One Month (3-29)

The big event last week was going into Chengdu to get my extended visa. Yang has been working on that paperwork and my initial entry visa expired last week. So Tuesday, she, Michelle, and I went to the Entry and Exit Department to take care of that. We took the student bus in and then took the metro, my first time to do the latter. It’s quite nice. One reason the school driver couldn’t drive us is that Tuesday was his day not to drive. Every week day license plates that end with two numbers cannot drive. For example, on Tuesday numbers that end with 2 and 7 cannot be on the road.

The office is opposite Tian Fu Square, a popular meeting place in the city center. At one side is a huge statue of Mao.

At the department, we went to the section for overseas/Macao/residents of China’s Taiwan. There we completed the application and got a receipt. This process took 45 minutes. While we were traveling, Yang got a few phone calls telling her to return as quickly as possible, which made her feel like they didn’t trust her to do the job and return when finished. So we had a quick lunch at a bread place like the one I enjoyed in Bangkok before taking a taxi to the place where we could get a teachers’ bus back. I also bought a loaf of brown raison bread to take home. Good bread is a treat. We arrived back at 2:00; so the whole trip took 4.5 hours. Not bad, considering that it took me three hours to get to the Peace Corps office.  

Yang returned this week to get my passport with the new visa. So I’m good to stay until the end of September.

English Corner last week was down to about 30 students. Peggie decided to move it outside so it will be more visible and to have games and activities because more students will be interested in attending. 

After my class Monday morning, two students came to tell me that they would play a charades game. After a minute I realized that they were organizing the game. More students were there at the beginning, but the crowd dwindled with time. The students had some topics to talk about, but the group with me and I didn’t hear them; so we weren’t discussing them. Some of them wanted to have time to chat with the foreign teachers and didn’t like the activity focus. One girl asked if I’ll be there on the 11^th week because her group is in charge that week. So I think the students have been assigned responsibility to organize activities, which is fine with us. We’ll see how it goes in terms of future attendance.

Amanda from Texas arrived last week. She’s with TTC and is replacing Kim. She got bronchitis in Beijing and had to stay there to rest for an extra week. She has a hard time even here with the air some days.

The class for teachers started last week. We each have twenty teachers from various departments. I enjoy them. They are eager to learn.

It was another quiet weekend at home. I went to the river on Sunday. As I was getting ready to turn back, I noticed that many people were sitting on the covered bridge and decided to see what they were doing there. A pleasant surprise was a group of people playing music. I sat and enjoyed that for a while. I don’t know what they were doing; there was no place for monetary donations.

When I was waiting to cross a street, a young woman on a bicycle stopped to speak to me. She then wanted to walk with me and chat some more. I was feeling a little put-upon, since I was wanting to read my book, but I waited for her while she took her bicycle home. She returned with a bracelet she wanted to give me. The she walked me back to the university. Her name is Lily. She graduated from university last year and is working for an export company. She asked if I am married. She does not want to be married because she read an article about the “risks” of marriage, such as the husband, children, and the husband’s family. Most of her friends, however, are married, and one has a six-year-old child. Her comment about that was that the mother is a child herself. Lily wants to be a business woman and, in the future, a manager like the two women managers at her company who are also single.

We are having lunch with Yang and Michelle twice a week now—a social lunch. It’s a time to chat and discuss any problems or questions we have. Tuesday we met in the dining hall, which is not ideal because it’s noisy and only four of the six of us can sit at a table. So I suggested that maybe sometimes we could eat in a restaurant where it’s quiet and we can all sit together. I knew the other teachers wouldn’t mind sharing the cost of good food sometimes. So Thursday we ate in one of the local restaurants, one we seem to gravitate toward, and had a lovely lunch with good food and conversation. All agreed that it was nice to eat out of the dining hall and that they are happy to share the cost. Thursday was especially nice because the school paid, which Yang said they can do sometimes.

After class Friday afternoon, I met a group of girls from the class who were going to the dining hall for a snack. They decided to invite me so we could chat. Of course, I accepted. While we were there, they decided to go for dinner instead; so we went to one of the local restaurants. They ordered five dishes that have chicken, fish, and vegetables to accommodate my preferences. All were delicious. We had a nice chat, and they all tried to speak with me. It was an enjoyable way to finish the week.

The computer man came to look at my computer on last Friday. His diagnosis is that it has a virus, which causes the extremely slow starting. Windows needs to be deleted and reinstalled, which is what I had figured. He’ll look for an English version of Microsoft Office. So, waiting again.

I’ve now been here for five weeks and taught for four. I’m quite comfortable here. Khun Yindee mentions that I have a better life here, but I don’t agree. It’s different, but not better. The teaching is certainly better than it was last year. Students are at least mostly quiet in class. Some are quite interested, but, as always, some are not. Although I’ve not taught an only oral class before, I’m feeling pretty comfortable with it and am getting into a rhythm with it. The writing is still a challenge. I don’t really know what they’ve been taught and am trying things out week by week. Writing has never been my favorite class to teach.

I don’t have local friends like I did in Thailand, but I didn’t have them in the early months. However, I don’t anticipate having friends like that here, and it’s OK.  I enjoy the students who want to spend a little extra time chatting. Roger, whom I met near the library, is a regular at English Corner and lectures and always greets me with a friendly smile and wave. His two friends do the same. It’s nice to have students who are clearly happy to see me.

After two weeks here, I noticed that Chinese people are looking like the norm. And the language sounds like a language with individual words, not a bunch of gibberish like it did at first. Not that I can understand it, but it sounds “normal.” I’m pretty good with numbers when people tell me how much something costs, which makes me feel good. One woman told a student who saw me and stopped to chat that I am amazing because I can speak Chinese. I had said the cost of the bananas, which is about all I can say. People do appreciate the effort. I felt good when someone called and spoke Chinese and I was able to say I don’t understand Chinese. He may not have understood, but I felt better having said it instead of just hanging up.

I don’t like Chinese rice. It’s too bland and tasteless—even more so than Thai white rice. As a result, I don’t eat much rice in the dining hall, and people comment that I haven’t taken enough rice. They pile a huge amount on their trays, three or four times  as much as I do. At home, I find myself eating more noodles than rice. And potatoes.

Diao Min’s tutoring helps. My progress is slow, which is no surprise, but I am learning a few things. I enjoy trying. Thursday we went to her campus to see if they have MS Office in English. They didn’t and one man said it would be hard to find it off campus. On the way we chatted about her English, which is excellent. She learned a lot from films and from reading. She wants to sound not Chinese, and she’s pretty close. She sounds like a Chinese-American most of the time.