Life in China: an Introduction

I know… I’ve been awful about keeping my blog updated. I’ve already heard about it from several people, but I promise to do better once I get to my teaching site. The pre-service training is extraordinarily busy. Right now, I learn Chinese for about 4 hours in the morning, then I teach English in the afternoon. My evenings usually consist of doing language homework and preparing lessons for my teaching class. So free time is hard to come by. Fortunately, I have lots of it today!

As far as general life in China goes, it’s pretty great. Concerning basic comforts, it really isn’t that different. I have internet access and an air conditioner in my room (and my own bathroom). You can buy pretty much anything that you could get in the U.S.; it just might be a little harder to find. However, I’m living in a large city right now, so it will probably be different if I move to a smaller area.

On the whole, I don’t feel deprived or like I’ve given up anything. Except food, of course. I liked Chinese food when I was in America, but even then I didn’t want to eat it every day. I’m getting used to it, though. I’m learning how to order the things that I like (in Mandarin, of course!) and supplementing that with junk food that is occasionally similar to junk food in America. Sometimes I strike out on the junk food, though. The other day, for example, I bought a bag of Cheetos that ended up being peanut flavored. Weird. On the upside, though, they have oreas with half peanut butter and half chocolate stuffing, which I’ve never had in America. So that’s pretty awesome. I can also find various sodas at any little shop, but I haven’t found Mt. Dew yet. The other day, I even found the mecca of American food stores! There was a McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut, Subway, Papa John’s, and Dairy Queen. There are also several other McDonald’s and Pizza Huts throughout the city. And I’ve seen about 5 Starbucks, but haven’t been to one yet.

The food is a relatively small matter, though, especially since I can make lots of American foods once I have my own place. There are lots of things that I really love about China, and even a few areas where they can kick America’s butt. For example, you can buy super cheap bottled water. They have more awesome dressy shoes (the women here wear fancy dresses every day; it’s pretty amazing). They have bootlegged movies (my goal for the day is to find the new Batman). There are cool old things everywhere. I could probably think of other little things, but I’ll stop there.

There are also a few big things in which I found China very impressive. One is the close-knit communities that you can find anywhere. People are just more friendly here. Also, families in general are closer. For example, after dinner, almost every family in my community goes out for a walk. They just walk slowly and chat with the people they run into. These walks usually last for at least an hour because of all the stopping and meandering. And even later in the evening, there are still tons of people out wandering around. A large majority of the people don’t just go inside and watch TV all evening; they go sit outside of a restaurant (outdoor tables just sitting on the roadside are very common here) and talk to people or play with their kids. It’s just nice to see how much people here value relationships. America is a rather individualistic culture, but China is very community-oriented.

Another thing that I found so impressive about China is their work ethic. We went through some of the countryside a few weeks ago, and I was fascinated by the farms and crops growing everywhere. There isn’t an unplanted foot of space anywhere. The impressive part, however, is that it’s all planted and harvested by hand. They might use animals once in a while, but machinery is basically non-existent. Another example took place in the building I live in. Our neighbors across the hall are building a garden or something on top of the roof, so for the last several days, men have been carrying 50 lb. bags of soil up six flights of stairs, through an apartment, and then up more stairs to the roof. It takes two of them to lift a bag and sling it onto one man’s back. I’m just so impressed every time I see it. I live on the top floor too, and I find it nearly impossible to carry just myself up all those stairs.

This blog is already extremely long, and I feel like I’ve barely touched on life here in China. If I could sum it up in a nutshell, I’d say it’s really great, but it’s going to get harder soon. Right now I’m surrounded by friends and English speakers. But when I move to site, it’ll just be me. That’s when the culture shock and homesickness will set in. I’ll be frequently frustrated and restless. I’ll miss my family and just general American life more than ever. After that, though, I’ll adjust and be better able to communicate, then things will be great again. Until then, though, I’m just trying to live in the moment and not think about the hard times to come.

1 1/2 months to go!

Things are starting to speed up now as I get closer to leaving for China. A month ago, I felt like I had tons of time left, but now every weekend and most weekdays are filled up clear to June 28.

Several people have been asking me about the earthquake in China and where I'll be situated in reference to it. Unfortunately, I'll be living right in the area that was hit hardest. My first two months will be in Chengdu, which is about 60 miles from the earthquake's epicenter, in the Sichuan province. After the first two months, I'll move elsewhere, but probably still fairly close to Chengdu. The good news is that the Peace Corps seems to have a great emergency plan, and they were able to locate all of the current volunteers within 11 hours. Everyone was safe and accounted for. So if I do happen to be in an earthquake, at least my fam and friends won't have to wait around for days to know if I'm safe.

I don't know how often I'll be blogging until I go, but check back often after June 28. I intend to write an update at least once a week. (But we'll see if that actually happens - I tend to be a terrible blogger.)

Check out the pictures!

Hey all. I'm posting my pics from my trip on Shutterfly. So the address is www.asilouise.shutterfly.com. I'll be adding every few days, so check it often!

I'm off to Scotland this weekend!

Who knew Rod Stewart could bring such happiness?!?!!

So I was in England for 7 minures before I spotted a celebrity. Rod Stewart!! He walked by about 3 feet from where we were standing. So even though no one in our group really likes him, it still made our first hour in England pretty memorable. And that is the only happy memory I'll ever have about Rod Stewart!

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog

Geoffrey Chaucer Hath a Blog

This is a funny blog for all the English dorks out there... Check out the t-shirts.

I never eat December snowflakes...

I honestly don’t know why I did nothing with this site for more than a month and then in one weekend decided to post two new blogs. I suppose it will always be like that… I’ll go a month without any inspiration to write and then suddenly be overwhelmed with inspiration for about a 36 hour period.

The source of the inspiration this time? It’s snowing!!! It’s not wimpy snow either, but huge fluffy flakes that are actually sticking to the ground. And for some reason, it makes me very happy. Suddenly my homework doesn’t seem quite as depressing, my semester doesn’t seem quite as busy, my computer doesn’t seem quite as noisy… It feels as if time has stopped and the snow is swirling around me, telling me, indisputably, that life is… good.

And for those of you who out there who are looking at the snow with a scowl on your face, wishing that it were spring… shame on you! An unexpected snow is one of the many small pleasures in life, and I hope you can all enjoy it as much as I am.

Imaginary men

So I found this quote the other day—“She liked imaginary men best of all.”

You know how you occasionally stumble upon something and realize it’s so perfect that you have to make it your own? That’s how I felt about this quote. For years now, I’ve been under the impression that the perfect guy (in my mind), unfortunately, does not live outside of romance novels. Is there really a guy out there who’s as gorgeous, charming, rich, romantic, and intelligent as the woman-created man? I hope so…

Weird things come to mind after 12 ½ straight hours of homework.