Chongqing, Chongqing.

We’ve spent the past few days wandering around Chongqing (pronounced Chong-ching for those not familiar with pinyin), completing errands, checking out our new place and generally getting ideas about the next two years. To Richy and I, Chongqing has the feel of Seoul and Bangkok combined. The palm trees, heat, grime and elevated train remind us of Bangkok, while the sheer scale, dimensionality, and hyper-dynamic feel of the city remind us of Seoul. All in all, I feel we can be comfortable making our home here. Evidence: for some reason a high of 39 C today (102.2 F) didn’t seem that strange to me. I felt like I was going to melt into the pavement, but I was able to approach the situation with an “I know I can handle this” attitude.

Our apartment building is the only remaining building on what used to be the North Campus of Chongqing University of Science and Technology. Called “Peach Garden Building” on “Petroleum Road,” you can imagine the contradictions embodied in our neighborhood. The building appears to have been built in the 70’s or 80’s and houses teachers from our university and their families. It is surrounded by brand new high-rise apartments and construction sites, where the rest of the campus used to be. Between the high-rises are small, ancient-looking dilapidated homes where peddlers and retirees seem to make their homes and businesses. Since there are no longer any teaching buildings here, we will be commuting 50 minutes to “University Town” on the outskirts of the city, where the new modern campus is located. Teacher residence buildings are being built there, but are not yet complete. Thankfully, we will not be on our own getting to the campus, as a free school bus travels between the teacher’s residences and the new campus several times a day. Apparently if we miss the last bus of the day back to the residence, the school also provides a small teacher’s dorm room on campus where we can stay the night.

Our apartment itself is large by Chinese standards, and certainly huge by Peace Corps standards. It has 3 bedrooms: a master bedroom, a guest room and a study. We also have a large living/dining room and a kitchen, as well as one and a half bathrooms. The half bath toilet apparently leaks, so I’m not sure how much we’ll be using it (it’s not like we really need it anyway). It’s kind of been set up as a cleaning closet, so we’ll probably just go with that. We’re hoping our stove hood gets fixed before we move in, because at this point we can’t get it to turn on. We have cages around all our windows, which I am hoping I can fill with planter boxes of basil, oregano and all manner of salad greens. Disinfecting my store bought salad greens with bleach as the Peace Corps medical office recommends just doesn’t sound very tasty or wholesome to me. One of the former volunteers apparently had a cat (something which is now against the rules) as evidenced by the left behind cat toys, paw prints all over the walls and scratched up leather furniture. Luckily no cat smell! It gives me a good reason to scrub down all the walls and cover the furniture I suppose. At this point, I am just excited to get into our place and get going on this whole living in China thing. That place will feel like home in no time (well, no time in a few weeks).

Tastes Like Noodles

Oh what a few days it has been. It's been a bit of an emotional roller coaster since we got our site placement, since we're going to be splitting off from so many of the people we've come to know and depend on at our training site. We had what felt like an intensely competitive "language simulation" on Friday, which basically felt like we were on some kind of Try to Survive in China game show. Followed by another "go find your way to this place and answer questions" field trip (on which I was thankfully able to score some occidental culinary herb seeds, which I will hopefully be able to grow), followed by beers with the training sitemates, followed by host family, followed by not enough sleep, more language classes, Chinese banquet simulation, then KTV (Chinese Karaoke), and finally, our very first Sichuan hotpot experience.

Our host family decided that celebrating our site placement was a good opportunity to introduce us to Chengdu style hotpot since Chongqing and Chengdu are in fierce competition for the title of Best Sichuan Hotpot. Chengdu is known for being more oily and Chongqing is known for being more brothy, but also more spicy. This particular eating venue also featured miniature Sichuan opera style performances. The pot looked generally like the ones Richy and I had eaten from for previous cook-your-food-in-broth-meals in Korea and at Beijing Hotpot in Portland, but you could tell that the oil to broth ratio was leaning much more toward the oil and that there were a heck of a lot of hot peppers floating on top. Spiciness is something we have definitely become accustomed to and expect from any decent Sichuanese meal, but we weren't expecting our typically non-offal eating host family to suddenly order duck intestine, cow stomach and cow kidney. What a celebration!

First to come to the table was a rack, kind of what you might expect to hang doll clothes on. But there were no doll clothes on this rack. There were clean, thinly sliced strips of duck intestine, looking very much like slightly pink shiny noodles. Not too terrifying looks-wise. Ge-ge puts one in the pot, pulls it out a few minutes later, dips it in sauce and slurps it like a noodle. Jie-jie asssures me "it does not smell or taste terrible." I followed Ge-ge's example and slurped up my duck intestine, which as long as you don't call it duck intestine, is actually not bad. It tastes just like a noodle, but with a very delicate texture. The next dish was very thinly sliced, and the way Jie-jie refused to tell us what it was, we knew it came from somewhere deep inside an animal. She told us she would tell us after we tried it. Again, she assures us, "it does not smell or taste terrible." We dipped the slightly shiny, pinkish-grey slices into the broth, let them cook, dipped them in oil and ate them. Flavor was not a factor, the texture reminded me of mushrooms, and I found myself thinking, "I am fine not knowing what this is." Apparently it was cow kidney. Next, Ge-ge offered us dark grey, prickly-looking slices that were most definitely not going in my mouth. At this point, I draw the line at things that look hairy. Which apparently means I draw the line at cow stomach. I don't think I would ever order these items for myself, but I feel I've reached a certain cultural turning point knowing that duck intestines taste as inoffensively as egg noodles.

And the winner is...

… Chongqing! We are pleased to announce that we will be teaching in one of the biggest up-and-coming cities in China. Separated into it's own municipality from Sichuan in 1997, Chongqing municipality has over 30 million residents. The city itself houses only about 10 million, and we will be living near the center of it. Apparently our "Peace Corps experience" will include a 5^th floor, 3 bedroom, 2 story apartment with 2 bathrooms (and a bathtub). This is why Peace Corps China is sometimes referred to as "Posh Corps." I would like to point out however, that this is also one of a handful of Peace Corps China sites where we will be issued a household air filter as a matter of course (can't wait to breathe in that filtered apartment air!). We will also be living in one of China's so-called "three furnaces" which as you could guess, means the summers will be unbearably hot. Consider: we find Chengdu unbearably hot and humid as it is, but there are people visiting here to escape the heat of Chongqing.

 

Nonetheless, we are pretty excited to finally have a form with which to mould our future plans. We will be working at Chongqing University of Science and Technology where have been told we will be teaching mostly male students. Also many of our students will be majoring in petroleum-related fields. I am hoping the "green curriculum" we have been given by the Peace Corps will be well received. We'll have a much better idea about all this after our site visit next week. In the meantime, we're trying to get our heads around this next phase and preparing ourselves for another stint in one of the mega-urban centers of Asia. Ni Hao Chongqing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Energy and Enthusiasm

July 30^th, 2010

The air has felt like a furnace the past two days. We realized it was hot when our host family finally turned on their air conditioner for the first time this season (we've been using the one in our room daily for weeks). Today reached up to 35 degrees Celsius (95 F) with more than 85% humidity. To top it off, last night the power went out at about 2 am because of the power drain from all the air conditioners. We woke up soaked in sweat, feeling the heavy air in our faces. It didn't come back on until about 5 am. The demand simply overloaded the system. Since today has been even hotter, I imagine it could likely happen again tonight. The experience has made me reflect on China's power supply, the growing middle class demand for modern conveniences in China, and how people in the US take such things (modern appliances and an ample power supply) for granted.

Even though our host family is doing very well by Chinese standards, they live without many of the power sucking appliances that we consider everyday parts of life in the US: an oven, a clothes dryer, a dishwasher, a microwave, and a toaster oven for example. Their kitchen consists of a two-burner gas stove (with the ever-present large wok and a steamer on top), a rice cooker, and a small refrigerator (what we would probably consider college dorm size). Their gas stove has an impressive hood with an ingenious oil capture system, where all the oil collects in a funnel shaped clear jar hanging in the center. They have probably four air conditioners in the house, but the only one that has seen any use before yesterday is the one in our bedroom. Other than that, they have cell phones (blackberry-style), a flat screen TV mounted on the wall in the living room, and an oscillating fan near the TV that gets daily use. They also have a small older generation laptop computer, but as far as I can tell, they never use it since their blackberries cover all their connection and information needs. Compared with most American families, I estimate that these folks typically use about ¼ of the household energy (and much less in the countryside where many people don't have even the basics). Of course that's a figure that I just completely pulled out of the air, since we don't have a reliable internet connection to look up any statistics. I think this lifestyle is something to think about when we hear news stories about China surpassing the US in energy use, and the use of coal power and other environmentally damaging methods of power production. They are not eating up more and more power in order to live a luxurious lifestyle. They just want what many in the US would consider less than basic. Even though they are relatively minimalist when it comes to household energy use, the sheer numbers of people here and the energy shortage means that a neighborhood of people choosing to use an air conditioner only on one of the hottest, most unbearable nights of the year causes a power outage. The US has less than a quarter of the people, and until recently, used more energy. It's a realization that I am certainly going to be carrying home with me, and one that is going to shape my energy use decisions for the rest of my time here.

July 31, 2010

Last Thursday, Richy and I had our last round of Japanese encephalitis, rabies, and hepatitis shots, and gave our last bit of input into the process that will decide where we will be serving for the next two years. We will get the final answer on Thursday, August 5^th. The fact that our fate is being decided this week gives me anxious jitters, but I also know that worrying about it is pointless because all we can do is learn to love our site when we get there, wherever it may be.

We finished up model school yesterday, so we can go back to our major focus of learning to speak Chinese next week. I didn't think I'd be looking forward to the four hour language blocks again, but here I am, daydreaming about the grammar structures I might know by next weekend. My vocabulary has been steadily growing each day, and I've been able to grasp some Chinese grammar without mangling it too much, but the 2^nd and 4^th tones still seem to disappear when I string together a sentence. I am also having trouble with the ji, xi, qi, ri, and re initials. All these issues can only be solved by painstaking repetition and correction, and like a child learning to play the violin, no one really wants to hear it until you know what you're doing. All my grammar and vocabulary won't matter a whit if I can't pronounce it in a way that the average Chinese person can understand.

Studying Chinese wouldn't nearly be as much fun if it weren't for the awesome group of ladies that serve as our Language-Culture Facilitators (LCFs) aka: our Chinese teachers. One of my favorites is Hu Laoshi (Miss Hu), who leaves me these gems of encouraging advice in my Trainee Assessment Packet: "You're very great! You speak well and you participation in classroom. You do all things very well, so just still do it! Only more practice the pronunciation on "r" and 2^nd tones in a sentence." Quite possibly the most motivating part is that her English is so much better than my Chinese. I especially love the voices she does in class when she acts out the dialogues. Her "man-at-the-hotel-desk" impersonation is pure comic genius.

I am also anxiously looking forward to Monday's qipao shopping trip. Our LCFs are going to take us out to order traditional Chinese dresses to wear to our swearing in ceremony at the end of August. After today's trip to the Sichuan museum I was fantasizing about my qipao while gazing at antique silk brocade. I am sure there will be nothing even remotely like it in my price range, but it does serve to remind me of why traditional Chinese clothing has such an allure in the first place. Richy wants to see if he can get a Sun Yatsen suit (also known by Westerners as a "Mao suit") for a reasonable sum. Of course the term "reasonable sum" is relative here, where we're probably looking at 200 kuai for a decent tailored outfit, which while translating into only $30, could also translate into 100 between class beverages, 40 spicy lunches, 50 cross-town bus rides, or if you prefer, four and a half days of our Peace Corps China living allowance.

 

A Giant Buddha and the Weekend of the Chinese Bus

This last weekend served to acquaint us with the realities of Chinese transportation methods. On Saturday our LCF (Language and Culture Facilitators) scheduled us for a little "field trip." This outing began by being handed a piece of paper with no instructions. Instead the paper had several questions such as "What bus gets you to the train station? Do you have to transfer any buses to get there? Where is the entrance and the exit to the train station?" I hadn't realized this would be that kind of outing. We were then told, "Go to the train station." When we asked "How?" our LCFs just shrugged, told us to answer the questions and shooed us away. Once I realized that we were really being set off on our own, I jumped at the opportunity to be treated like an adult. However, after the first Chinese person looked at us like we were crazy for wanting to take a bus and suggested a taxi, we knew we were not in for an enjoyable Saturday afternoon on the town.

 

4 kuai (about 75 cents), two buses, a short walk and about an hour later we were confronted with the chaos that is a Chinese transit hub. Hundreds, if not thousands of  people were milling about, (some seemingly camped out) and while cabs, bicycles, and busses swirled around. We still had more questions to answer, so we set out to navigate the crowds and make educated guesses about the content of the train timetables. Our classmate Lindsey made the statement, "I hope never to come here again." A statement, which, while I wholeheartedly agree, I cringe to repeat aloud myself since the future undoubtedly holds countless more trips here.

 

After a hearty meal of dumplings and a well earned room temperature beer near the station, we set out to find a cab that could take us back to the campus. Once we saw the taxi line however, our plans drifted back to the bus. Thanks to traffic on the ring road, the trip back took about two hours, with standing room only. The highlight was when at 4 ½ foot tall Chinese woman sidled up next to me and began fanning her heavily made up face, whapping me in the boob with each pass. It was a small price to pay for the cool breeze she shared with my right armpit.

Field trip lessons learned:

-       Always take a cab to and from the train station if possible.

-       Personal space really is an illusion in China.

-       A beer before a long, crowded city bus ride on a humid day makes life slightly more bearable.

 

The second Chinese bus installment of our weekend was voluntary, and thankfully featured coach buses that took us to the city of Leshan, which is the home of the largest Buddha statue in the world (ever since the Taliban did us the favor of blowing up the biggest ones in Afghanistan).  The bus ride there took 2 hours, and included air conditioning as well as seatbelts (a true luxury in this sea of wild driving habits). When we arrived, we fended off a gang of aggressive cab drivers, and instead opted for a cheap public tour bus that advertised taking us in the direction of the big Buddha. Unfortunately we didn't realize that the bus was taking us to the East Gate of the park, which would cost us about twice as much as if we had made it to the South Gate. Either way, it was probably better that we ended up at the East Gate because we got to see several other sites including the world's largest reclining Buddha. The South Gate approach also would have been disappointing because the paths down to the base of the Buddha were closed because of flooding and torrential rain (but happily these factors also meant that there were no crowds to contend with). The Buddha was actually originally built because a monk got the idea that turning a huge rock face above the river into a Buddha would have a calming effect on the river. Of course since tons of rocks were removed from the cliffs and dropped to the bottom of the river, the Buddha did indeed have a calming effect on the river.

 

On the way back, we found more traffic, and got to spend three hours on the bus instead of two. Our weekend Chinese bus grand total came to 8 hours. I wonder how long it will be until we can break this prestigious record…

 

Big Buddha lesson learned:

-       Torrential rain can restore personal space in public spaces.

 

 

 

 

 

Snacks and Other Ruminations

Ever had a "Strange Taste Horsebean?" I now can say that I have (and yes, that is the actual translation on the package). How about blueberry flavored potato chips? Richy just had a bag for lunch. Curry flavored yak jerky? Not too different from what I would imagine curry flavored beef jerky would taste like. Every class break is an opportunity to expand our pre-packaged culinary horizons. It helps that we are surrounded by several other curious westerners, so we don't have to shell out the whopping 70 cent price tag to get a taste (we are, after all living on about $7/day). On the slightly less strange and more delicious side, we have also discovered aloe flavored yogurt, pineapple soft serve, crispy sesame ball snacks, and fresh cucumber flavored potato chips (with a slightly tingly menthol-ish after taste). The wonderful thing about the convenience stores on campus is that they hold all manner of curiosities, and we can choose at our pace how much variety we are willing to partake in.

 

When something mysteriously shows up on the host family table, however, the whole social pressure component comes into play. We want to be gracious guests and polite, and we honestly really do enjoy the vast majority of food that appears on the table. At the same time, we don't want to pretend to like things we hate, so we hopefully won't be fed them again. It's a fine balance to maintain. A few nights ago our host family dared us to try duck neck as an evening snack. It tasted a lot like smoked fish with a lot more bones. Luckily our Chinese vocabulary includes "so-so" and "not horrible." The next day, a dish of slightly strange looking meat showed up on the table with the normal dinner dishes, and I decided to take a small bite before asking what it was so my experience wouldn't be altered by any prejudice. It was a little too chewy to be enjoyable for my tastes and Richy later found out it was pig cheek. At least I know I tried it with a pure mind and didn't decide beforehand that I didn't like it. So far, our host family seems pretty knowledgeable about what foreigners find frightening on the dinner (and breakfast) table. I have heard stories about rabbit heads, duck blood and other such delicacies and I am glad they haven't been wasted on us. For breakfast we are usually served a boiled egg, some deliciously fluffy pork or vegetable filled dumplings, and a hot bowl of thick, purplish rice (and bean?) porridge. The porridge is actually quite good, filling, and seems quite healthy, but I am afraid it might be turning my guts into concrete. I am currently seeking ways to enhance my school day diet with caffeinated beverages, prunes, and any other fast moving vittles I can get my hands on.

 

 

 

The things they are teaching us here...

July 12th, 2010

 

Here we are at the beginning of another week in the People's Republic of China. I feel like I am finally getting used to the pace of the language classes, getting to know the people in our training group a little better and learning to function within our new daily routine. Having our breakfast and dinner prepared for us each day still feels strange, and I find myself with extra energy in the evenings which would normally be put to use on cooking and cleaning. Now I make flashcards, go over homework, and try to get as much reading done as I can before I fall asleep. We get authentic practice with our Chinese during the lunch hour, asking prices of dishes and ordering lunch and snacks at the shopping area near the school's south gate. We also make small conversation over the dinner table, alternately in broken Chinese and broken English, since our English-fluent jie-jie is out of town for a while. I imagine if we were doing our own shopping and such that our Chinese would get a little more practical use, but there is something about this sheltered environment that makes it seem more comfortable to try new phrases and grammatical structures knowing that we will still eat and not get ripped off in the process.

 

I didn't write about it at the time, but I have been going over in my mind the things we learned at our whole group sessions last Friday at Sichuan University, especially regarding the "diarrhea dialogue." This might give the folks back home an idea about what kind of education regarding health and safety we're getting here, rest assured – they are leaving no stone unturned. A wholly unappetizing topic, it seems to be foremost in my mind every time I've taken a drink or bite since. Not that I have had any particularly challenging issues in this area, especially after learning the official definition of diarrhea (at least by Peace Corps standards) is four loose bowel movements or more in a day (and try not to call the medical office until you have more than eight). What really struck me was the vast array of methods one could come to acquire this affliction. There is simply adjusting to new foods and levels of spiciness (luckily I had been working myself up to it with the trips to Lucky Strike and extra spiciness wherever applicable), medications, stress, medical conditions, viral infections, bacterial infections, toxins, and of course parasites! Thankfully the methods of avoidance are ones that Richy and I have discovered (sometimes the hard way) through our travels: eat only hot foods, see your street food get prepared, don't eat at empty restaurants, wash hands, wash and peel fruits and vegetables, don't drink the water, avoidance of too cheap bottled water, and trying to consume as many bland foods as possible when that icky gut feeling starts coming on (I hope those of you who plan to visit us here are taking heed). It is comforting to know that when (not if) it hits, the Peace Corps has provided us with several packets of balanced oral rehydration salts, and a handy recipe for making our own in case we run out or happen to have left home without it.

 

July 18^th, 2010

 

Another week of training has passed and although exhausted, I am content that this experience is adequately preparing us for service. Hours and hours a day of language training is beginning to sink in, as I discovered today logging into my lingt.com account, I was able to identify several more terms that eluded me just last week! I still most look forward to our Thursday sessions at Sichuan University (despite getting up at 5:30 to catch the bus at 7:20 that got us there 45 minutes early), which have proven to provide the most practical survival tips and reassure me that all those lessons we learned the hard way in Korea were valid. This week we covered how to avoid unwanted attention and preserving personal space by throwing elbows and making ugly noises and gestures, and how to avoid getting so drunk at Chinese social functions that you can make it home with out needing stitches (now who would need that kind of information?).

 

Our host family invited us to join them in the evenings this week watching a television show called "Chinese Bridge." Think American Idol meets It's a Small World meets China. In this show, more than 100 foreigners try to show off their skills in Chinese language, singing, and other pop arts while basically making complete fools of themselves, all while dressed in "traditional" attire. For example, the woman from Egypt was dressed in a glitzy Cleopatra outfit, while the Korean woman danced around in her hanbok and several others were wearing kilts, lederhosen and other rarely seen European ensembles. The prize for winning the competition is apparently a round trip plane ticket home and back to China, and a scholarship to continue their Chinese studies. It's quite entertaining, especially since their Chinese performances are generally easy for me to understand, but there is also something unsettling about the way these people are so willing to make themselves into ethnic caricatures for the Chinese audience. Then again, this is probably a function of reality television programming everywhere, although I can't really imagine Americans watching a show where foreigners compete to show how well they speak English.

 

 

 

First Week of Home Stay

July 11th, 2010

It's been an interesting weekend so far. We walked for a few hours yesterday to get into the center of the city to see some of the tourist sites. First we saw the Anshun Bridge and took some photos. It's in the fancy hotel and foreigner district in town, so things around there were pretty nice and upscale. Then we walked to the Tianfu square, home of the largest statue of Mao Zedong, and several impressive dragon fountains. Tianfu is in the midst of a large shopping district, so we took the opportunity to buy some cell phones. The most interesting event happened when we decided to take a cab home. Luckily we buckled our seatbelt, and our cab driver started off driving like all other Chinese drivers - absolutely crazy. Of course this kind of driving leads to accidents, which is exactly what happened. As another driver was merging into our lane, our driver laid on the horn to indicate he would not make room, the other driver paid no attention, and we ended up scraping their rear bumper. Both drivers stopped in the middle of the road and started screaming at each other. We looked at the amount on the meter, handed the money to the cab driver in the midst of his argument, and hopped over to the bus station that was thankfully nearby. Good thing the Peace Corps doesn't allow us to drive in China, I don't think I could handle it.

July 7^th, 2010

What a difference a few degrees can make in this humidity! Today was a bit cooler, and therefore considerably less exhausting. We had a three and a half hour block of language today, and I think I have solidified how to ask and tell the time. During our lunch hour, we discovered an Internet café (the family only has dial-up which is too slow for my computer patience level) and coffee shop that claims to sell real espresso, which we will test at tomorrow's lunch. Another three delicious meals of Sichuan food made me wonder how long it will be before we start craving western food enough to travel to the city center to partake in some overpriced burritos. At this point, I'm thinking never.

This evening we had a lovely bonding experience with our host family, which started with some light beer drinking over dinner (kids included). After the dishes were cleared, Ge-ge spread out sheets of newspaper and pulled out his calligraphy brushes and paper. He demonstrated his calligraphy skills by writing our Chinese names (An MeiLin and Bei Rui) and writing poetry in Mao-style cursive. He let us have a try at it, and the girls showed off their own developing styles. He even wrote the name of the city with the brush in his teeth! It was one of those genuinely fun and educational experiences, of which I am sure there will be many in the coming months. Afterward, the parents retired upstairs, while I settled in with the girls to watch some cartoons and finish my language homework. Sunny was so sweet in helping me with my pronunciation, and introduced me to all the main characters in the Yang-Yang cartoon. I think she's becoming wo de xiao pengyou (my little friend). We also discovered that we'll be on our own for the weekend, (Jie-Jie will be out of town and Ge-ge will be busy with work) which will give us the perfect opportunity to explore the city on our own. As much as we love our host family, I don't want them to feel that they are required to entertain us all the time. I think if we can see some sights on our own and make it home in one piece they will be relieved and so will we

July 6^th, 2010

Looking back over my last posting after a long day of rigorous study, I can't help but sigh at yesterday's enthusiasm. Things are still going well, but 4 hours a day of hardcore language study is certainly an exhausting endeavor on top of everything else. We left for class this morning at 8 am in the already sweltering humidity, and twenty minutes later arrived for our first session soaked in sweat and craving caffeinated beverages. The day continued on in such a way, with a host family debriefing, our first language session, a tour of the campus, lunch with our teacher, a TEFL training introduction, and finally another 2 hour language session. We arrived back at the host family residence, again soaked in sweat at about 5:45, dug into our third meal of Sichuan-style Chinese food for the day and then commenced with the homework-ing. Wo tai lei! (I'm too tired!)

On a positive note, Ge-ge got us started off right on a marvelous breakfast this morning. The meal began with a steaming hot bowl of soymilk, served with baozi (steamed bread dumplings filled with meat and vegetables), followed by tang-yue, sweet soft boiled dumplings filled with ground sesame and sugar. As much as I love Korean food, this sure beats that first cafeteria breakfast of kimchi, seaweed soup and boiled quail's eggs with beef (a delicious meal in it's own right, but not my idea of breakfast).

July 5^th, 2010

Today we met and moved in with our fabulous host family near Sichuan Normal University. Our host mom (or older sister "Jie-jie") is an English teacher, and speaks English well, which has made communication a breeze, but might make learning Chinese at home a little more challenging. The husband (our "Ge-ge") works in administration at the college. We have two adorable and friendly little girls running around, their daughter Yao Ying, 6, and her cousin "Sunny," 8. Their house is a spacious condo-style apartment on the top floor of a building in a gated community. Each available window seems to have a balcony (including the one in our room), and they have all the modern amenities, with the exception of an oven of course, since baking is not a traditional Chinese cooking mode. They showed us how to make authentic Sichuan-style dumplings (jiao-zi) for dinner and we sat around and made them with the kids. I learned how to crimp each side with three opposing folds to make an s-shape that resembles a swimming fish. Our jie-jie served them up with a spicy oil and vinegar concoction and provided bowls of chopped garlic, chives, ginger, and hot peppers to further season the sauce to our liking. The food here is so good, I think it will be a challenge not to put back on all the weight we lost at home. After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll around the campus and saw all the amenities it has to offer. The community we live in is upscale even by American standards, complete with a gorgeous pool and gates with guards. The pathways were crowded with other families also enjoying their evening strolls and the activity on the sports field rivaled a high school track event. It definitely seems like all our needs can be met between this lovely home and the wide array of shops and restaurants available on the campus. I am ready to settle in for three rigorous months of study!

- By Katie

Update

Things are going great with the host family, but the Internet is dial
up so it's not so accessible. I'll upload my blog postings with more
details when I get a chance!

Love and hugs!
Katie

Moving Right Along...

Shengri Kuai Le USA (Happy Birthday USA)! I hope all the folks back home are having a festive holiday. For us, the most exciting thing about today was finally getting our training site and host family assignments! Richy and I found out that will be completing our training at Sichuan Normal University (Main Campus) and living with a host family about 15 minutes walk from campus. Our whole group of about 90 people have been split up among 4 universities in Chengdu to live with host families and complete our language, culture, and teacher training before being placed at our more permanent sites in the fall. What we know about our host family so far is that they are a married couple with a 6 year old daughter and that their hobbies include reading, calligraphy, and table tennis. I am interested to see if they will be willing to help us learn some Chinese writing (assuming we'll have any spare time). We will be meeting them and moving in tomorrow afternoon!

The last few days have been a whirlwind, especially with the jet-lag. We've attended many sessions on language, safety and security, health, Chinese history, TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language), and on Peace Corps administrative details. We've eaten out with our language teacher, been vaccinated against hep A&B, rabies, and Japanese encephalitis (which stung) and passed out in our hotel room in-between. Our daily language classes are starting back at the basics, but it seems to be good review and I think it's really helping improve our tones and pronunciation. The language groups will be re-organized in a few weeks. We have also found out that in the next few months we will be spending a week with another host family at the site which we will be placed at after training (kind of a trial to help us get to know where we will be for the next two years, and what skills we will need there). In a lot of ways it's nice to have so much support and training, but it's also exhausting! I can't wait to get placed in our host families so we can develop daily routines and stop living out of our suitcases.

Made it to Chengdu!

After a grueling 16 1/2 airplane hours and 9+ airport hours, 40 minutes on a bus and six flights of stairs, WE HAVE FINALLY MADE IT. We are in our hotel in Chengdu, enjoying the air conditioning and getting ready to hit the sheets to prepare for a full day of training tomorrow. We get internet in our room on our laptops and facebook is definitely off-limits until we find a way around it. If you are reading this now, then you know that we have successfully been able to post to our blog via email!

More soon!

By Katie

First Leg: Washington DC

After a lovely going away BBQ, packing and repacking until we got down to the required weight for our checked luggage, and saying our goodbyes, Richy and I boarded a plane Monday morning for DC. At the security line, we met another volunteer heading to China who had just said goodbye to her folks as well. The flights were short, the transfer went without a hitch, and we arrived in DC heavily laden with luggage. We got a great view of the National Mall from across the Potomac during our cab ride, and found ourselves at our hotel in the charming and historic Georgetown neighborhood.

We met up with some other China volunteers in the hotel lobby and went out to eat, chatting about our experiences and expectations. I'm kind of surprised that Richy and I seem to be about five years older than most of the other volunteers, but it's nice to have previous experience under our belts. After dinner, we hiked out to the Mall in the twilight (and thick humidity) and were elated to find fireflies flashing in the bushes (first time we've ever seen such creatures!). We arrived at the Lincoln Memorial just in time to see the lights turned on, and then walked down the reflecting pool to see the WWII memorial and got a closer look at the Washington Monument. It was so strange and interesting to finally see the structures that I have written essays about! It took us about an hour to make it that far from the hotel and our energy was fading fast, so we got a cab back and tucked in for a nice restful night.

Today we're scheduled to start staging, get introduced to our program and complete all necessary paperwork. I am looking forward to moving from Invitee to Trainee and finally officially getting this Peace Corps thing started!

By Katie

Spring in Portland

I'm having a hard time comprehending the fact that it's already been almost a year since our recruiter called us and uttered the word "China." Since accepting our nomination and then, our official invitation, we have made what I like to the think of as our own little two person Evergreen program out of preparing for what awaits us there. While Kimmie is at work on weeknights, we have a habit of ordering pizza and trying to decipher the meaning and significance of Chinese films and documentaries. We've attended Mandarin Chinese classes almost every week since last June, and have recently discovered that we can understand each other for almost an entire conversation without speaking English (especially after a drink or two). We have been reading books, studying characters, following news on US-China relations, essentially doing everything we can to beat China into our heads.

I have tentatively decided on a Chinese name for myself, something that I originally didn't want to do. At first I feared losing myself in the wash of another language and didn't want to try to remake myself too much. I was also afraid of appropriating a name in a culture not mine. Now that I have a bit more of a grasp of what my life will be like over there, and a bit of a feel for the language, I realize that I need to create bridges where I can. I'd like to think a name is just another bridge to help people connect with me. In Korea, I realize that with my foreign looks, language, and otherwise strange ways, I made people uncomfortable. It was the students who eventually became the most comfortable and accepting of me that gave me their own version of a Korean name: A-Goo-Lin. Which as sweet as it was for them to try to make my last name sound like a full Korean name, just sounds horrible (especially when screamed at me from down a long concrete hall). I like the surname An because it means "peace" and what surname would be more fitting for a Peace Corps volunteer (also it begins with A)? I have also always had a fondness for the name Mei (in English, Mae, and May, my birth month) which in Chinese can mean beautiful, or plum depending on the character, and is also the first character of the word "meiguoren" which means "American." Finally, I looked for something that might go well with Mei for a first name and found Lin, which means jade and also starts with the same letter as my middle name (plus jade is green, which is my favorite color). So I still need to run it by my Chinese teacher to make sure I haven't combined any words to make a strange euphemism or some other awkwardness, I think I'll try to go by An Mei-Lin in China.

This week, we will picking up and shipping off our labs from what I am hoping will be the very last of our health screenings. This one was for the actual Chinese work visa, and it's always funny to see a relatively pragmatic doctor go over the tedious and unusual health requirements of the Peace Corps and the Chinese government. June 29th, here we come!

By Katie

The Next Adventure?

We got a call from our Peace Corps recruiter last week that the DC office had requested us to move forward on university teaching positions in China. He told us to talk about it, research it, and get back to him in a few days. We talked it over at length, did some research on positions there and possibilities for placement and despite changing our minds every few hours, decided to go for it.

Next we do the medical checks and the background screenings, and if all goes well we'll be set for departure for our 27 month term of service in June 2010. I'm really looking forward to totally immersing myself and learning Mandarin to complete my goal of being fluent in a foreign language by the time I'm 30.

And some of you better start saving up to come visit us in China! 

home again, home again, jiggity jig

We've been back home since March 3rd, the day before Richy's 25th birthday. We had an awesome time in Mexico and the Southwest US and are looking forward to our next chance for adventure. We made it to Carlsbad Caverns, Roswell, Hoover Dam, Las Vegas and Reno on the way home!

In the meantime we're planting victory gardens and searching out non-exploitative ways to make livings. We're officially Peace Corps nominees now but they won't have positions open for us until spring/summer of 2010. We'll keep people posted.

There might be a cross-country road trip in the works with Korea friends for this fall... lookout midwest and east coast friends!

Just a little update.

To our pleaseant surprise, we found a lovely place just north of
puerto angel called zipolite. It's a little hippy beach community with
a nicer spot for us to camp for only 10 pesos more than the last place.

We're just basically getting tan, trying to cook authentic Mexican
dishes on the camp stove and relaxing. Probably heading out to Oaxaca
city on Friday for a few days then start the trek back northward.

Love,
Katie y Richy

Mechanical Misadventures and Simple Pleasures

Despite covering a few hundred kilometers with our drive shaft held in place with nothing more than a whittled stick, duct tape and glued together cardboard, we made it to Manzanillo with enough driving capacity to get directions to four different places which might have the necessary bolt. Of course when we found it, the guy spoke English and didn´t charge us since he didn´t want to break a 200 peso bill. Yo quiero Mexicanos! Other than that, the only mechanical misadventure despite the unpaved roads, unmarked speedbumps and numerous potholes was catching our battery before it nearly bounced out of our car. Glad we invested in that spiral core vibration proof one!

 

Yesterday we made it finally to the relatively untouristed section of the Pacific Coast of Mexico (thanks to long lingering rumors about drug operations and rip tides). Which is now thankfully occupied by abundant federale forces and the "ecotourism" crowd. We´re still pretty hesitant about going more than ankle deep in the water though. The village of Maruata is a beautiful, warm, relaxing and hammock swinging place where I had the best lobster dinner of my life last night with beer for less than 10 bucks.

 

We´re planning to head out toward Acapoulco tomorrow and will hopefully find a cheap relaxing beach near there, but not holding our breath after seeing the expensive resort wastelands north of here.

 

Besos!

 

Katie (y Richy)

From HM Hostel 1905 in Moscow:

After our first days in Irkutsk, we spent three days on Olkhon Island in Lake Baikal at Solnetchnaya Guest House. We stayed in a cozy 3 bed cabin room and were fed three hearty Russian country meals a day. It was really nice and relaxing and the food was delicious. We managed a few dips into the cold lake (+25 years for us!), but it really wasn’t as bad as we had expected it to be. The water was clear and fresh, the sky was sunny and the air was clean and beautiful. I wish we could have hiked to the other side of the island to see the real vastness of the lake, but it was 20 kilometers one way, which we couldn’t really manage on a day hike (and we didn’t want to miss too much of the food). We also had wanted to take a ferry from the island to the north end of the lake and take the train on to Moscow from there, but the summer ferry had stopped running the previous week. I guess that’s one of the downsides of coming after the tourist season.

So we had no choice but to return to Irkutsk, which wasn’t a very pleasant idea since when we had been buying our bus tickets a really sketchy guy had come up and tried to grab stuff out of Bevin’s bag. When she knocked his hand away, we ran across the street and went into a restaurant, only for him to follow us and try it again. It left us with a pretty creepy, unsettled feeling about Irkutsk in general, especially since we had been warned by several people about the apparent dangers of being a tourist in Irkutsk. But we made it back (in a super crowded death trap minibus) and stayed another night without incident, enjoying the benefits of running water and hot showers for another day before our long train trip.

We thought we bought way too much food for the train ride, but when we ran out of decent things to eat after the first 24 hours, it got pretty tedious. The train technically had a dining car, but the guy who ran it acted like any customers trying to buy food were unseemly intruders on his personal universe. So we survived on the kiosk peroshkis, hotdogs and soda for several meals. Not a good diet for a healthy intestinal tract. But we made it to Moscow, where we’ve graduated to street shwarma and microwave street calzones (budget minded as always). We did have a nice pricey meal to commemorate our last travel day with Bevin though.

We had a nice death themed day today, starting with a visit to Lenin’s tomb (much more lifelike, or rather deathlike, than Mao). It was pretty creepy descending into the chilly tomb down a dark black staircase, hushed into silence by humorless guards, greeted by Lenin’s eerily lit face and curiously curled, decrepit hands. After walking by the line of buried Russian leaders (including Stalin) by the Kremlin wall, we took the metro out to Novodevichy Convent and Necropolis. The convent was impressive with its onion domes, intricate murals and old tombs. Then we walked over to the cemetery, which holds some of the most famous Russians in history, including Tolstoy, Gorbachev, Yeltsin, Gogol, and many others, as indicated by the rows upon rows of towering, self-important statues and busts.

If you’re wondering where we stand in relation to the original itinerary, basically we’ve decided to take it slower across Scandinavia, so we’re not planning to meet up with Kimmie until the weekend of the 21st in Paris or thereabouts. Also our plans fell through with Nora because her mom is sick, although we may still stay a night in Hilvarenbeek. Tomorrow night we’re taking a sleeper to St. Petersberg, where we’ll be staying at Cuba Hostel for two nights, then off to Helsinki.

By Katie

On the Slow Boat to China...

Today was a strange day. There are so many mixed emotions about leaving Korea: trepidation about going to a new place, excitement for moving on to new adventures, sadness for leaving behind good friends, happiness to see an old friend again (Bevin), and finally, relief to leave behind all the responsibilities and annoyances that life in Korea entailed for us.

 

We cleaned out our apartment (with some help from some lovely folks at Banghak Middle School), updated our facebook statuses, christened our journey with some 11am Scuttlebutt microbrews (that Bevin imported for us) and set off for what I hope will be the adventure of our lives. I tried to instill some team mentality for the three of us by buying some matching Buddhist rosary bracelets at the temple in Insadong, but I'll be happy as long as they retain enough sandalwood smell to take the edge off our acrid traveller's BO. 

 

The ferry to China is, as Bevin put it, "like a really ghetto cruise ship." In other words, way above our expectations. I guess as long as we keep our expectations low, our journey will be full of pleasant surprises.

 

The task for Richy and I now is to stop trying to speak Korean to anyone we interact with who doesn't speak English, and to stop comparing all we see and do to our experiences in Korea. I really hope we don't bore Bevin to death with our constant anecdotes and ruminations on comparative Korean culture and philosophy.

 

By Katie

Official Katie and Richy Itinerary!

Here's the plan for our grand adventure. Dates marked with * are estimates only, all travel is by train unless otherwise noted:

8/14/08 Katie, Richy and Bevin Protas will depart on the Weidong ferry from Incheon, Korea to Qingdao, China at 5pm http://www.weidong.co.kr/

8/15/08 arrive in Qingdao at 9:00 am. Wander around. Take a night train to Beijing.

8/16/08 arrive in Beijing and check in to Chinese Box International Hostel for 4 nights http://www.asiarooms.com/china/beijing/chinese_box_hostel.html

8/20/08 depart Beijing for Ulaan Batar, Mongolia

8/21/08 arrive in Ulaan Batar, accommodations TBA

8/24 or 8/25/08 depart Ulaan Batar for Irkutsk, Russia

*8/25 arrive in Irkutsk, Russia and visit sites around Lake Baikal - emergency contact in Irkutsk:
Via Marina Shunina (our Russian friend who teaches in Seoul) "if u need any help or info while u r in Irkutsk, heres the cell phone number of a friend of mine..she speaks english well n ready to help u if u call her while u r in Irkutsk- ************ her names Yulya (Julia in english variant i think^^)"

*8/30 depart Irkutsk for Moscow (3 days on the train)

*9/2 arrive in Moscow

*9/3 or 9/4 depart Moscow for St. Petersburg (around this point we will part with our dear friend Bevin and she will travel on by plane to the Czech Republic and Ireland respectively).

*9/4 arrive in St. Petersburg

*9/6 depart St. Petersberg by ferry for Helsinki, Finland.

*9/6 arrive in Helsinki, Finland

*9/8 depart Helsinki, Finland for Stockholm, Sweden by ferry.

*9/9 arrive in Stockholm

*9/10 depart Stockholm for Copenhagen, Denmark by train.

*9/11 arrive in Copenhagen, Denmark.

*9/12 depart Copenhagen, Denmark for Amsterdam, Netherlands

*9/12 or 9/13 arrive in Amsterdam, possibly meet up with Kimmie, J, Doug, Sara and/or Noor Naaijkens (our friend from the Netherlands)

* 9/14 depart Amsterdam for Hilvarenbeek, Netherlands (Noor's hometown) we plan to spend a few days with Noor and her family while Kimmie and company move on to Belgium and destinations in northwestern France.

*9/18 to 9/28 travel with Noor (probably by her father's car, Richy driving) to meet Kimmie and company somewhere around Paris. At this point, Kimmie will depart from her company (Doug, Sara and J will return to Frankfurt, Germany) and join Noor, Richy, and I for some lovely car touring around western Europe. At some point we'll need to end up back in the Netherlands to take Noor back to Hilvarenbeek and rent a car to continue our travels.

*9/28 arrive in Munich, Germany for Octoberfest. Accommodations are booked, but Kimmie has the info on that.

*10/1 depart Munich for other fun and interesting European destinations.

*10/8 depart Dusseldorf, Germany for Vancouver, BC, Canada at 1:00 pm by plane:
LTU International Airways # 1582
Dusseldorf International (DUS) to Vancouver Intl (YVR)
Departure (DUS): October 8, 1:00 PM CEST (afternoon)
Arrival (YVR): October 8, 2:05 PM PDT (afternoon) What!? It only takes an hour? k-k-k- :P


*10/8 (the longest day of our lives, literally) arrive in Vancouver at 2:05 pm, and depart Vancouver by Greyhound bus or car (if someone wants to pick us up *wink*wink*) for Yelm, Washington USA!!! Our 14 month journey all the way around the Northern hemisphere complete!