Giving Back In Your Honor

It is not an exaggeration to say I would not have made it through my Peace Corps experience without the support of folks back home. So many people did so much for me. I'm putting together this week care packages for Thanksgiving/Christmas for some folks over in China; it means a lot for me to be able to give back for all the kindness shown towards me. It's so fun picking stuff out, knowing it'll be a treat for them. Thanks again to everyone who supported me, with packages and warm thoughts and kind words. I'm paying it forward in your honor.

Youngest and Oldest Kids: Adventures of the Chongqing Nanny

I get along well with youngest children; most of my best friends and men I've been out with are youngest kids. I'm an oldest, so perhaps it's just an easy paradigm to fall into. My second year, most of the new volunteers assigned to Chongqing were guys. (New volunteers arrive every July; because we serve for two years, you serve with a different group your first and second years.) And almost all of them were youngest children.

Because I'd already been in Chongqing a year when the new volunteers arrived, I was happy to take on the role of 411 if they needed it. I told them about getting around the city and food and shopping and whatever else they needed to know. But then I started getting calls from restaurants, asking me to talk to their server to order their dinner. One of the girls sometimes called me and she was always "Hey, can you help me out? I've tried and it's not working." But the boys were like, "Hi, order my food, 'k thanks bye." I started to get annoyed by the boys. I started to feel like I wasn't their friend, I was their nanny. On the one hand, it was flattering they thought I knew so much. On the other hand, I'm not your mom. It's funny now to me how easy it was for us to fall into this pattern, because both sides were willing to take on the role of youngest/oldest. (Yes, I am stereotyping-- not all youngest or oldest kids act like this. But we did.)

I finally told them I felt like their nanny, not their friend, and I didn't like that. They started making an effort to make sure they knew I was their friend first, nanny second (haha), balance restored. Even now I sometimes still get emails asking for help with something Chongqing-related. I'm happy to help out. And they taught me more about being very laid-back, carefree and fun-loving. Youngest and oldest: it's a dynamic that works.

Happy Halloween! Hope you have a great time. Be safe! Here's a picture from last year I don't think I've shared before. He didn't know what to be for Halloween, so like a good nanny I took him in at the last minute, gave him my Chinese silk dragon robe, cut off the sleeves of this t-shirt, blew dry his just-washed gym shorts with my hair-dryer and gave him a (make-up based) black eye. I also taped up his hands but it disappeared by the time this picture was taken. I had to rush him past the guards outside my apartment because at the time they were still housing swine flu quarantinees in my building. But look at him: would YOU mess with this boxer? I still love the memory of us trying to get a taxi in our Halloween getups. Crazy Americans.

Time Goes By

My birthday weekend in Vegas was awesome! Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I forgot my camera (again!) but I have been to Vegas several times. Here are some of my favorite pictures from past trips:

A view of Las Vegas Blvd:

Me and a friend I met there:

A bride waiting at a bus stop at 2:00 AM:

Kids playing a joke on David:

Vegas, there really is no place like it in the world. I had a great time at Sephora, Rebecca bought some super strong pigment silver eye shadow (Urban Decay in Vapor) and nail polish (Sephora OPI in Queen of Everything) for my birthday. I'm really into strong metals these days. My little brother got me this awesome Michael Kors costume jewelry perfume ring from Sephora. I love it!

My friend and I had a good time, and I ate many delicious foods. (That is Chinglish, btw; they aways say 'delicious foods' to describe all foods.) I'd say more, but you know the rule! Haha.

I have a few more days left here, I'm trying to get everything done. Time has flown by. It's weird, I was so freaked out by America that first week or so, but now I've gotten used to it again. And now it's time to go back. *sigh* I feel like I'm caught between two cultures.

The ‘Most’ List: Hainan Edition

Most Unusual Food Eaten: ‘Drunken Shrimp,’ or, raw shrimp soaking in a bowl of Chinese rice wine. The wine gets the shrimp drunk/dead, and they are eaten raw. I ate one (1). It wasn’t too bad, but I wouldn’t eat one (1) again. We also ate this yummy stuff,



which we picked out beforehand from the live menu:



Most Ego Gratifying Moment: Andrew bowing down to my awesome genetic makeup, which allowed me to spend days on the beach without burning. (He spent... minutes before turning red.)


Most Comfortable Moment: Beach chair, blue sky, sunshine, the gentle waves of the South China Sea. Ahhhh… (Picture taken by Andrew.)

Most Life-Affirming Moment: Stepping out of the airport into the clear, fresh air of Hainan Island. After the smoggy, sunblocking cauldron of Chongqing, I could almost feel the oxygen rushing back into my brain. And the lingering skin rashes I’ve been having? Gone. Pollution sucks, yo.


Most Regretted Missed Tour Opportunity: The ‘Archaic Sacred Beast Fantasy Tour.’



Most Ditzy Moment: I left my iPod behind at the hotel. I always forget something. The hotel found it and is shipping it to me, but it won’t be here until after I leave for America. Thirty six hours of airports and airplanes with no iPod will be an old school adventure.

Most Karmic Moment: Standing in the airport security line flying home, this girl rushes up to us and insists all princess snotty-like that she has to cut in line because her plane is going to leave. We let her cut in front of us, but were annoyed at her behavior. Then we board the plane: she’s sitting right next to us! HAHA! She tried to sink into her seat, invisible, the whole way home. (Andrew was going to tell her, “So, I see you made your plane,” but because sarcasm isn't used here, she wouldn’t have gotten it.)

I got home today, and I leave in 36 hours for America. It takes about 36 hours to get home (flying time + layovers). I hate flying, especially internationally, so I am a bundle of nerves right now. I’m unpacking, cleaning and packing again as fast as I can. I will catch up with you all very soon!

New Year Adventures of Panda Girl

My new favorite hat:

You might think this looks silly, but animal hats are all the fashion here. I'm so wearing it when I go to the U.S. in February to see my grandma; she is going to crack up when she sees it, and I can't wait. It's a great hat, btw, it feels like you're wearing a blanket on your head. I've started wearing it to bed to keep warm.

New Year's Eve turned out to be much more fun than I anticipated. My friend T. organized a trip up a mountain to ring in the new year, but as I told him, not only do I not climb mountains in the dark in the dead of winter, I don't even pretend I want to. So instead I went to my friend V.'s house. V. is awesome, because A: he is from the South, so we speak the same social language, and B: he loves brie and baguettes, tomato salad and nutella as much as I do. We ate these yummy things for dinner, then went downtown to meet up with a few friends. We watched fireworks and rang in the New Year at midnight in a beer garden with other revelers, then went into a club and danced the night away. Our mountain friends came down off the mountain to join us, so it was a big all-night lovefest. What a great way to ring in the new year! Here's a picture of me trying to eat J.'s nutella. As you can see by his face, he did not think this was as funny as I did.

My New Year's Day weekend trip was so interesting! And so Chinese. I'll tell more about in the coming days, but it ended up being just me, the director of the Foreign Affairs Office, and his whole extended family. I was honored he asked me to spend the weekend with his family. They were wonderfully hospitable to me, and made me feel very welcome. I was on pins and needles the whole weekend, making sure I didn't do something to offend anyone. (There is a strict pecking order in Chinese families. I'll talk more about this later, too.) My director's nieces were very cute, and took a liking to me. They always wanted to sit next to me and hold my hand. Here's a picture of us in the backseat of the car:

And here's a picture of part of the group in a city called DuJiangYan, a World Heritage Site located near Chengdu, Sichuan province. At this place, they started using dams and irrigation 2,600 years ago, and the same system is still used today. Pretty neat:

I'll post some more pictures tomorrow, and give more details about my trip. Hope you all had a great New Year!

Happy New Year, Chinese Style

An hour ago, I got a call from my boss at our University inviting me to go on a trip with his family for the weekend to another province. We leave tomorrow at noon. (This is how things happen in China: at the last minute. I have no idea if other teachers are going too, or just me. I'll find out when the car arrives.) I have two sets of plans for New Year's Eve this evening, and I'm not sure which yet I'll choose. But tomorrow I'll be leaving town, so let me tell you all now: Happy New Year!  新年快乐！

Btw,I'm still waiting for students to send me pictures they took of our night hosting the pageant. I'll post some as soon as I get them. They are in the middle of finals, so I'm not pushing for them yet. (I forgot my camera, of course.) I ended up wearing a long black fitted skirt and a "sexy" (their words) matte silver/gray top, with some fun accessories. A student loaned me a diamond hair thingy to wear my hair pulled up into in the front, then flipped at the ends. It was a very 60's mod look. And 4-inch heels, of course.

The Best (Weirdest?) Christmas Pageant Ever

Hope you all had a nice Christmas; I ate lots of foods I am not used to anymore (read: dairy and processed meats and sugary treats sent by our various fams) and got a tummy ache, which made it seem like kid Christmas all over again, so that was kind of awesome. I got together with friends and bought myself some lavender/silvery eye shadow, so it was a great Christmas! And yes, I now get excited about eye shadow, it's a luxury purchase for me here. China: helping you find joy in the little things all over again.

Andrew and I hosted the Christmas pageant on Wednesday night. Here is my report:

-I didn't get to wear the dress! And the reason is very Chinese: they told me the shop had made a mistake and didn't reserve the dress after all, and someone else had rented it out. But I was not asked to go pick out another one instead. So I think they went over budget and no longer had the money to pay for it, but they couldn't admit that to me, it would be 'losing face', so they made it the shopkeeper's fault. I'm 100% certain if I went to the shop that day, my dress would have been hanging on the rack. I wouldn't have minded paying for it myself, but then it would have shown them up as liars and really caused 'face' problems, so I had to let it go. (This is a pretty standard Chinese way of taking care of problems.) Andrew suggested I could rent it and just wear it around the house for a day. Haha, he has no idea how close I am to doing this. But if they did run out of money, it was more important for the kids to have their nice clothes/costumes. So I didn't mind not having the dress.

-The pageant was sponsored by Pepsi and included an outdoor stage with a Pepsi background (shilled here by Chinese popstars), professional lighting etc. The opening number was a dance to a High School Musical* song. So, I'm in China, celebrating Christmas with a pageant sponsored by Pepsi, watching kids dance to High School Musical. Welcome to modern China.

-They assigned one of my male students to be my 'handler'; that is, to help me walk offstage, down the stairs, hold my coat while I was onstage then help me put it back on when I was done presenting, etc. I felt like a boxer coming out of the ring all night long. But it's a good thing he was there, those stage lights were blinding and I couldn't see anything for a few seconds after walking offstage. I'm pretty sure those stairs would have been the death of me. It also confirmed my suspicious that what I really want for Christmas is a cabana boy. (And a cabana.)

-Chinese students also think it's hilarious for men to dress in drag for skits. A few of their sketches had men in drag, and the final performance was an all male ballet, with the guys dressed in female ballerina outfits. I could have been watching any skit at an American high school assembly. It's always funny for me to find these cultural touchstones we share. Drag: popular even in China! Who'da thunk it?

*I've never seen High School Musical, they told me this is where it was from.

A few cultural notes on Chinese Christmas:

-It isn't celebrated here by the parents and grandparents, only by the current youth generation. And it's just a day to exchange small gifts with friends. The traditional gift is an apple in a cellophane bag tied with ribbon. So on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, there were tables of wrapped apples in the street markets. I compare Christmas in China to Cinco de Mayo in America: a holiday you don't really know (or care to know) the history or significance of, you just celebrate the fun parts. The dean of our department gave a speech at the pageant, in English, about how Christmas is now a worldwide holiday of peace and love. A very interesting speech.

-I tried to explain to my students that not every American celebrates Christmas, and they couldn't wrap their minds around this concept. Because Chinese is such a homogeneous culture, the idea that not everyone celebrates a major holiday is unfathomable.

-My students think Christmas is like New Year's; at midnight on Christmas Eve, I got a flurry of text messages wishing me Merry Christmas. And I found out the current mayor is trying to discourage the tradition they have here of beating people with inflatable bats in the public squares on Christmas Eve. I wrote about this phenomenn last year. He cleared out the square downtown, but on the side streets it was still going strong.

Bye Bye Bali, Plus Daily Life

My grandma is not doing well. So, I am no longer going to Bali and Beijing over my break; instead, I'll be flying back to the U.S. to spend time with her and other family. I was looking forward to these trips, but Bali and Beijing will be there for a long while. Grandma comes first. I am sure those of you reading can understand and would do the same thing.

Now, a few things to share about daily life in China:

1. Street cleaning trucks in my city play "Happy Birthday" in a high-pitched tone, over and over and over. There is also a techno version of Happy Birthday they play in clubs. How "Happy Birthday" became both of these things, I have no idea, but I never want to hear "Happy Birthday" again.

2. Overheard yesterday as I was walking home: a clothing store blasting "Jingle Bells" set to a disco-esque beat, including the phrases "Jingle all the way, oh what fun it is to ride in a one horse open sleee." Sleigh IS spelled like Leigh, I have to give them that. "One horse open sleee" set to disco is more funny than I could have imagined. I smiled all the way home.

3. I bought colored contact lenses this week. I didn't know contacts sold in Asia are made to make the iris look larger than it is. They look a little weird to me, but it's interesting to see the world in 3D all day long. I had forgotten what this is like! (I have glasses but don't like wearing them, so I've been living in a 2D world.) Here's what Asian colored contact lenses look like:

4. This was the cover of a weekly newspaper this week. American culture is so popular here, and yet America knows so little about Chinese popular culture. My students ask me all the time if I watch shows like Vampire Diaries, Cougartown, Californication etc. And I'm thinking, you guys know more about American tv than I do! (I haven't seen any of those shows.) I bought this to put on my wall. A little bit of handsome Americana is never a bad thing.

4. The subject of this article has been big news here. Before living here, I didn't recognize the various ways living in a diverse culture has affected how I disseminate and process information. I'll be writing more about this after the holiday.

I know the next few days will be busy for everyone, so let me take this chance to say Merry Christmas to everyone celebrating it! Hope you have a wonderful day with your families.

Chinese Pageant Dress, Plus KTV Lights Up My Life

That Christmas Pageant Andrew and I are hosting? Turns out it's a much bigger production than I anticipated. We'll be doing the introduction and closing, as well as making commentary between each act. Watch out, Dick Clark??

Pageant hosting in China is a really big deal, so yesterday my school took me to a dress rental shop to find a ballgown length pageant dress to wear. We found a beautiful cranberry gown that actually fit me (I am a giant here), I was shocked. And happy. I love wearing beautiful dresses! It's being held outdoors and I can't wear a coat while I'm onstage, brrr, but even so, I'm pretty excited to get to wear the dress. (And because my gown is floor-length, I'm totally going to be rocking some legwarmers. Shhh...) Definitely a new experience in my Rebecca Life Handbook.

Btw, a cultural note: variety shows are extremely popular here, and the girls who host the shows on tv are known for being charming and beautiful. If you are a variety show hostess on tv, you have probably the same cachet as a flight attendant in the 1960's in America. It's a very interesting subculture of Chinese culture, and I'm still trying to understand why they are so popular. At any given time on local tv, you can find a pageant or variety show.

So anyway, I'm sure you want to know more about my dress, right? It's a heavy, thick, satin-type material in deep cranberry with silver embroidery details. Here's the hemline (the red is the lining, it won't show when I'm wearing it):

Here's a shot of the bodice detail:

We'll take some proper pictures that night, I'm sure. I have to wear four inch heels to keep the hem from dragging too much, good thing I've been doing my foot yoga high heel practice. And as I told Andrew, I'll so be wearing hand warmers in my underwear, ha. (Note: I have since learned this is a bad idea, it burns. Nixing this.)

Two of my students will be on stage to translate for the audience, a girl and a guy, and they get to dress up too. Here is her dress. How cute is she?

We had a lot of fun picking out the dresses. If my life were a movie, it would have been a great montage scene.

Last night we had a birthday party for one of the T.'s, and I shot a short video while we were performing to Prince's "Cream" at karaoke, known locally as KTV. I watched it today, and my first thought was, "Why did we think it was a good idea to leave the strobe lights on in our room all night? Hello, epilepsy!" On the other hand, it kept us awake. I love that you can do all night karaoke here. Hope you've all had a good weekend!

Intestinal Parasites Think They Are My Friends

Turns out my tummyache was merely the incubation period for giardia, an intestinal parasite you get from dirty water or poorly cooked food. I'll spare you the details, you can read about it here if you want, but all I have to say is thank goodness for medicine. I took a large dose this morning, and the Peace Corps doctor said I should start feeling better in three to four days, but it takes several weeks to fully recover. (And giardia sometimes relapses; the gift that keeps on giving!) When we go to our sites, we are given a bag of prescription medications to keep in our apartments. This way, we don't have to have it sent to us, we can just take it under the direction of our doctor as soon as we need it. The Peace Corps takes good care of us.

I have to admit, I was pretty ticked when my symptoms got worse and I realized this wasn't just a passing tummyache. At this time of year, I really miss my dad; holidays are the hardest time to be without him. And I am so far away from home, in a country where Christmas isn't celebrated like I'm used to. It's just another day here. And I got a little peevish, like, "Why am I voluntarily submitting myself to this misery? I could be home, with my family, without parasites! Is that so wrong?" But I do remember why I'm here, and how much I love my students, and I know this misery is just a short time compared to positive benefit of these experiences. Someday I'll look back on my giardia Christmas and laugh.

That said, intestinal parasites suck. Parasites, I'm sorry, but this relationship needs to be over now!

Running, Happy Thanksgiving Plans, And The Best Christmas Pageant Ever?

Today I went running out at T's and took a few pictures along the way:

A power line worker having a nap in the trees:

An elderly man sitting on his porch reading a book:

Just for you, Techno, a Chinese chicken coop:

A woman doing the wash, and two de-feathered ducks for dinner (hanging on the pole):

Pretty much everyone thought I was crazy for running for no reason. I stopped to talk to a few people along the way. I could see it in their eyes, "Why are you running if no one is chasing you?" One guy stopped on his motorcycle and backed up to offer me a ride back to town.

So last year's Thanksgiving was not great. I taught all day, and then we had possibly the worst Thanksgiving dinner ever of dry chicken. So, this year, my thoughtful mom sent me money to go to a hotel in the city serving Thanksgiving dinner for expats. Really good food, and I am so excited!! 10 of us are going, and I am going to eat and eat and eat to my heart's content. I'll post pictures after Thanksgiving of what a Chinese Thanksgiving looks like. Most Chinese know about Thanksgiving, they way most Americans know about Chinese New Year, but it isn't really celebrated here. However, I get texts all day long from my students wishing me Happy Thanksgiving, and I treasure those. They are so thoughtful of my American holidays.

Today Andrew and I were asked to co-host a Christmas pageant our students are putting on on December 23rd. I'm being given a script! I have no idea what this is about, but I can't wait to find out. I'll keep you all informed!

Happy Thankgsiving!

Halloween Fun, Halloween Awkwardness

First the fun:

We had an expat Halloween party at a friend's house with lots of refreshments, glowsticks, cookies and candles, what could be more fun than that? Here's a picture of me in-costume (as old-school Britney Spears, with 'Rambo'):

A few of us crashed at the party site instead of going home that early in the morning. I fell asleep around 4:30 a.m., which wouldn't be a big deal except someone started pipe construction at 6 a.m., right outside the bedroom window. On a Sunday morning, are you kidding me? I hate it when Chinese work ethics collide with my sleep time!

Now the awkward:

Later in the morning, we decided to get Chinese brunch (which here is just 'lunch' early, there are no brunch foods, that's a little joke) but all I had to wear was my Halloween costume. And here's the thing I learned: Halloween costumes are like Cinderella's pumpkin carriage: good for one night only. That getup, which had been so fun only a few hours before, now felt utterly ridiculous. At least the locals learned a little something about Halloween costumes! But that was a long walk home through my campus, I definitely shoulda come home in the dark. I'm not sure if none of my students saw me, or if my students pretended NOT to see me.

Hope you all had a great Halloween!

Shake Shack

I was just asleep, but now awake due to my shaking bed: a  mild earthquake, which probably wouldn't be felt in a building with Western construction standards, but is very noticeable here. And the shaking itself doesn't freak me out, but these things do:

1. No fire escapes in Chinese apartment buildings.
2. My front door opens onto an outside balcony, not a secure hallway.
3. I'm on the 4th floor.
4. The past few days, and I am not making this up, I've been thinking about earthquakes and what I would do if there were another big one here. It's been a year and a half since the big earthquake hit this area, the likelihood of another big one isn't high, but still...am I paranoid or psychic? (The answer is: paranoid. I hope.)

UPDATE: I checked the USGS website this morning and yes, there was a minor earthquake last night centered about 200 miles from where I live.

You know how it's hard to sleep after an adrenaline rush? Yeah. So because I'm awake, here's a funny picture Tristan took on our day in the village:

Is it just me, or is that a really awkward way to hold a cup? Why am I twisting my wrist like that? I have no idea.

*Shake Shack is of course the awesome hamburger shop in NYC.

Bathroom Roulette

Well, this has been quite a week. I guess what happens when you actually start having fun in China is that you lose the time to write about it. It's Saturday night here and I am blissfully staying home and going to bed early. It was a great holiday week, but super-busy. I'm glad for a night off from the fun and frivolity.

So many parts of my Chinese life that were different and unexpected are now normal to me, to the extent that I forget to write about them!  But here's one I was reminded of today: in a public bathroom with multiple stalls, instead of waiting at the head of the stall line for the next available stall, you have to go stand in front of a stall and wait for it to become empty. And it seems like I always choose the wrong stall and have to wait longer than someone who came in behind me. I have bad bathroom stall karma! There must be some secret to determining which stall will be empty next, but I have yet to figure it out. Maybe by the time I go home next year, I'll win bathroom roulette.

I have some more pictures to upload, but I am just too tired tonight to do it. However, here is one taken on the day we went biking. Aww...aren't I cute with eyeliner raccoon-bag eyes? NOT! Yikes, next time we go biking, NO MAKE UP! It got all over my face.

Pictures From A Day At A Chinese Village

Tim lives on the edge between Chongqing and the countryside, so he invited us to his house to go biking and spend the day in the fresh air we never get in the city. We got there in the morning and rented mountain bikes; I haven't been on a bike since I was about 13, so this was quite an adventure for me. We did some off-road biking and I was in last place, but I did make it up the hills! Here's a picture of me on my bike (yes, I did wear a helmet, just not for the photo):

Tim has a Chinese student friend who grew up in a small village near Tim's school, and one of the villagers was having his 30th birthday party. We got invited to the party, so we biked to the village. It was pretty incredible to spend the day there and see what village life is like. Their village is a collection of homes built around an old temple that was bombed by the Japanese during the Chinese/Japanese conflict in WWII. Two families now live in the old temple, and the rest built homes surrounding the temple. There is electricity, but no running water. I forgot my camera (I know!) but Tim and Tristan both had theirs. (Click all pics to enlarge.)

Tobhiyah at our table full of food:

Our host and his mother:

The village babies:

The lunch chef in the cooking area:

Men playing majiang after lunch:

Me helping grandma with baby lunch:

Group shot, from l-r: Tim, Tobhiyah, me, Tristan, and two friends. Tristan has more pictures of me, when he gives them to me I'll post a few.

Sharing rounds of toasts before we left:

After the party, we rode our bikes to see a goddess statue in the middle of a nearby lake:

After the lake, we biked back to Tim's university, then Tristan and I took the bus back to CQ. An exhausting day, but also wonderful!

Life On The D-List*

Last week Tristan made an astute observation: "In China, we're like D-list celebrities." It's true: people don't know our names, but they recognize us and want to know what we're doing, buying and eating. And they want to be our friend. (I think Tristan said this because some kids came to our table during dinner to stare/talk to us while we were eating; he's a tall, muscular, tough-looking guy who shaves his head. I love watching people spot him on the sidewalk, then get out of the way.) People treat us like we're living in our own little reality show, and they want to be a part of it. This isn't a bad thing, but after over a year here, I am still not comfortable with being treated differently. However, it does make for some interesting and/or unusual interactions.

For example, this past week, I got a random call from a girl I didn't remember but evidently sat next to on the bus going to school. People here are always asking for our phone numbers, and I used to be hesitant about giving it out, but then I realized they don't really call you, they just want a foreigner's phone number in their cell phone. But this girl did call, and asked me to meet her for lunch. I jokingly called it my first Chinese blind date, because I didn't remember her at all! Turns out she's an accounting major at my school and has to take a Business English certificate exam in November; she wants to practice her English conversations skills so she has a better chance of passing the exam, and in turn getting a better job. I'm glad to help her out because helping students is the main reason I'm here in the Peace Corps. And I am especially mindful of helping the girls, who have historically faced disadvantages.

So, living life on the D-list isn't comfortable for me, and I doubt it ever will be, but if it allows me opportunities to help people out, I can't complain. But I still look forward to anonymity when I return to the U.S.!

In other news, I have back-to-back holidays this week and next: National Day (October 1st, celebrating the founding of the People's Republic of China under the Chinese Communist Party, and Mid-Autumn Festival, a harvest and family reunion holiday. I have 3 days off from school for each holiday, so I don't have to go back to school until next Friday, Oct. 9th. I'll be doing some fun things around the city on my days off. Hope you all have a great weekend!

*Stolen from the title of Kathy Griffin's reality series.

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July! My grades are all turned in, I'm going this afternoon to have cute flowers painted on my toenails, tonight is a 1 year anniversary homemade pizza party, and tomorrow a 4th of July BBQ on the roof to celebrate. Hope y'all have a great weekend, too!

(This is the cake the Peace Corps Chinese staff bought us last year for the 4th of July, our 3rd day in country. It was so sweet of them to get it for us.) 

Stories From My Students

My English major students had a one on one interview with me for their final exam. It took a long time to interview all 120 students, but I actually really enjoyed doing it. I asked them to talk about their childhoods, and they said fascinating things that gave me great insight into the culture here. A brief overview of some of the things I learned:

1. Roughly 75% of my students referenced having at least one brother or sister. One guy even knew how much the fine was his parents paid when he was born. He said it proudly, "I cost 3,000 yuan. I'm glad I'm here." I was really surprised at how many students are not only children. (Many of my students come from poorer areas and small villages and I think a higher ratio of people in these areas are exempt from the one child law.)

2. Several of them said when they were younger, they had little flower and vegetable gardens they cared for, and this is what they did for fun. They planted the flowers and veggies themselves. I asked them how they learned to be a gardener, and they couldn't tell me; they said it was just something they figured out how to do. They found the seeds themselves to plant, they didn't buy them. I was really impressed they did this.

3. Only one student mentioned having a tv while growing up, and only one mentioned playing arcade games. The rest of the students said they didn't have any toys to play with; instead, they played in the river near their village or played outside games with their friends. They stole food from peasant farmers or tended their own little gardens. One of them said, "I bet your childhood in America was not like mine." Nope.

4. Many students had parents that had to leave the village and go to a bigger city to find work. As a result, they were raised by their grandparents or other close relatives. Several mentioned they don't have a close relationship with their parents because the parents weren't around when they were growing up. But the money their parents earned is what enables them to go to college, so they are grateful for what their parents did.

5. The students said their favorite time of year was Spring Festival, aka the Chinese New Year. They said this holiday was more special when they were younger because it was the only time of year they received new clothes and could eat a lot of meat; now that China has opened up to the West and is more prosperous, they can get new clothes and meat throughout the year, and the holiday is not as meaningful in this regard. I didn't realize they only received new clothes once a year. It made me understand more why they have the tradition of wearing the same clothes for several days in a row here.

My students will move on next year and I will no longer be their teacher. I'm really going to miss them. They have taught me more about China than I think I could ever learn from a book. They have faced challenges in their journeys from small village to big city university, and I hope their tenacity leads them to great things in their futures. I am blessed to have been a small part of their journey.

"You Keep Using That Word. I Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means"

It was Dragon Boat Festival here this week, so I had a few days off from school. (Most Chinese holidays last a minimum of three days. I know!) To celebrate, we climbed a mountain just outside of town, then took a very scary ski-lift type contraption back down to the bottom. Inside the little two-person car was one of the best Chinglish signs* I've seen yet: "No Smoking or Gambolling or Swagging."

Swagging?  Did they mean swinging? Snogging? Swapping? I really want to know what they meant!

Also, who gambles whilst going down a mountain inside a tiny tram car? The mysteries of China are never-ending.

*dead camera batteries, so no pic. Argh!

Beity Hot Springs

Today was our trip to the hot springs, about 45 minutes from my neighborhood, and it was really cool!  I'm going to post small pics here, you can click on them for the full size version.

First, the scariest picture of me ever taken: Rebecca The Floating Head. I am in a pool with the water up to my jaw line, hence the creepy floating head illusion.

Here is a picture of the grounds at the hot springs. They have around 10 different "spa" pools, each one with a different theme: rosewater, tea, Chinese medicine, lavender, etc. Each pool smelled wonderful. There was even a red wine water pool, which is supposed to be very good for your skin. And reminded me I always wanted to take a red wine bath, but forgot about it. When I get back to the States (and a bathtub) I'll do it.

Another view of the grounds. Behind each circle wall is a spa pool. They were playing traditional soothing Chinese music over little hidden loudspeakers, it was very relaxing. The open air and view didn't hurt either.

My legs in a tea pool.












And last but not least, the fish pool!  Yes, hundreds of little fish descend and eat your dead skin flakes. Exfoliation, basically, but done by little fish. You have to stay very, very still, like a statue, or they get scared away. I had to move a bit to take the picture, so this shot doesn't really do it justice: there were hundreds and hundreds of little fish. I stayed in the pool for about a half an hour. The little bites just tickled, so it felt like a tickle massage. It was a pretty interesting experience!

By the way, the entrance fee was about $8.00 USD. A pretty good deal.