Chishui Danzia National Park (7-15)

On the weekend between the two weeks of teachers’ training in Luzhou, the school sent us on a trip to Chishui Danxia National Geological Park in Guizhou province. The plan had been for the five of us and one teacher to go with a guide in a van. However, Saturday morning a larger bus, the most comfortable bus I've been on, showed up. So they called the assistant teachers to join us. Winnie, my assistant, said she was called at 7:55. The original departure time was 8:00. It was nice that they could be included. Two brought their sons, and one brought her husband and daughter.

It took a little over three hours to reach our first destination. The road went through beautiful farm country. Crops in the area are corn and rice. I enjoyed looking out the window and taking photos. 

I wondered why the tops of the corn plants were still there, as the tassels are removed in the U.S. I learned later that the fruit there is what is used to make the local liquor.

Our first stop was lunch. Then we entered the park, which is known for its waterfalls and the Danxie land formations.  We walked through the bamboo forest where there are also many tree ferns, which our guide told us have existed since the dinosaur times. 

We walked along the beautiful path, passing several waterfalls, for two hours to get to our destination—

a waterfall in front of a small cave. We could walk through the cave behind the waterfall, which was remarkable. Then we took the park shuttle back.

After returning to the entrance, we went to another section of the park where we walked to the Danxie land formations. This was a shorter walk and took only forty minutes.  But it was uphill and had a lot of stairs. 

The teachers’ husband who was with us became my assistant. He carried my bag, as well as his wife’s, and held my arm to help me move up the stairs faster. I was surprised what a difference his support made. 

The formations are red rocks, which the sign called the "Danxia Wonders." I wondered if they were cliff dwellings, as there were some of what looked like ruins.

After viewing the rocks, one can pay to take a slide down, but we opted to walk.

After dinner, I started to go for a walk, and, of course, Winnie joined me. The other Volunteers wanted to swim in the river but were told it was not safe. When they went down to river, some of the Chinese teachers joined them and stayed as long as they did even though they didn’t seem to want to be there. We were not to be left alone. Winnie and I had an enjoyable walk looking at items in the shops, especially some beautiful paper umbrellas. Winnie bought me—and herself—a small fan.

When we returned, the hotel’s show had begun. The guide had said it was an extra expense that we would have to pay for ourselves. Since it was 120 yuan ($20), no one planned to do that. Winnie said the usual price would be about 100 yuan. But, when we walked past, there were people standing in back of the benches; so we joined them. After a while, someone gave us two stools. And later some of the people on the benches next to us left and the women still sitting there told us to sit with them. So we did. Thus we saw the show without paying.  The show featured the area’s Miao minority people. (I remember seeing them when I was in China 25 years ago.) There were several dances, but between the dances, they did audience participation. They picked people from the audience to go up and sing. I was glad I hadn’t paid for that. But I did enjoy the dances.

Sunday morning we went to another section of the park to go to the famous large waterfall. On the way we encountered a rock slide that made the road impassable for buses. After waiting for half an hour, we were told that we could walk. 

Because we were walking, we were able to enjoy the scenery and several small waterfalls. Winnie and I walked for 45 minutes. We were behind the others because she walks very slowly. Then the bus came by, and we rode to the park, which took five minutes. Because many buses were stopped, many people were walking, and it was very crowded at the entrance. We took the shuttle to the starting point to walk to the waterfall.

The walk there took us 45 minutes, since Winnie is very slow. 

Shizhangdong is famous for being one of the biggest and best waterfalls in China. 

By the time we got there, people from our group were leaving. So, because of that and because Winnie didn’t want to stay longer than a few minutes, we did not get to go to the back of the waterfall. Since we had gone downhill on the way to the waterfall, we had to go back up. We met some others from our group who were returning from closer to the waterfall. Among them was my assistant. I really appreciated his “lifting” me up the stairs. At the top, he bought me an ice cream bar while we waited for the shuttle.

We had lunch at a local restaurant and headed back to Luzhou. Again, I enjoyed the lovely farm country.

Winnie was my roommate and buddy. It reminded me of when I went on the trip with teachers in Thailand and Khun Toy was my buddy. Other than when we sat on the bus, we were together all the time. This was my first experience spending so much time with a Chinese person. She walks very, very slowly. The other volunteers said that all Chinese walk slowly, but Winnie was way behind the rest. The second day I had stopped for a photo and, when I was leaving, I saw her approaching alone. Everyone else was ahead; so I waited and walked with her. I was surprised that the other teachers had left her behind because that would not have happened in Thailand. I wondered if they thought she and I were together, and, therefore, it was OK to leave her behind or if that’s typical culturally here. She said many times that we were slow because I take a lot of photos. That is true, but I’m fast. We were slow because she walks slowly and because I had to take many photos of her in many places. Sometimes I wasn’t sure which of us was taking care of the other. It was annoying when she poked me in the arm when she wanted to talk, which was sometimes often. This was not a gentle pat to get my attention; it was a hard poke. It was also a little annoying when she said every time we went out that the country air is fresh and good for our health. But I understand that her English is limited and she was trying to make small talk. She’s a nice person and I like her. It was good to have someone to hang out with.

The two 15-year-old sons of teachers introduced themselves and chatted very briefly. One took photos of me for me. He told me he thinks people my age are charming; we have a lot of knowledge and experience. Hard not to like him.

The area is known for mushrooms and many places were selling dried mushrooms.

It was a good weekend outing, and it was really nice of the school to provide it for us. I enjoyed the opportunity to see the countryside and to walk in the forest and to hang out with Winnie. This was my first travels in the countryside; so I especially enjoyed seeing more of the countryside.

Outings (7-7)

I’ve had some enjoyable outings lately. Two weeks ago I went to the 4^th International Festival of Intangible Cultural Heritage. I’d seen the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage when riding the bus to Chengdu, wondered what was there, and thought I’d have to stop to see it one day. Then Roger, a student who comes to English Corner,  mentioned that he and his friends had gone to the festival; so I decided that that would be a good time to visit. And it was. I went on Tuesday, since I don’t have classes then and I thought it would be less crowded than on the weekend.

I arrived when the international dancers were performing. I always enjoy those. When I saw that they only have two performances a day, I felt lucky to have arrived soon after they started. Since it was not crowded, I was able to stand in the front row. 

After the  dances, I walked through the exhibit of intangible cultures around the world as well as in China. Then I walked through the shops, which I learned are open all the time, not just for the festival. This is good information, since they have some nice items. In another building there were special exhibits of crafts from around the country. Several artists were demonstrating their talents. (Photo: painting inside a bottle)

By the time I finished, it was almost time for the next dance performance; so I stayed for that. That set featured several Chinese groups.

Since I hadn’t seen the calligraphy exhibit I’d seen advertised, I returned to the festival on the following Sunday. Katy joined me, and we had a great time looking at the art work and some of the exhibits. The exhibit was Brush and Ink: An Exhibit of Chinese Calligraphy. Some of the art was calligraphy; 

some was modern art painted with calligraphy brushes. The latter didn’t look like it had meaning, but maybe it did. The festival was rather crowded, since it was a weekend and it was also the last day of the festival. So we didn’t do much shopping because it was difficult to walk through the area. 

We did stop at the food court area where I had barbecued squid. It was very tasty.

Last Saturday, Megan and I went to Floraland, a local theme park. Several students had written about it in an early assignment to describe a place and Meghan had told us about it; so I knew a little about it. It was fun to see it. We had a great day, as it was overcast and not hot. The entrance ticket includes 36 rides/shows. We went on four rides and saw the seal show. The rides are mostly in one section. The roller coasters and a few other rides weren’t working when we passed them, and a number of the rides are for children. 

The rides were fun but weren’t anything really fantastic.

The rest of the park is areas named and themed for different countries—Italy, Germany, France, Belguim, and China. The U.S. market was near the entrance and didn’t have much. Spain was a little strange, as it had a polar bear outside a building. But the other areas were very well done. Walking into Germany was like being in an old German town. 

Italy featured gardens and a plaza. We had pizza there. I asked for one with vegetables; the woman pointed to one in Chinese and we said OK. It was a fruit pizza with pineapple and a white fruit. At least it had cheese. It wasn’t bad but it wasn’t what we were anticipating. A final area is the Wetlands, which has figures of various animals. Most of these areas were for shopping and have stores with a variety of items. The Chinese pavilion featured shops and cafes. We had a great time walking around and taking photos of everything. And doing a little shopping.

When we left, we crossed the street to have a look at the Floraland Mall. It’s a work in progress, as most of the shops are not yet open and the indoor mall is still being constructed. The ones that are open are very upscale—expensive. The outside mall looks like something from Scottsdale, AZ. At the end of the outside mall is the water park, which we did not go to.

So it was a great day. Then we had to wait 50 minutes for a bus back to campus. When one came, we made sure that we got on it. And we were lucky enough to get seats.

Then on Sunday, Katy, Megan, and I went to Chengdu to go to the sports store, as Megan wanted a swimming suit. Our first stop was a shopping mall. Since it was raining heavily and everyone had very wet umbrellas, when we entered the mall, a woman was handing out plastic bags for the wet umbrellas. After a little shopping, we went to Starbucks. Megan was especially happy about that because it would be her last Starbucks for a long time, as they haven’t gone to South Africa yet. Next we went to Subway because Katy wanted a Western sandwich. I have to admit, the veggie sub was delicious. We each bought a foot-long one and took half home for dinner. Then we went to the sports store, which was very nice and has reasonable prices. I ended out being the big spender, purchasing shorts, a swimming suit, sandals, secret socks (foot covers that are hidden in the shoe), a shirt, and a small backpack. Katy and Megan also bought a few item each. So it was a successful and fun day.

When we used a restroom in a restaurant, there was a woman holding her baby above the sink so he could pee into the sink. I’d not seen that before. Katy had mentioned having seen a sign above a sink in a restroom that said “No peeing in the sink.” Now we know why such a sign was posted. Another restroom we used had my first automatically flushing squat toilets.

Wednesday evening we played badminton with Peggie again and had a great time again. She didn’t play much; so I think she went mostly for us although she seemed excited to go.

Friday we all went shopping in Wenjiang. Katy and Megan wanted to look for last-minute purchases to take home. Both bought several items. I didn’t purchase anything that day, but it was fun helping them shop and hanging out together. It was really hot that day; so Katy and I went to the pool when we returned. The water felt good, and it was good to be in it. I’m not much of a swimmer, but it felt good to do a few laps across the Olympic-sized pool. It’s open to the public; so it may be open all summer, which will be nice. I’ll go again.

  

Saturday we went into Chengdu to meet Sabrina, a teacher in Megan’s teachers’ class. The class had given Megan a tea set as their gift, and Sabrina had offered to take her to a tea house for tea tasting. She graciously included Katy and me in the invitation. We took the bus to the Wenjiang bus station and then the bus to Chengdu that stops at the metro. It was a really smooth trip. We didn’t even have to change metro lines.

Sabrina took us to a wonderful tea house near her home. It is beautifully decorated. A young woman prepared the tea. She shook it in a covered cup so that we could smell it. Then she added water to wash the tea. That water was poured into the teapot and then into the small cups to wash them. The first tea is poured out and is not drunk. Then she prepared another pot for us to drink. The tea was a mild green tea. We sat on our sofas and chatted and enjoyed the tea and relaxing music for over an hour. 

We learned that people can have a tea pet, an animal figure that they write their name on and leave at the tea house.

Next Sabrina took us to lunch at a local restaurant known for its delicious local food. It is in a lovely building that was formerly a house. We were fortunate to get a table immediately, since a group had just left. 

Sabrina ordered seven special dishes for us: beef mashed with rice, two types of twice cooked pork, pork/bacon slabs with bean paste between them layered on sweet sticky rice, potatoes and beans, a pot of bean and tofu soup-like mixture, soup, flavored rice. Although I don’t eat the meat, I had a small taste of each because she had selected these special foods for us to taste. The meal was wonderful and was enjoyed by all. Of course, we were not allowed to help pay for anything.

After lunch, we parted from Sabrina and went to Chunxi Road to see if we could find two more items Katy and Megan were looking for. No luck there, as the shops are more expensive and not in our taste. The area was crowded with people. It’s not a place I’ll need to return to. A highlight of our time there was a tea and snack store where Megan bought some tea and looked at some snacks. The saleswoman used her translation app to communicate with her, saying things like “This is peanut candy. It is sweet.” People are good about trying to help, and I’ve often had that type of experience.

Monday I leave for the Peace Corps Summer Project. When I return, both Katy and Megan will have left. I’ll miss the two of them, as both have been good friends. And it’s been nice to have Megan as an older (about 40) friend. We’ll see who comes next term, but I’ll be very surprised if anyone is over 30.

Summer Project is teachers’ training sponsored by Peace Corps. Participating is required for all those completing their first year, and we PCResponse volunteers are also required to participate. I’ll be joining the group in Luzhou. People at the school live in Chengdu and don’t know anything about getting places from Wenjiang and always say you have to go places from Chengdu. Yang had gotten bus directions for me, but the woman coordinating suggested that, if there is a bus station here, I can probably go from there. So, when we were at the station on the way to Chengdu, I asked about a bus to Luzhou and learned that there is one in the morning and one in the afternoon. That won’t save time getting to Luzhou, but it will get me on a bus that goes there an hour earlier than if I’d gone to Chengdu and I won’t have to change buses. So I was happy to learn about that. I'm kind of excited to do this, as I've enjoyed teacher training and it will be nice to meet some other volunteers and work with them. 

End of the Semester (6-28)

My first semester is officially over. Final exams for foreign teachers were in the last two weeks. Because oral exams take too much time for one class, we did half of the students each week. Katy’s written exams for her oral English classes are in the next two weeks, which are the official exam weeks. My work is finished except a brief report about the final exams—how many students received each grade and students’ strengths and weaknesses on the final exams.

Having completed the semester, I’m finding that I’m glad I’ll be staying another year. I feel like I’ll know much more about teaching here and will be a stronger teacher. One of the business English students told me that they had a meeting at which they talked about their teachers and students agreed that I am strict but think I am a good teacher.

After his exam, one boy took the opportunity to tell me how much he had learned from my class and thanked me. That was especially nice since he was not a student I’d had any special interactions with and he is a good student who had good skills to begin with. Another example of how you never know how you are affecting students and of teaching something you don’t know you are teaching. One of the girls started to leave and then returned to whisper “I love you” into my ear, which was very sweet.

Last week Paris, Ricci, and Cancer took Katy and me out for dinner since Katy is leaving. It was nice of them to include me. Paris had researched what kinds of food Americans eat and informed us that we eat a lot of meat, bread, and sweets. She had also researched to find a hot pot restaurant that has a not-spicy option. Diao Min said that all hot pot restaurants have that, but I guess Paris had never needed a not-spicy option before and wasn’t aware of that. Anyway, it was sweet of her to go to so much work to prepare for a nice dinner for us. 

The large hot pot with spicy broth had a smaller one without chili in the middle. They ordered a lot of meat, including shrimp and artificial crab for me, vegetables, and tofu. One special dish was pig’s brain. Katy had a very small sample and said it was OK. The girls enjoyed it. Everything was delicious. They ordered too much food, but it couldn’t be returned; so we had to eat it. We were there for an hour and a half. The nice thing about hot pot is that you can take what you want from the pot and don’t have to have everything.

In the conversation, I learned that both Paris and Ricci want to be teachers even though they are business English majors. They wanted to change their major but were told they can’t. When they finish their three years here (next year), they will go to another university for two years to get their bachelor’s degree in education.

Before eating, we all made toasts. They started by each toasting Katy and me. Then we toasted them. It was sweet. The whole evening was very pleasant.

Katy and I also had dinner with Diao Min after my final lesson for the semester on Thursday. We went to one of her favorite restaurants and had their special fried sweet-sour eggplant, tofu, and a chicken and corn dish. Now I know where that restaurant is and how to order the eggplant. I can probably manage to order the chicken and corn, too.

The other event last week was our party with the teachers’ classes. The original plan was for it to be in a large lecture hall and the teachers would provide food. But the day before the party, the Foreign Affairs Office decided to organize it (which was our original suggestion). The room was changed to a banquet hall, and they provided lots of fruit and some individually wrapped cakes. The dean and the university president came and spoke. Then certificates were given to the teachers who completed the course. Of course, many photos were taken. 

Each of us was given a nice gift by the class. Mine is a pair of pandas painted on leaves. They are quite lovely. Megan was given a tea set. And Katy received a double-sided embroidery. Meghan’s teachers couldn’t agree on what to give her; so she’s waiting for her gift. (They later gave her a hair comb, since she has long hair and had suggested that as a gift.)  My teachers stayed and chatted for a long time. Katy waited for me, and when we left, we were given all of the left-over fruit and cakes. There was so much that we gave some to Megan and Meghan.

Weather has been odd—very changeable. One day each week it was 37^o (98^o F). Two weeks ago that day was followed by thunderstorms for much of the night. I’ve not heard so much thunder at one time (at least not that I remember). Several girls told me how scared they were and that they and a friend had shared a bed for comfort during the storm. Last week the hot day was followed by a drop in temperature and rain. Both were followed by several cooler days before it got hot again.

They have been doing construction in our building, something to do with the electric line. What it means is that they have been drilling holes in the concrete walls. It’s very irritatingly noisy. Sometimes it has gone on for hours—sometimes from 8:00 to 6:30 or so. There’s also a lot of hammering. We had two new holes drilled in our walls; there’s another hole that Katy said appeared in February. We’re still waiting to see what they are for. The drilling and hammering have mostly stopped now, which is a good thing. The first day there was no hammering seemed eerily quiet. But is nice not to have the constant noise.

Summer solstice has come and gone. It gets dark at 8:30. I don’t know when it first gets light in the morning.