This one's a KEYper

The other night I was walking home after judging a speech competition, where 12 out 14 speeches were on "Unity and Diversity." Anyway, I have an hour and a half before I have to teach, so I'm thinking about eating dinner, surfing the internet, and relaxing, as it'd been a stressful 24 hours. I put the key in the lock, turn the key, and right as I'm about to give my door the obligatory shoulder shove, my key breaks and I'm left holding the base of the now severed key, while the lock has taken captive of the other end. I'm actually pretty calm about the situation at first, feeling shocked and mildly amused. I've always wondered what would happen if a key broke in my hand. And then it occured to me that it's already after 6:00, and all the school offices are closed. And worst of all, all the phone numbers I need in a situation like this are safely locked away inside my apartment.

I begin walking toward the Foreign Affairs Office (FAO), hoping someone is still there. I climb up to the seventh floor, knock on the door, and am greeted with silence and dark hallways. Not knowing what I should do, I head back to the speech competitions (they're still going on) to ask another foreign teacher if she has anyone's number from the FAO. But before I get to her, the organizer of the event asks if I had time to do more judging. I don't say much, holding up my broken key in protest. He gets the point and asks Mr. Wang to help me. Mr. Wang speaks some Russian but no English, so I'm not sure how this will turn out. After a few minutes and a few phonecalls, Mr. Wang manages to track down someone who has access to a ladder and power tools. Mr. Wang climbs into my apartment, unlocks the door, and we sit in an awkward silence waiting for the other gentleman to return. When he does, he takes apart my lock, dislodges the key, and both men leave by 7:00. At 7:20 there's a knock at my door. It's the lock man again. He's arrived with a new key and he puts my lock back on the door. After all this, I managed to get to my class ontime. Thankfully, I had already planned my lesson.

The next morning I have to wake up early for my language class. I needed to water Cayce's plants, so I leave my apartment in my pajamas, only planning to be there as long as it takes to water five plants. I'm on my way back to my apartment, fumbling for my keys when I realize that I didn't put the new key on my keychain last night. This time I'm panicking. I'm in my pjs, I'm locked out of my apartment, and I have people coming to my place in under an hour. I turn around and walk back up to Cayce's apartment to call someone from the FAO. It's 7:45. Amy tells me she can get me the keys by 7:55, but I need to meet her infront of the lab building. As it's my only option, I obey her commands. I remember advice I was given about clothing: you can get away with wearing anything, as long as you're confident wearing it. But can I really be comfortable walking across campus in my UConn scrubs and the newly acquired pink sweatshirt I bought for the upcoming pink party and only purchased it because of it's tacky hideousness? I'm already an easy target for stares and whispers; I don't need anything else to draw attention to myself. But I have no choice. I arrive by 7:55, but Amy is not there. So I sit and wait for her, as hundreds of students are walking by, hurrying to class. I even see a few of my students pass and try my best nonchalant "hello"s. Alas Amy arrives, and I hurry home trying to pretend that none of that happened.

Blessings and Oral English

I completed my first full week of teaching this week, and as I thought adjusting to my schedule is going to be difficult. I'm teaching 12 hours per week right now. I teach three different classes of "Listening and Speaking" or "Oral English."

Last night a group of four students came to my apartment to teach me to cook dinner. It wasn't that difficult, but controlling the wok was, which we found out when Leo almost started a fire in my kitchen. He wasn't phased by the giant flames, but I was. I was about to grab my fire extinguisher until I saw he had regained control of the situation. The food (five dishes plus rice) was amazing. I'm inviting them over again soon.

As dinner was finishing Cayce called to invite me out with some other PC people downtown. He was with Kristen and Pierce, two China 12s I had language classes with and thus saw 4 hours everyday during training. It was fantastic seeing them, as I haven't seen any of my training mates since the night I arrived in Lanzhou.

On the way home, Cayce wanted to eat some shao cao (I'm not sure of the spelling)--it's a type of bbq street food available until late at night, like the kebab stands in Oxford, England--so we stopped at a place near our school. We got into a conversation with two other people buying food, and they invited us to their bar just down the street. We decided we'd stop by for a little while as it was already late. They had a really cool bar. It reminded me a little bit of the tiki room or a Mexican-Chinese cantina. The guy and girl we met are cousins, and so they invited her father (who owns the bar) to meet us, and he proceeded to sing to us Tibetan blessings and they toasted us repeatedly. We stayed about an hour I'd guess and left. They were very friendly, hospitable, and warm and speak almost no English, so they'll be good people to practice my "Oral Chinese" with.

week 1 in Lanzhou

I've been in Lanzhou a little over a week now, and I haven't done much. I've basically been a hermit in my apartment, leaving only to teach, meet with school officials, hang out with my sitemate, or get food. I'm allowing myself one more week of this and then I'm forcing myself out of the apartment. There's a whole city I need to explore and a lot of Chinese I need to start speaking.

I began teaching last week but I really begin today. I have night classes, except for two classes in the morning. It's going to be weird adjusting to a night schedule since I've turned into a morning person over the last few years, but I must take what I'm given and adjust. I might pick up tai chi as a side activity, and I would love for someone to teach me how to cook. I've never been wonderful in the kitchen, but I've been able to feed myself and did learn how to cook a few things. But in China I have no oven and few western ingredients that I'm used to, so I'm a bit lost here. It's also strange shopping for food, since I have to go to a few markets to get the things I need. There are supermarkets in Lanzhou, but as I haven't ventured very far from my apartment, I haven't been to them. Needless to say, I miss my Wai Po and her food.

I've been spending the rest of my time watching movies on my new DVD player. I've also been watching the Chinese TV show I bought on DVD. I justify the latter action since it is in Chinese, so it's not exactly procrastinating. It's listening comprehension! I've also been learning new Chinese characters and will begin my language tutoring sessions on Wednesday. And there's always lesson planning to do.

Anyway, that's the update. Kurt and Sonia are venturing off on their PC experience this week, and I wish them the best. Those lemers don't have a clue that Sonia's coming to their island.

more pictures 2

Where I lived in Chengdu (top two floors)

My language teacher (left) and class at Chunxi Lu, Chengdu

Another shot of the host family. (from l to r: Zhong Dian, Wai Po, Host Mom, Host Father's Cousin)

We're dinosaurs, of course--a language class field trip

Some of my Model School students. They treated me to Hot Pot. Yum!

more pictures

Singing my token Chinese song

Some of my training mates after swearing in

Dujianyan Irrigation Dam (view from the bridge)

Grand Buddha, Leshan

Can't remember the name of the instrument (Wu Yu, some help please?), but playing it was a lot of fun.

Introducing the host family

Finally I'm able to get some pictures online. Stay tuned for more in the coming days. And I posted another blog a few hours before this one. Be sure to check it out.

An afternoon playing Ma Jiang. This was the day I gave Zhong Dian money to play with. She lost it all.
Host dad, Zhong Dian, and I eating dinner after visiting Dujianyan--world famous dam constucted in 3rd c. BC (or something like that).

My Waipo. I tried this shot a couple of times, but she didn't look at the camara either time.


Host mom, host sister, and I at the Host Family Appreciation Dinner last week. And you should know that it's not normal to have drinks with the meal.

Settling In

I'm finally in Lanzhou, which will be home for the next couple of years. Right now I'm trying to find places to put my things and am avoiding cleaning the apartment. I've just done my first couple loads of laundry and am going to tackle the bathroom next. But the internet is a pleasant distraction, as I haven't had consistent access to it since I've been in China. There are 8 other volunteers from my group--the China 12s--and 7 from the China 11 group in the city. Last night a few of us got together in an impromptu welcome gathering.

I spent much of the day (after my 22-hour train ride) shopping for some basic supplies with my sitemate, Cayce. I still have some essential things to buy--like trash cans, floor mats, plates, bowls, fabric to cover my furniture, a stool, another chair, and a DVD player.

The swearing-in ceremony went really well. The ambassador swore us in and Christopher Hill addressed us (he's an important man, though I only heard about him the other day, I'm embarrassed to admit. But if you watch the news, you probably know who he is). He's also a former PCV.

I have a new address and phone number, which I'll be emailing to my mom and to Mountainside. If you need either, please email me and I'll get that information to you.

Again, thanks for your support. I'm going to begin catching up on all the emails I haven't yet returned.

Angie

Moving On

Last night was our Host Family Appreciation Dinner (which I MCed, btw). It was bittersweet. It signifies the beginning of the end of our stay in Chengdu but the end of our training. Most of us are ready to begin what we came to do--to teach. Though I'm excited to be in Lanzhou and finally settle somewhere, I am sad to be leaving. I was really fortunate in getting the host family I got, as I have essentially become one of the family. They invited me to attend Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) with them, confirming my status as family memeber. I move out of their house on Tuesday. I can still remember the day I moved in. It's all gone by too quickly.

On the other hand, we swear in as official PC Volunteers this week! It's going to be a pretty big event. I'll be wearing a traditional-looking Chinese shirt I had made especially for the occasion! And then training is over!

The trip to Leshan last weekend was fantastic! 11 of 22 of went to see the Grand Buddha. And he is grand--70 meters grand. Well worth the trip. Though it was weird being in such a touristy area. We tried eating lunch before going into see the Buddha and were greeted with restaurant after restaurant attempting to charge us too much for food. One place even handed us a menu in English (the first time I've seen an English menu in China at a non Western eating establishment) with prices far too big for our PC budgets. Finally we found a place that made us food more in line with the amount of money we wanted to spend. Though that was also an ordeal, but it worked out wonderfully in the end.

Now for a tangent! I've become addicted to Chinese TV, which is funny considering I didn't watch much TV at home. I'm currently invested in Supergirl--their version of American Idol. But I'm also spending several hours each evening watching TV dramas. It started by sitting on the couch with the family, trying to integrate into the home. Then it turned into a way to improve my listening comprehension. I'd often take a book with me and read through it, not paying attention to TV all that much. But then I got sucked into some shows. So much so that I'll put off going to the restroom or taking a shower until there's an appropriate break. The other night my Wai Po and I were glued to the TV when the female protagonist of the show we're currently watching was diagnosed with cancer. ZD walked into the room looking at us with an amused expression on her face.

The way shows are scheduled here makes it really easy to get addicted. Unlike US TV shows, which will only show once a week over the course of several weeks, Chinese TV shows play every night for several hours over the course of a week or two. So from 6 pm until 11 pm every night, one TV show is playing on a channel. So by the end of the night, you're invested into the lives of the characters and are hooked.

The other reason I think I like Chinese TV dramas so much is that they often feature stories where the female protagonist is the romantic underdog (much like Bollywood, when I think about it). Western stories usually make the male protagonist the underdogs. But as a female, I'd rather see the girl victorious at the end than the male.

That's all for me. I probably won't write again until I'm in Lanzhou. I get there on Saturday!