September Updates

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it’s been a while since last I wrote, but things have been busy with me getting settled, and I did say this adventure likely won’t be as exciting as my time in Kunming/Beijing. So, to get caught up, I’ve been fully settled into my classes now. I’m teaching freshman students and sophomores, working particularly on their spoken English. They’re a lot of fun; they can be a little shy, but with a little prodding they open up. My main goal in these classes is to get them to talk as much as possible. If you want to learn a language it’s SUPER important to talk talk talk. You’ve got to practice expressing what you want to say if you ever want to learn to be comfortable with it. Sometimes it takes some time to break down the walls that make you less confident in the foreign language, it took me a couple trips to China to do it, but if you keep forcing yourself to speak, it will happen eventually. I remember those days when I was in Shanghai, and it was just so uncomfortable and stressful to try and communicate in Chinese, and now it’s so easy to think speaking Chinese was never that hard. For the most part, it comes so fluently to me now that China right now feels like just going to another city in America. I’m so at ease here it’s crazy.

Also, it might be interesting to note that I’m getting recognized around Xiangyang from being on the CCTV Chinese Bridge Competition I competed in last year. Some of my Chinese co-teachers, as well as some people I meet in passing, said they thought I looked familiar and that they saw me on the show. It’s so weird that I’m like a moderately famous person here in China. The channel that produced my show, CCTV-4, is a nationally broadcast channel, so people all over China have seen the show. And the nice thing is, unlike some of my fellow foreign teachers here who are getting offered opportunities to model and be in TV ads simply because they’re foreign, I have gotten my fame from my skills and my name…rather than just how I look. I’m sure some people would find being on TV really awesome, no matter how it’s done, but I guess you can say I’m a little proud and a little stubborn. I’d like to be known for my talents and accomplishments…rather than just be a random face.

So here’s an interesting story that happened a couple weeks ago. A few of the teachers and I had gone to a bar to hang out. Of course, when you’re foreign and traveling in a pack like we were (there were maybe 8 or 9 of us there), you’re going to get noticed by the nearby Chinese people. And almost as soon as we entered the bar, different groups of Chinese people that had been sitting there snatched us up to join their respective groups. We were split up and they then proceeded to ask us about our lives…it felt like an interrogation. I had managed to not get pulled in for a moment, and then one of my fellow teachers says, “Hey Krissy, I told them your Chinese is much better than the rest of us, they want you to translate for them.” Sooo…I got pulled in too.

So as soon as I got there, they started interrogating me too. And we had a pleasant conversation about what we were doing in China and whether we liked China, and whether Chinese food was the best. Then they began to ask about where I was from, and I told them to guess. Of course, they guessed Africa first (I’ve gotten a lot of interesting ones during my time here: mostly Africa or South Africa, I got a couple of Brazils, and then also a couple people thinking I was Indian too). I told them that I was American, and they couldn’t stop remarking on how they thought it was so awesome that America was filled with so many ethnicities. They also proceeded to say how awesome they thought it was to have “white skin, black skin, and yellow skin” all sitting together at the same table. In between their remarks they made sure to make me translate what they were saying so that the other teachers would understand. They also then asked me a question in which I’m they were trying to test me with. They asked, “Don’t you think the American government just loves to say, ‘This [territory] is mine, this [resource] is mine, this is mine, it’s all mine’?” I imagine they thought I would become furious and then get into a heated argument with them to defend America. One thing you DON’T do when living in China: argue politics with a Chinese citizen, especially a guy. It could be potentially dangerous for you, because they have government informers everywhere, and they keep their eye on foreigners. So I simply said, “Well, I don’t know about all that. I do know that the views of the American people are not always reflected in the government, and vice versa.” They replied, “In America, people and government views are different. In China, people and government views are the SAME.” I knew what kind of guy I was talking to, and the best thing to do in those situations is to nod and smile, which I did. In the end, I believe he respected me and my fellow teachers, and they took pictures with us and then left after a while.

When you’re in a foreign country, it’s important to realize one thing…and I learned this very quickly in the first days I was in Kunming. You are an ambassador for whatever group you represent: be it country, race, religion, gender, or anything. You represent whoever the citizens see you as, and for me the Chinese mainly see me as American and black, then maybe Jamaican if I get far enough to actually tell them I’m from there. So…you’re an ambassador for these groups whether you like it or not, and you have to decide how you’ll represent your communities. You may hate the idea that you’re an ambassador, you may hate the fact that people see you as the groups you represent and not for you. You might say, “I’m an individual, I’m not my country or my race or my gender or whatever,” and as a result you can rebel and get angry at the citizens of the country you’re in for judging you. But I’ll tell you one thing, it will only make things worse. Say someone has been taught to think Americans are selfish and snobbish people, and you decide when they talk to you you’re going to turn up your nose at them or are rude to them in anger at their judging. Their suspicions will be confirmed and you will have created a lie in their mind that Americans are snobbish and selfish. In my case, they see me mainly as black and they don’t have a ton of experience with black people…in my experience, from the small cities I’ve been in, they really don’t have any stereotypes in their minds of black people…they are simply not used to seeing them, ever. So if I chose to get mad every time they stare at me or point and laugh or say HALLOO very loudly two inches from my face, it could create an understanding of black people in their minds that they’re not very friendly people.

Here, I have a chance to enlighten people with truths they perhaps were never aware of, and I’ve done that in Kunming already. My Chinese friend said I was the first black person he’d ever met and he was so happy to have met me. Victory! I intend to continue to do that here. Something I’ve realized is really important to me is to share truths with people that they’d find hard to discover somewhere else. Today in class, I shared with my students the original story of the Little Mermaid, where she does in fact die and she turns to seafoam as her beloved prince marries someone else. Most of the students have only seen the Disney version, and I found it important to make them see how much Disney has affected our understanding of the world. If I could share such simple but important lessons on a large scale, that would be a dream come true. Anyway, every time I walk down the street or have a conversation with a random Chinese person (like a cab driver or a customer at the coffee shop down the street), I make sure to always be pleasant and to always make it clear that I respect Chinese culture as well as my own.

I had this conversation with my fellow teachers and they all really understood the situation as well. It doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you’re a foreigner in China, you’ll be an ambassador and it would be in your best interest to be non-confrontational. As teachers in particular, it’s not our job to be fighting about politics with Chinese citizens…it’s also not our job to try and tell them that their government is wrong, which is what I think one of my fellow teachers is doing. We can teach our students good principles like self-confidence and self-understanding, we can teach them that the world is not black and white and that there is so much out there to discover and understand, and we can teach them more about our own culture that they couldn’t get from a book or from Google. So that’s what I try to do.

I think that’s about it for now. If anything particularly interesting comes up or if there’s a story I missed, I’ll write again. I’ll probably add a couple up maybe really soon just describing more of life here. I’d like to continue the once a week thing, but that might not be possible. It may be once every two weeks, or once a month from now on. Check the blog at the end of each month (and the middle just in case something's there), and there should be a new post or a couple new posts up.

This coming week, some other teachers and I will be traveling to 3 Gorges Dam for our two-week holiday, it’s called National Holiday. I’ll take pictures and post them up.

P.S.- My bat Flower has flown away, so sad. I haven't seen it chilling in my window for a few days now, and so I think maybe its gone away before the weather gets too cold. It's already getting a little crisper out, but it keeps hopping back and forth from really hot to early fall weather. An interesting story though: my fellow teacher woke up yesterday to a horrible sight- a bat was flying around IN HIS BEDROOM. He was smart and managed to chase through his other rooms and out his window. I don't think it was my Flower though because he said the bat was pretty teeny and Flower was about average size, maybe 3 or 4 inches in body and maybe a 14 inches wingspan. But I don't have a pet anymore, except the lizards that eat the moths in my window.

Hello Hubei!! (part 2)

When we landed in Xiangyang, the airport reminded me exactly of the airport I landed in in Iquitos, Peru. It was teeny, just one small building in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by trees in the distance. AND HOT AND HUMID. Really hot and humid, just like Iquitos was. What I didn't realize was that we had just landed in one of the three hottest provinces in China. I'm just glad we were coming at the END of the summer, and leaving in the BEGINNING of it.

By this time, all of us teachers had got along pretty well. We all basically decided that we needed to look out for each other in Xiangyang, because it was going to be a huge difference in culture and that's tough to deal with alone. (Note to all you travelers and potential travelers: make friends...or bring them. They can be friends you make that are from your own country or friends from where you're traveling to, just make friends. If you're going to a place where you'll experience culture shock, it's really hard to do it alone.)

So not long after we landed in Xiangyang, we got picked up by our boss in a little bus. We stuffed our luggage (it was A LOT of luggage) into the back of the bus and stuffed ourselves into the front of it. The bus's AC was turned off. When our boss asked the driver to turn it on, he looked at him with a rather shocked expression, then reluctantly switched it on. I think he must have put it on low though because the AC was PATHETIC. And he kept the windows wound firmly up. So twelve of us are sitting in this bus all stuffed up into it with our luggage stuffed in the back, and the AC is on very weakly. Soon the air begins to get REAL thin. The bus ride was supposed to be 40 minutes to an hour long. If things kept on the way they were going, we would not have made it with enough air. It LITERALLY was like sticking your head in a pillow case, sealing up the sides and trying to breathe. The air would eventually run out. The air supply was getting less and less. Nobody said anything, and now I was getting angry. I stared at the bus driver who was just driving casually on. I looked at everyone else who was beading up with sweat just like I was myself. And finally I said with a hard smile (I smile hard when I'm angry and I'm trying to be polite), "Do you think we could turn UP that AC? Or open the window or something? It feels like when you stick your head under a pillowcase and try to breathe." So finally the guy turned up the AC and though things weren't ideal, at least we would survive the trip.

Now after I wasn't so concerned about my life anymore, I started to look around outside. We were on the airport's highway that led to the main highway, and since it was a small town, NOBODY was driving on it...except some wagons pulled by motorcycles. YET WE WERE DRIVING AT 35 MPH. ON A HIGHWAY. WITH TWO OR THREE LANES ON IT. I asked our assistant boss who was also riding with us if this was normal (or maybe the bus was just old?). He said, "Yeah, this is basically the general speed you'll come across in Xiangyang, they don't get much faster than this." I asked him why. He said he didn't know, but it could be several reasons. One, they don't really follow proper driving rules in this city. For example, THEY WILL DRIVE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD GOING IN THE WRONG DIRECTION. Wagons will ride in the middle of the road, not on the side. People will jay-walk when there are tons of cars coming and just hop around them. And two, wagons and tractors are also very common forms of transportation found on the roads. They don't go as fast as normal cars do, so it's possible everyone adjusts to them. I think the first one makes more sense to me. Everyone goes slow because they have to in order to avoid an accident.

Along the way we had to cross a bridge over a river. Our assistant boss explained to us that this is the Han River. It was a tributary to the Yangtze River, the third longest river in the world and the longest river in Asia. I saw a different part of the river last time I was in China, when I went to Lijiang in Yunnan Province.

When we got to the school, it really was a gorgeous setting. The campus is embedded in a group of small mountains, and there are a ton of really great photo ops. I'll take some pictures once I get my hands on a camera and post them here. We're right next to a mountain called Long Zhong mountain. This is the mountain that Zhuge Liang spent a ton of time on when he was chilling out in Xiangyang.

There's this one pretty mountain where you look to the top and there's a pretty pagoda peaking out high above its trees. Me and the other teachers plan on making a hike to the top of that mountain one day.

Other notes: My apartment is much bigger than what I had last time in Kunming, and after I cleaned it REALLY WELL, now it's quite pretty. I put up my posters and all the other pictures I brought with me and now it looks really quite homey. I officially have a pet, which decided it wanted to live with me just a few days ago. It is a little bat that likes to sleep in the corner of one of my windows, and I decided I don't mind it there anymore. I've named it Flower, like the skunk from Bambi. It sleeps there in the day, and then right at twilight it crawls down the grid of my window and flies out into the night. I decided it's cute now, and it can be my daytime guardian. It's really lazy, it goes hunting for maybe a couple hours and then comes back to the window and continues sleeping. It sleeps for like 90% of the day.

Also when I wake up in the morning, I wake up to the sound of roosters, which crow all the way until maybe 2 in the afternoon. I'm telling you, this place is RURAL. But I like it.

I spent three or four days of this last week getting very sick and dehydrated. That wasn't fun, but that happens every single time I go on an adventure like this. Now I'm better, but I was worried I had appendicitis for a second, but I realized that might have been because I took an iron supplement on a dehydrated and empty stomach when I hadn't eaten for 24 hours and that's generally not a good idea to do. (Note to travelers and future travelers: DRINK FLUIDS EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO when you go to a foreign country. It's more important even than eating food. And then, if you do get dehydrated, DO NOT take an iron supplement on a completely empty stomach.)

Anyway, more stuff later. That's the end of my introduction.

Hello Hubei! (part 1)

Hello everyone! So here's the beginning of my posts about my time as a teacher in Hubei province. I will be teaching at Hubei University of Arts and Science, a college located on the outskirts of a small city called Xiangyang (pronounced like "Shyong-YONG").

 

(sites from the city)

Xiangyang is really small and relatively unknown, even in China. It's biggest claim to fame is that several hundred years ago (in the early ADs), a military genius named Zhuge Liang (JOO-guh Leeong) spent several years there just pondering life because the area was so quiet and secluded (and boy, he got that right!). Zhuge Liang played a huge part in one the most famous battles in one of the most famous wars in Chinese history: the battle of Red Cliff in the War of the Three Kingdoms. There's even a Chinese movie about it that's actually really good if you have the patience for foreign language films.

 

(Zhuge Liang: he's really famous for carrying around a fan made of bird's feathers all the time, and you can see it in this picture)

So in a nutshell, I basically understood to a general extent what I was getting into over here. I knew it was going to be more rural than even Kunming was, though not as rural as Peru...but this would be the longest I had been on such an adventure. I also knew that even though I had some kind of understanding of what I was going to see here, nothing was really going to prepare me for what was there.

And I was right.

It was a very long plane ride: I had to make connections in Dallas, Los Angeles, and then Guangzhou, each with several hours layover time. But I was very VERY lucky to have spent the entire time in some way, shape, or form not by myself. On my first plane ride, I happened to be sitting next to a really lovely Filipino couple who were moving from Boston to Dallas. They told me about their experiences in the Phillippines and how they moved to America, and I told them about my adventures in China and Peru. Ironically, the husband had the same name as my uncle, who is also Filipino! They were so sweet, by the end of the trip they said that they'd never forget me. DAWWWW. Anyway, I thought I'd be making the next connecting flight by myself, but before I got on the plane, I ran into one of the other teachers who was going on the trip with me. And then another. They had both added me on Facebook before we left, and I was glad of it or else I would have gotten on the plane with them and never known there were other teachers on board. After that, all the other teachers (ten in total) met together in LA, and we traveled together the rest of the way there.

The trip was two long days, and I'm really not the best flyer. My eyes get red, and I'm naturally scared of heights so I don't like to be up in the air so long. The typical 14-15 hour flight I can do. But for at least one flight we were traveling for 22 hours, and then still had one more flight to go. But that's what happens when you're trying to meet up with people from all over the place and THEN trying to go to a city that's really rural. I was glad it was over by the time we landed.