no idea what vegetarian means and I think the mother is confused and probably wondering what to cook. I feel bad because I cannot really communicate what I like. I told her I liked the food last night... it was okay... there was cucumber in a spicy sauce which I ate and some tomato and scrambled egg together which I also like. I tried some of the other vegetables which were not bad and I was given chicken which I ate. They kept telling me I was eating too slowly and that I wasn't eating enough, but I tried. Today for breakfast, we had fruit and bread which was perfect.. the only thing I couldn't finish was the milk (I hate milk). I tried to drink as much of the milk as I could and then shoved some bread in my mouth to make the horrible taste go away. But once I was out of bread, I just kinda left the rest.

Anyway, we went to the store today. We took two buses each way so it was a pretty far ride. I think the reason for the store visit was to try and find me some slippers because I couldn't squeeze my boat sized feet into their miniature doll-like ones. It was pretty embarrassing and they keep telling me how big my feet are (like I don't know). The only ones that probably would have fit were some really ugly men's ones which I wasn't going to buy. We did end up going to the market section of the store and getting some kiwis for a snack.

Much of the experience here is kind of like India... people staring, taking pictures of me, and saying random hellos. I don't get stared at as much as some of the other people in my group, but it still happens frequently. I keep trying to think of it solely as curiosity since they have probably never seen someone who looks like me before. In western China, there aren't many non-Chinese people walking around and it isn't a really big tourist attraction with the exception of the panda reserve. The families seem very much like Indian families... very close and centered around food. They all hold my hands and like to lead me places to make sure I'm okay, which I think is nice. The traffic is not as bad as India because you don't see all the animals on the roads, but they are still pretty scary and they don't stop for pedestrians so you have to be really really careful. And when there are red lights, some of the cars still go.

On Saturday, all of the trainees are going to go to LeShan to see the famous Big Buddha! I am excited to take a trip. We are also going to meet up with some of the current Peace Corps volunteers in that area. There was a power outage yesterday so I learned the word for it (tingdian). Last night before the power outage, the mom and daughter wanted to take me on a walk and we found some huge slippers. The are still too small, but I keep telling them that they are fine.

I really like "Lucy" which is the daughter's American name... she's so well behaved and nice. She helps me with Chinese and translates things to her mom. I told her that her English was great and she said, "ooh, reeeally, thank you!". I want to take her back home! She likes to play Chinese checkers with me, especially 'cause I am bad and lose frequently. And whenever I am studying Chinese, she will come up next to me and do her English homework. Her mom will look at my list of Chinese words and phrases and practice the English words... I think it's to communicate with me. She asks me what the names of all my favorite foods are and then asks me what they are in English. She's very happy with the kiwi purchase since I can eat a lot of them and she likes to hand me tons of walnuts that she's cracked open already. She peels my apples too. :) Last nights meal was very good. I tried to eat a lot more and much faster, but I was still told I didn't eat enough. She made beans with four spices which is one of my favorite dishes, scrambled eggs and tomatoes which I also like, and a spicy eggplant dish which was surprisingly really good (normally I don't really like eggplant, but it tasted good with the spices).

June 9, 2008 I had a really great dinner last night... she made beans, pumpkin, cucumber in a spicy sauce, and potato strips with something called numbing pepper... it was all really good. Apparently the numbing pepper is supposed to numb your mouth, but I didn't feel it did. I kept telling her "hao chi", which means delicious. She asked me which one I liked the best, but I couldn't choose. I think she was happy with the amount I ate last night.

My host family is actually really great... I really lucked out. I really hope they have positive feelings towards me... I think once I know more of the language, they may like me more because I will be able to express my appreciation. I try hard to express things to them, but I know it sometimes doesn't totally come across. I complimented my host mom on her pretty dress and then she felt obligated to say she liked something that I was wearing... I guess these sorts of compliments are not common here so I have decided not to do that anymore.

My feet are REALLY swollen! I called the medical officer and they told me to take ibuprofen and elevate my feet. I think it may have to do with the fact that I have been walking for a really long time in high heels. The medical officer told me that I could wear sandals to class tomorrow.

Anyway, other than that, I wanted to tell you about my interesting meal tonight. There was a power outage and there was no air-conditioning so we went out for "hotpot". I agreed to try everything that they were eating so I ended up eating beef, crab, cow's intestine, chicken stomach, eel, and pig's throat. I also had tofu noodles and some mushrooms, which I didn't like, and I ate some good things like potato, lotus root, seaweed, and cauliflower. Hotpot is really really oily so I will probably be sick tonight. I washed it down with a fried pumpkin thing and some ice cream though. :) June 13, 2008 On Friday, I went with some trainees to two Peace Corps volunteers' apartments. They are so beautiful! The apartments have huge windows overlooking the campus and, although they are small, they are much much much nicer than my apartment in California!

Yesterday all 37 of us went to LeShan, which is home to the Giant Buddha. It was really neat! The older people in our group took a boat to see it, but the rest of us climbed up the stairs... it was really fun, but we were all soaking wet with sweat since it was about 100 degrees and humid! :) I liked getting the exercise though because I don't get a chance to run around the area. The Buddha was HUGE! I took some pictures... hopefully at some point, I will be able to send some to you. My internet connection at my host families house is not very good. Actually, we had no service for the past two days because of the rain. It hasn't rained a lot here, but when it does, it rains really heavily!

Today meimei (little sister) and I took a bus to the downtown area because she wanted to buy some books. She found Island of the Blue Dolphins (in Chinese of course) and another spy novel which she really likes because inside is a decoder thing. She has been playing with it a lot and looking at all the clues before reading the book. :)

The swelling of my feet has gone down. I just haven't been wearing high heels anymore because they are too hard on my feet. Plus, when Chinese people say we are going somewhere, it doesn't mean that's the only place we are going... it just means that is the first place we are going. For example, when we went to dinner, they didn't tell me we were going to take a really long walk afterwards. And when meimei told me we were going to the bookstore, she didn't say we were also going to go shopping. Even though most Chinese women wear heels everywhere, I would rather save my feet and wear my sandals. Flip flops aren't appropriate outside, but I think my sandals are fine.

The family goes on walks every night and I usually go with them. Yuxing (Lucy, my little sister) and I were having lots of fun running around and playing. It was a kind of poking game mixed with martial arts moves. She kept laughing and running around.

My Chinese is finally to the point where I asked my host mom if I could do the dishes since I knew she was really tired. Usually when I ask that, she tells me that I need to take a break and relax. But this time, I was able to use enough Chinese for her to understand that I wanted her to take a break instead. Part of the host family experience is not to be treated as a guest, but rather a family member. My little host sister does the dishes, so I figured I should probably be doing things around the house too.

After dinner, I played more with my little host sister... we pretended we were rock stars and threw our hair into high pony tails... then I gave her a piggy back ride. My host mother found our hair to be funny.

June 14, 2008 So I went running tonight and it was interesting. I had hundreds of children trying to run with me. They were really cute... I ran on a track so the tinier ones would run across the grass so they could "beat" me. :) Instead of doing a typical run, I ended up playing with them a little... skipping or running slow so they could keep up. Then they wanted me to play on the playground with them so I watched them as they showed me all their "cool" tricks. They tried to speak to me in rapid Chinese though and even though they understood when I said "I don't understand", I don't think they really knew what that meant. Actually, I am probably the first foreigner they have met so they were curious and probably couldn't fathom how anyone couldn't understand what they were saying... I know if I were five years old and someone told me they didn't speak English, I probably wouldn't have understood either. A sister of one of the girls ended up also running with me... she's 21 years old and wants to be friends with me. I thought she was cute too because she tried really hard to speak English to me and I was trying really hard to speak to her in some Chinese. The Chinese children are really really cute... and I love some of the pudgy little babies I've seen.

Anyway, nothing much going on. I am co-facilitating on a project with my friend from MIIS and I am looking forward to seeing him in late August. We are going to do a lecture on how to teach pronunciation.

Tonight my host Mom was teaching me some of the characters tonight which was fun! I now know a few of them... I don't think I'll be able to write any of them really well, but my goal is to be able to recognize them/read them. I think if I am able to read, listen to, and speak Chinese, that will be great. Also, we are learning how to write in PinYin, which is the Anglicized version of the Chinese script. If I learn how to do this and I learn how to read the characters, writing them shouldn't be that difficult anyway. After two years, I really hope I get a good grasp on the language... maybe once I come back to the states, I will continue to pursue Chinese.

July 16, 2008 Next week, I will be teaching model school, which is a three week teaching trial. We are observed and then given feedback on our performance. We have been assigned partners so I will teach the first 7 lessons and my partner is teaching the last 7 lessons. On the last day, there is a celebration.

We just got our room. There are exactly 32 seats and 32 students. I have decided that I am going to teach about US College Student Life which will incorporate dorm rooms, clubs, fraternities and sororities, going out to eat/eating at the cafeterias, etc. I know I will be able to find information, I just need to worry about how to put it all together and get them talking.

I am still very motivated to learn the language. I have been reviewing the material when I can and I try to use a lot of Chinese with my host family since they don’t speak English. I am still not used to the mother’s accent, but I think I am slowly beginning to understand more and more. Sometimes it seems so overwhelming and impossible for me to acquire Chinese, but then again, it has only been two weeks. I think all of us have made enormous progress in a short amount of time. Clearly, we are very interested in learning and we are all trying really hard to pick it up and fine-tune our pronunciation. I hope by the end of the two weeks of training, we are able to hold a decent conversation. I plan to have a tutor at my site and by the end of two years, I really would like to be an advanced speaker because I would like to continue Chinese when I am in the states. I would also like to start learning Hanzi at my site, especially food names. I need to be able to read the menu and determine what I want to order! It’s pretty difficult when we have to keep asking them whether they have something or not!

July 19, 2008 Today was a holiday in China, so my host family took me to an alley in downtown Chengdu that looks like old China with beautiful wood carvings everywhere. I took lots of pictures and even some small videos on my camera. Hopefully at some point I will be able to put them up! They bought me a beautiful fan with a panda and its baby painted on it. I really like it, but I feel bad that they spent money on me. Actually, I think it was a pretty expensive day because we took two buses to get down there (my family does not own a car). It only costs 1 yuan each per bus, but if you add up coming and going with four people, it adds up. Plus, they bought lunch and dinner as well as the fan and some street candy. It was fun though and I really appreciate it. I wish I was able to say more to my host family so they know that I really do appreciate them. They don’t speak English and I barely speak any Chinese. They also helped me to buy a phone and a phone card which I definitely wouldn’t have been able to do by myself yet. July 23, 2008- China Model school has been very very stressful… I think I can speak for just about everyone who is teaching. The first day was okay, but not great. The second day was a little better, but today didn’t go well at all. I tried something new and it didn’t work. But I believe the point of model school is to try different things to see what works and what doesn’t before we get to our sites. Unfortunately, today I was observed by someone in the Peace Corps and given feedback. She was supposed to sit in on the second half of my lesson, but I wanted her to see the experimental part of my lesson which was in the beginning. I warned her that it would either work really well or be a complete disaster. As I mentioned, it was awful so I probably looked pretty bad. She gave me both positive and negative feedback, but I personally know my lesson was pretty awful. The article I picked was too difficult for the task, but she gave me some good ideas so maybe at my site I will try it again. In a way, however, I am glad she sat in on a bad lesson because this way I get a lot of helpful feedback as to how to improve. I told her what my background is and how I am just trying new things out to see if they work. She said my lesson sounds really good for tomorrow and I hope it goes well as I am going to be observed by someone else again tomorrow! I am trying to stay positive and not let today’s lesson negatively affect my future teaching. Still, it’s hard not to feel disappointed and frustrated. I really want to do a good job and struggling in front of people who are judging you is pretty challenging. I stayed up until 1am last night working on this lesson and it turned out horrible. Ugh, one day at a time… July 24, 2008 Today was much better. I was observed by the head person as well as a current Peace Corps volunteer and my lesson was exactly how I would have done it back in California. The students were so into it that when class was over, they were still talking and working! I ended up leaving before the students did. The feedback was really positive... actually the only criticism of my lesson was that I should make the work I do on the blackboard a little more organized so it's easier for students to follow. I agree with this... I am going to try and be a little more organized with where I write on the board to make it easier for students to follow. I'm really happy with how well my lesson went... the woman watching said it was clear the students were really into the lesson and that I did a good job of engaging the students.

Language classes have been cut really short this week because we have so much going on... in a way, it's kind of good because I don't have time to study with model school going on. After Wednesday, however, I will be focusing all my energy on Chinese as I was doing before. We have a Chinese oral proficiency exam coming up soon and I want to make sure I do really well!

July 26, 2008 Today's lesson went really well... actually even better than yesterday's! The students were very engaged and they clearly worked on their projects last night because they brought in power point presentations and everything! I was pleasantly surprised and I told them how happy I was with their presentations. The man whose English is the least developed in the class actually did quite a bit of speaking so I was very happy with how much effort he put in.

Everything here is fine. On Friday, I spent some time with the other Peace Corps trainees... actually, some of them came to our University from the Sichuan University campus so I saw a bunch of people I don't typically see, which was nice. Yesterday, 7 of us went with one of our language teachers to the downtown area because some people wanted to go shopping. I came along because I just wanted to look... I didn't end up buying anything. And later that evening, I watched a movie with Rebecca and Nicole which was pretty good. It's called 27 Dresses.

July 31, 2008 Tuesday was the last day of teaching until I get to my permanent site. I am glad because now I have a lot of time to study Chinese and make sure I understand the language as best as I can. I was observed today and the woman gave me very positive feedback. I am glad that, with one exception, those who observed me got a chance to see my good lessons! Actually, I only had one bad lesson and that was at the beginning so I think that overall I did pretty well. At least I improved along the way and I felt a lot more comfortable.

Yesterday I met up with my friend Dave who came up from Guiyang. We went downtown to Pete's Tex Mex restaurant which is one of the only western restaurants here. It was really nice to see him again and kind of weird at the same time because it's been two years and now we are seeing each other on the other side of the world. Anyway, today he was asked to give a small talk to the trainees so afterwards we had lunch around my University, which ended up being pretty good. We got pretty drenched though because there was a huge rain storm. Actually, I have never seen rain like that before! It was like cars were swimming in water.

Peace Corps has asked me if I would hold a session on teaching English as a foreign language to the rest of the trainees. I agreed to this, but at the same time, I'm not sure how this will look because I know several of the other trainees have a lot more experience than I do. I have a background/education in TESOL, but I think it may be weird for me to be speaking to the other trainees as if I am already a volunteer. I do think it may be helpful for those who are interested in learning how to teach language in context and how an EFL classroom is different than other types of teaching. Hopefully they find it useful because it is on a Saturday!

August 2, 2008 Yesterday, we got the schedule for site interviews. This means that they have an idea as to where they want to place you and they are going to ask us questions to see if we fit and what specific things we are looking for. In my interview, I am going to be as honest as I possibly can. I hope that my placement is a good fit for me! We'll see... my interview is on Wednesday and we find out our site placements the Tuesday after.

Today my host family took me to see the Pandas! It was great! We got to see them up close and we even got to see little baby pandas being taken care of. Tomorrow, my students are taking me to a temple which should be a lot of fun! I am meeting them in the morning.

I cannot believe that I will be leaving soon! On Saturday, I will be flying (yikes) into Washington DC and getting prepared for my volunteer experience in China. I am pretty nervous since I know I am going to miss my family and friends (plus the idea of being on an airplane for 15 hours is pretty scary).

But at the same time, I am excited for the experience. I have never been to China and I am really interested in learning Chinese and learning about the culture. I don't really know much about Chinese history... I have been reading a little, but I'm sure actually living in the country will speed up the process!

Anyway, I guess it's time to get packing! I have laid out all the stuff I am going to bring- I just need to stuff it in suitcases. :)

Keep in touch!