Arrival!

I know, you don’t have to tell me. You’ve all been obsessing about my blog and itching for some kind of update on my trip so far. Well, where do I begin? First, I suppose I should apologize for taking so long. Google is still restricted here, and as I feared before leaving, it has made accessing this blog quite difficult. I’m also incredibly busy with pre-service training which can take up most of the day.

It has been a month since we arrived. I am here with roughly ninety other trainees in Chengdu, Sichuan, where for two months we enjoy intense courses on the Chinese language and English teacher training. Due to the size of our group (the largest yet in Peace Corps 16 years in China), the ninety of us have been split into four groups of about 20-25. Each group attends courses at a university around Chengdu and is placed with a Chinese host family apartment not far from that campus. Normally, we have class from 8:30-5 with morning classes on Saturdays.

The city itself is quite unlike any I have seen in China. For one thing, I have never seen such a mishmash of dogs in my life. And not just one kind of dog, but any dog you can imagine. And then, of course, never the same dog twice. This is in bright contrast to Beijing, where, if any dog exists it is within two feet long and officially licensed. I won’t comment on whether Chengdu dogs are licensed or not-I don’t really know- but there is certainly some question as to the ownership of a few hundred-thousand? dogs within this city.

Chengdu is also located within a basin, making it humid and muggy for the better part of the day. During the summer it can become particularly brutal and profuse sweat is not uncommon after short walks. The women of Chengdu (very beautiful, by the way), have adapted by carrying brightly colored umbrellas as a shield. The men of Chengdu, however, have not had a similar reaction and can often be seen resting their shirts on their bellies to relieve the sweat from their stomach-I am not quite sure this has proven to be an effective method of relieving heat but to each his own.

After classes, many of the campus students can be found playing mahjong or basketball. My own campus, Sichuan Normal University, is quite large and students can also be found playing soccer or ping pong on the large sports field.

My host family is a family of three- a mother and father of mid-30’s, and a seven year old son. I find them to be incredibly hospitable and have no complaints. The family is middle-income and resides in a neighborhood apartment complex also containing a pool and interconnected gardens. The living arrangements are also well furnished and comfortable. Before you ask why I am so comfortable, being a Peace Corps volunteer after all, I should mention that Peace Corps China is not the typical Peace Corps experience and should not be compared to huts in Africa. Without going into too much detail, we are expected to be college educators and so are given living arrangements to fit into the community as such. As with any other site in the world which Peace Corps serves, China volunteers are given a meager income which allows us to live at the standards of other members of our community.

Also, most importantly, as of yesterday I am finally aware of my placement site-Yibin. Yibin is at the head of the Yangtze River and located 4-5 hours southwest of Chengdu. The city is known for its Bamboo Forest and several famous caves. I am very excited about my placement sit and could not have hoped for a better city. For those of you interested, I will finally be able to provide a specific address in just a few days.

That’s all for now! I hope this blog post was able to alleviate some of your extreme anticipations about my trip. I’ll attempt to be more frequent in future posts and include some pics of my future site.

Take care,

Leo