This week Yibin's weather has grown surprisingly comfortable. The sun, yes the sun, has even grown visible in the sky. As the climate has improved campus activities have sprung up again and students are outside studying in the shade.
The past few weeks I have spent most of my time preparing lessons for the new semester. A few things have changed, however, such as the three new foreigners who recently joined us on campus. The first two, Jeff and Joe, are here through a program called Lattitude, which has participants from all of the British commonwealth countries. There purpose is to teach and learn the language of their host country. Jeff is from Canada and is currently taking time off from college to study Chinese. Joe is from Britain and is hoping to gain teaching experience and improve his Chinese before entering into university. They will each be here till June.
The third visitor, Tiara, is from South Carolina and is studying abroad. During her time here she will study from the local Tai Qi martial arts masters (...er P.E. teachers), and take courses in Chinese. However, her time here is much shorter as she will soon return to graduate from school.
It has been nice to have other foreigners here to share in the fun of Yibin. Previously we had felt much more isolated from the outside world. Now we will not be the only ones to witness all the corkscrew going ons of the city.
On Friday of last week we had gathered in order to celebrate a visit from my girlfriend Katie. Our ordeal started out innocently enough. We got together at a bar, us four plus Chris of course, and met with another six of our Chinese friends. But by the end of the night we had all had a few drinks and were singing to Queen and whatever else we could dig up. It was quite a lot of fun actually, and I consider teaching a few words to "Don't Stop Me Now" one of my finest teaching accomplishments thus far.
Another significant event occured the week prior to last, when I went to the provincial capital of Chengdu to see Peter Hessler, an author I had been reading for years. He had agreed to talk exclusively with Peace Corps China volunteers since he had been one himself years ago. After his service, he had written extensively on modern Chinese life and it's history. His recent book, titled "Country Driving," details the haphazard process of obtaining a Chinese driver's license and then journeying across China by car.
At the talk most volunteers were interested in how Peace Corps China had changed since Hessler's service in the 90's. At one point the conversations even led to Yibin, at which time the author recalled his memories of Yibin, in which volunteers were at risk of falling into the bai jiu (Chinese liquor) trap.
In fact Yibin is well known for its liquor, and therefore has become famous for its avid drinkers. Chris and I have been propositioned on numerous occassions to join in, and on some occassions we are willing to go ahead. But what Mr. Hessler had in mind when addressing Yibin's drinking culture was not it's fame, but how great an affect it had on the early volunteers, even forcing one to leave early from apparent bai jiu overload. I was aware that bai jiu had had an affect on volunteers before, but it surprised me all the same and we all laughed just the same. Just one more reminder not to challenge the locals to drinking contests.
Afterward I was able to talk with Mr. Hessler. He was quite friendly and was surprised to know I had studied the Chinese language previously. As it turns out, during his time of service a volunteer with language proficiency would have been suspected as a spy. Indeed the name Peace Corps was and still is associated with the CIA in China (hence the name change to U.S.-China Volunteers), and as U.S. volunteers we are still expected to tread lightly around any and all political issues.
Fast forward two weeks and I'm getting ready for another Chinese holiday-Tomb Sweeping Day, when Chinese honor the gravestones of their ancestors. After make-up classes Saturday, the students and faculty will have Sunday to Tuesday off. I am expecting to use the time to catch up on reading and some of the language studies I am working on. Tomorrow, for April fools day, I am also hoping to somehow surprise my students with trickery. As they are well familiar with April fools, I will have to try particularly hard not to laugh when I fail them for the day.
Not really.
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p.s. suggested Peter Hessler book: Oracle Bones
Summary:
His book, which is written as both a collection of Hessler's personal experiences and his knowledge of Chinese history, starts off when he discovers a historic archaeological dig in Northern China. The dig contains hundreds of ancient oracle bones, formerly used as conduits for predicting the empires future. Hessler not only describes the history behind the relics but also details how modern China now perceives it's ancient past.
http://www.amazon.com/Oracle-Bones-Journey-Between-Present/dp/0060826584
