August 04, 2002

Hey-hey!! Still alive and kicking!! Wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know that I have returned to China from a fantastic vacation in the States, and am now composing this journal entry from my room at the splendid Le Xing Hotel in the city of Guo Yang <click for map>, Anhui province. Proudly advertising themeselves as a two-star hotel, I am experiencing the delights of #2 grit sandpaper quality towels and Soviet styled decor. Ok, enough of the lodgings! While I was back in the States I spent a short amount of time in my hometown of McHenry visiting friends, and the rest of the time with my family in Michigan. I would like to thank my friends Zach and his wonderful wife Anna, Ed, and Diane for providing transportation and a place to stay while in McHenry. You guys are terrific! I also want to thank my long-time friend Vanessa and her husband Mike for a great dinner. While the vacation was certainly relaxing and enjoyable, I was, and unfortunately still am, suffering from the pain in my neck, shoulder, and arm. Thankfully, much of the pain has gone away after several trips to a doctor in Michigan, but it continues to bother me to the point that I am now fearing I may need some kind of surgery down the road. Pretty depressing to say the least. No matter, I still have so much going on and so much yet to do that I have little time to dwell on something like this! As a final note concerning my stay in the States, I want to thank my entire family for their help and understanding with some of my limitations and needs. They allowed me to not only get done what I needed to get done, but also helped me make the best of the short amount of time I had there.

Now, maybe some info about my return to China! As I mentioned above, I am in a city called Guo Yang which is located near the larger central city of Bo Zhou. It is here that I am teaching English to primary and secondary school students. I arrived here the other day at 4:00 AM after a 10 hour train ride (my first) from Beijing. The train ride was pretty cool, but mostly uneventful which is not surprising considering the time frame. Accompanying me on the trip was my teaching colleague Happier, and meeting us at the train station was my other colleague Victoria. Guo Yang is Victoria's home city and she is one of the people responsible for coordinating our teaching at the San-San school. Both Victoria and Happier are students at the most well-respected university in all of China, Beida (Peking University) in Beijing.

After what seemed only 20 minutes sleep, I was awoken my first morning here and told to quickly dress and prepare to attend a welcoming ceremony at the San-San school. I took an express shower, dressed, and with eyes still puffy from lack of sleep, stumbled out the doors of the hotel. The three of us were met by the headmaster of the school and were driven to the school in a big, black car, which, as we drove through the city, was conspicuously grand in appearance compared to everything else on the road. We pulled up to a gated entrance of a compound and flanking each side of some stairs were a handful of students in uniform welcoming me. At that point I was a little shocked at the such a nice welcoming display, but little did I know that in just a short moment I would be completely and utterly overwhelmed with what my hosts had prepared for me. On this very rainy day I was escorted under umbrella up the steps and into a large courtyard filled with hundreds of students in uniform waving Chinese and American flags and shouting in unison a welcoming cheer of some sort. My vision almost failed me at this point because it was just so much to take in and I was completely unprepared for anything on that kind of scale. The children's voices were echoing and surrounding me in such a way that it was hard for me to even think. Kinda like I was in cruise control or something!! As I stood in the middle of the courtyard, two children approached me with a large bouquet of flowers and presented it to me. I thanked them and both shouted "Not at all!!" and waved their hands in the air in some sort of salute. Incredible, just incredible!!! Next, we were walked in front of the large formations of children waving there flags and chanting and after arriving at the end of the courtyard, I turned to the front and noticed hundreds more children lining the balconies of each of the 4 stories of the main school building. They too were cheering and when I waved to them the volume of cheering increased to the point that I felt I was a returning war hero or something!! It was the most overwhelmingly nice welcoming and display I have ever had, and it will truly, truly be something I will never ever forget. What a wonderful thing my hosts had done for me!! I should mention that it seemed as though I was made the focus of this fantastic welcome, both Happier and Victoria were part of the ceremony as well.

I guess one ceremony wasn't enough because the next day I had another one to attend. This time plans were made for me to speak!! <GULP!> For those of you that don't already know, I am NOT a public speaking person. In fact, I have lost consciousness twice while speaking!! Not good! Well, there was no backing out of this one, especially considering the fact that I was to be on TV, and the ceremony would have very high level officials from the education administration in the area. Really, considering all this, it's a wonder I actually pulled it all off! Anyway, I was seated on the stage with all the officials and after a LONG opening that included some sort of anthem-like song and the longest series of firecracker explosions I have ever heard (Guiness, where were you??), I listened to the opening speech by the school's headmaster. After he finished he introduced me and with Happier translating, I spoke about the importance of English and what I planned to do with my teaching. Not bad, cuz at the end I was still conscious!! Afterwards, I was interviewed for television and gave a quick answer to just one question. Too bad I never did get to see it aired on TV. :(

Teaching at the San-San school has thus far been a pretty grueling job, but overall one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. A typical day has me teaching 5 to 7 classes jam-packed with children, and I am teaching 6 days a week. My guess would be that there are easily more than 60 kids in each, and like me, they are suffering from temperatures and humidity that would bring most activities back in the States to a complete stop. I have never, ever sweated so much in my life!! If it wasn't for the afternoon break in my air-conditioned hotel room each day, I would probably melt away or something! Anyway, the students are simply fantastic, and they are so respectful and eager to learn. Several of them spend the entire class smiling up at me, so I wonder if anything I am saying or doing is sinking in at all with them! Along with teaching my regularly scheduled classes, I have also attended a couple performances by classes with younger students, Mostly singing and dancing, and awfully damn cute. All in all, the kids here make each class so worthwhile, and I am often oblivious to the sweltering heat.

Many of the people I have met here in Guo Yang have bent over backwards to try and make sure I am happy and well cared for. The headmaster at San-San, his family, Victoria's parents, and Victoria and Happier themselves have been beyond gracious and giving to me. One of the real treats here are the great meals I have been treated to. Several times now I have been the guest of honor at a meal, and the food just keeps coming and coming. When you are the honored guest there are some things you need to be aware of like being seated at a particular location at a large round table. If the meal has a fish fish entree, it is presented to the guest of honor so that the heads of the fish face him or her. Unfortunately, there is also a custom that requires you drink two shots or slugs of alcohol (Usually the extremely potent Baijiu.), and the person who is seated across from the fishes tails must drink one time. Speaking of drinking, sometimes you do an awful lot of it during the course of the meal. Seems everyone at the table makes a toast to the guest!!! One last note on the food at these meals. The Chinese people eat many things that you or I back home would never imagine eating. Perhaps the strangest being a sauce produced from mildew.....YEAH MILDEW!! Thanks to Victoria and Happier for telling me about it after the fact!!! Ha-ha-ha!!! Truthfully though, it's really pretty good stuff!! Internal organs and unusual animal parts no longer are a concern for me after that experience!! :)

I will end here and leave some more descriptions of events and the Guo Yang area for the next journal entry. Until then, so long!!