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!