lotus pond

5'9", shorts, and a huge fuchsia hat... just part of the crowd

lotus root

Today's Sunday outing was to a lotus pond.  Lotus roots are a very common food, crunchy and hard, not much flavor on their own.  The grandmother gave me a hat and an umbrella to use today because the sun is sort of out.  Most women and some men use an umbrella for shade.  The Asian beauty aesthetic is a pale, white complexion.  Frequent TV ads for whiting creams show their solution if you forget your umbrella: just bleach your skin.   

Chinese give the peace sign
for photos

Umbrellas and typical fancy dress

a 15 minute ride cost $ .75

our "taxi"  I forgot the Chinese name

scooter are everywherethings are carried on the floor or in baskets

women wear nice dresses and heels, period. 

pinyin

It's hot and humid here. All of the sliding doors in the apartment are open, but they don't have screens, and so we live with mosquitos.  My host family uses these plug-in repellants that leave what I imagine are toxic fume marks on the walls.  Most of the time, I skip using the toxic plug-in and hide under a sheet, a strategy that works pretty well except for the bites on my face that make me look like I'm 15.  Part of the Peace Corps issued medical kit is a suspicious looking green liquid that we're supposed to put on bites.


Late last night I was lying on top of the sheet, just thinking about how I can survive the next few weeks when I felt something brush against me.  I did my mosquito wave, and continued fussing.  Then it happened again, it felt creepy. I flipped on the light and there in the room with me was a cockroach the size of a mouse.  I am not kidding!  And they fly, cockroaches fly,  I hate that they fly.  It was like having a flying mouse in my room.  The chase was on and now there is a dead cockroach-mouse under the curtain.  When I finally calmed down, I tucked the sheet in all around me and about suffocated.

This morning all puffy eyed, I met with my current language instructor for a 30 minute one-on-one conversation in Chinese, a prospect that for 24 hours caused no small amount of anxiety.  This is one time I was grateful for the Chinese practice of last minute notice.  Our instructors know we are so busy with teaching that we're not putting much energy into language and memorizing.

What we're memorizing is pinyin, a  modern way for the rest of the world to read and speak Chinese without the characters.  The pronunciation is tricky because it requires saying the letters and the tones, and both must be memorized because several words with the same spelling mean completely different things with different tones.

We rotate language instructors every week and it's helpful to see different teaching styles.  My current instructor is a university English teacher with a great smile and she's not intimidating at all, except for today. I sat across from her, sweating, not even realizing I was twisting my dress under the table, while she fired question after question at me.  I am slow, really slow.  I hear the question, translate, form my answer in English, and then translate my answer, hopefully getting some of the pronunciation and sentence structure correct.  I have a long way to go.  In a few weeks this will be our language competency test, another conversation.  And, we are expected to ask questions back!  Right now, just about the only question I use is, "How much are these bananas?"

model school

Starting today and for the next 2 weeks, we will practice teaching English as a foreign language every afternoon in "model school," a kind of student teaching.  We continue with our language classes every morning, so it's a crazy busy time.  Thankfully, we work with a partner, alternating teaching days. If it's not our teaching day, then we need to observe other Volunteers and give feedback.

My partner teacher is a 22 year old girl right out of college.  We drew the short straw, so we have the  youngest group, junior high level novices.  Our class list has 17 student names, but half as many showed up for the first class.  We were told they are the children of university staff.  The other 8 classes have high school, college, or adult students.

Our theme for the 2 week session is the Olympics, and we started with some basic language about events, the opening ceremony, and some history.  They are so shy, it's hard to assess how much they really know or understand.  They seem excited about the topic and my partner's read hair.

The classrooms are in the foreign language building, not far from our language classes.  The classrooms are simply a space to meet, but that is all, and we are working without supplies, a standard practice in China.  The whiteboard isn't usable now, but tomorrow we'll try to clean it.  Who knew I was taking cleaning supplies and paper towels for granted? They aren't used here.

Without any classroom supplies, it's basically just us and the students, and I really didn't know I could be so animated.  I'm regretting not taking theatre classes!  I can boldly say that day one.

I teach next on Wednesday.  Topic: Running!

Friday's topic: Olympic weightlifting, about which I know absolutely nothing, beyond heavy, heavier, heaviest, and that China does well in the sport.

downtown Chengdu

Today, we headed for downtown on the bus.  It only took about 15, and 1 bus.

my 15 year old guide

many stores also have English names

Mao 

new construction in every direction

nice stores, expensive stores!

a rare warning sign...

a modern take on tradition

A milk tea shop:  red bean tea on the left, milk tea on the right

typical fruit stand

Pedestrian mall 

downtown view

Shock! The first I've seen, in "old town" tourist area.

lots of tourists in recreated "old town"

a lunch item: rabbit heads ("grandfather makes this, very well")

another tea house in "old town"

many decorations in "old town"

rabbit intestine? and the squat toilet

I knew it would eventually happen, and it’s been no small concern, but it still caught me off guard: being served something I will not eat.  Tonight, placed in front of me was 2 plates of rabbit intestines.

As usual, the grandfather scurried around the small kitchen with both woks going.  When 1 dish is done, it goes on the table, until there are 5 or 6 different dishes, and always rice.  They called me to dinner, but grandfather was taking a little longer in the kitchen, and at one point there was a flame shooting out from under one wok.  We started eating and he came out with the last plates.

The older grandson leaned over to me and says, “We don’t think you are going to eat this.”   I asked him about it and he said it was rabbit, showing me his belly, saying it was the long part.  I said, “intestines?”  And, and he nodded.  Can that be right?  It really did look like it!

So far, I’m proud to say, I’ve tried most of the dishes.  Just last night I ate lots of a very bitter vegetable they grow on the roof, supposedly it’s very good for us.  However, that is in doubt today because I’ve been feeling some gastrointestinal distress all day long.

Right from the start, even before we got to China, the Peace Corps goes into great detail on how to keep safe and healthy.  Every Friday, we have training sessions on these topics, like today we covered disturbing material on natural disasters, assault, and China’s drinking culture.  (We also test drove fire extinguishers, since we will be issued fire extinguishers and smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.  Never-mind that none of the building have fire escapes.)  

the cleanest squat toilet I've seen is in a hotel

 I think I’m vigilant about what I eat and drink, and about washing my hands, but there’s a world of new germs out there, and the sanitation isn’t the same as in the U.S.  That is common knowledge.  We were warned about accepting this different standard, and about accepting the squat toilets, which are indoor outhouses.  It’s one thing to hold my breath, dash in, squat, and dash out when I feel healthy.  It’s quite another experience when I already feel queasy.  I didn’t want to drink water to avoid going, not a good response.

So, that’s how I was feeling when stir-fried rabbit intestines showed up at the table, and I am beyond grateful that I was warned.   They just knew from past experience with Volunteers that I wouldn’t eat it.  They also know that I eat mostly vegetables, and lots and lots and lots of apples.  Thankfully, they thought nothing of me passing on it.  They are so kind, and I really do not want to offend them.

a day trip

Let me start by saying I was in the backseat wearing a seatbelt, but it gave me little comfort or reassurance, and I’m grateful my view was partially obscured.   My kind hosts offered to take me on a day trip with the extended family to Pengzhou City, a victim of the 2008 earthquake, and now a rebuilt tourist mountain town.  Feeling like I should totally surrender to my home stay experience, I excitedly agreed, and so 9 of us and the dog, a standard poodle, piled into 2 Chevy sedans.

not a helmet in sight

I’ve been worried about the traffic from day 1 when it was immediately clear why the Peace Corps restricts our travel options and requires bike helmets.  China is notorious for dangerous driving conditions and today I helplessly experienced unmatched traffic insanity.  Compared to the journey there and back, our destination was irrelevant.

bad day for this truck driver

Frist, getting picked up required both cars crossing the oncoming traffic to park on the curb facing into the oncoming traffic and blocking 1 lane of the traffic entering from the side street.  Then, the light changed and, so what?, we were still loading, everyone else can wait.  “Everyone else” is an about equal mix of pedestrians, cars, bikes, trucks, motorized bikes, and 3 wheeled bikes or 3 wheeled motorcycles (both totally loaded down).  Anything with a horn is using it.

another fine u-turn

I should point out that there are usually clear lines and arrows painted on the road and they are largely ignored.  Few directional signs, speed signs, or caution signs exist because they are not needed; everyone does whatever they want.  For example, suddenly turning across 4 lanes of traffic to make an exit, passing on blind corners, using the oncoming traffic lanes to pass, even when there is oncoming traffic, U-turns whenever or wherever, and using the oncoming traffic’s turn lane to pass.

One heart stopping moment happened when one of our cars missed the exit on a highway with 5 lanes of traffic, stopped, backed up, started down the exit, changed mind, backed up on the exit (with a truck exiting), and got back on the highway again.  Fortunately, traffic was light. 

Pengzhou traffic

Somehow, we managed to get lost using a GPS, which I didn’t know was possible.  Trying to find our way resulted in many random, swerving, cross traffic turns to talk to pedestrians.  At one point, the Chevys were 4-wheeling in an area I’m sure no western has ever seen, so I’ve got a “1^st to see it” award.  Communication between cars included lots of cell phone calls, thankfully with hands -free technology, and stopping to chat, the old fashion way, except in our situation, it was in the middle of 5 lanes of traffic.

a relaxing lunch in Pengzhou

The trip took about two hours each way, and I have to admire both drivers' driving skill and their solid nerves.  My driver seemed unfazed and calm the entire trip.  I'm grateful they took me out for a day trip that was totally worthwhile in many ways.

food

A typical small, street side BBQ place

The food of Sichuan province is amazing, way better than I ever expected. 

Noodles or dumplings are the fast food lunch items.  A bowl of noodles costs about $1.50.

Unfortunately, MSG is in everything.  

Hot peppers are in almost everything.

Canola oil is heavily used.

I’ve eaten corn on the cob with a chopstick skewer.  It’s so easy!

The same kinds of food are served for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  There is no just breakfast food or just dinner food.

I need a full chin to knees bib because I’m ruining all of my clothes from chopstick malfunction stains.

My host family drying leaves of ????
and 3 types of mushrooms on their balcony.
On the left: a fish tank with a few sad goldfish.

At home, everyone gets a small bowl for rice.  5-6 main dishes are placed in the middle, and then everyone eats out of those main dishes.

During meals, everyone speaks loud and all at once with lots of energy.

That stray bone that ends up in your mouth, just gets spit on the table, but I can’t do it.

The view from my room.
This is as clear as it gets here.  There is ALWAYS a haze.

Signs in English are rare, for a reason.