Because of the Great Firewall of China, I was unable to post my blog while in the country, and then I had trouble finding a plug adapter in Japan. I apologize for the lateness of this entry.
James met me at the Beijing airport when I arrived and I spent two days there with him before heading to Taigu, where he and several other Shansi Fellows teach. We went to the Forbidden City and Ho Hi on one day. The Forbidden City is right across from Tienanmen Square, so I caught a glimpse of that as well. The Forbidden City itself was impressively huge, but not so impressive as many movies make it out to be (ie- Mulan). I admit I was a bit disappointed. That isn't to say that it wasn't awesome anyway. From there, we walked down some back streets of preserved houses from before the Cultural Revolution to Ho Hi. As I understand it, Ho Hi is a small district of very old buildings around a lake. It was lovely, but we only got to walk through it, as we were in a bit of a hurry. The following day, I followed James on a few errands, and in doing, experienced more of Beijing.
On Sunday, I attended my first church service in a long time. The music was great and the sermon was fantastic. It was a really refreshing experience. However, one thing gnawed at me. We had to show our IDs at the door to prove that we were foreigners. It is illegal for Chinese nationals to attend the service. After church that day, we took an express train to Taiuen, the provincial capital of Shanxi, and then took a car to Taigu.
My time in Taigu was plentifully relaxing. After several busy and even stressful months, I enjoyed the peace. I attended several English classes during my time there for use in other Shansi teachers' lessons. It gave me lots of ideas for activities to take back to India with me and made me excited to start teaching again.
In the evenings, we always go out for dinner and usually find some reason to party. There have been birthdays, open mic nights, and dance parties. With four Shansi fellows and three more foreign teachers, there is an instant party when you get them all together.
The food in the area was amazing. I always liked Chinese food back in the US, but this is far better and, usually, quite different. There are many stews, soups, dumplings, and noodles. Vinegar is a big part of the experience here. If it's not already in the dishes, people will dip their food in some. It took some getting used to, but now I think it has grown on me.
I spent most of my time relaxing and hanging out, but I did take a few touristy adventures with some of the others there. First, we went to Ping Yao, a short train ride from Taigu. Ping Yao is one of the best, if not the best, preserved ancient city in China. While it has become very touristy within the walls, it still somewhat functions as a town with houses and businesses. One ticket can get you into any of the many temples, museums, and mansions all around the city. It is beautiful and definitely a site worth seeing. The day we went, however, was one of the coldest I have experienced since leaving Minnesota. So, we spent much of the day hopping restaurants and tea shops. I had my first hamburger in months, and somehow it wasn't as exciting as I thought it would be.
Taiyuen is the nearest large city to Taigu, and errands took all of us there on one Thursday evening. We found an Indian restaurant there and had dinner. The whole experience made me laugh and long to be back in India all at once. For one, the ambiance was very glitzy. I think it was trying to look like some raja's palace. The staff all wore jazzed up salwar kameez, made of fabrics you would never see on clothing in India. The food itself was tasty, but not quite Indian. Everything was very gravy-heavy, even aloo gobi, which is a usually a pretty dry vegetable dish. The existence of a beef section on the menu also made me laugh. Their breads were pretty good, but all heavy like a pizza crust, not thin and fluffy like a good roti. It was nice to have a little taste of home, though.
Another outing was to the Kung Shanxi house in Taigu. Mr. Kung is an important figure in the history of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Foundation, from which I am a fellow. Before there were Shansi teachers in China, Oberlin sent missionaries and built a hospital. Those missionaries were killed during the Boxer Rebellion, and their families started the foundation that is now sponsoring me in India. Kung's mother was treated in that hospital and he grew up around the missionaries, then attended Oberlin College. He returned, was a successful businessman, and became the richest man in China. He then founded the Shanxi Agricultural School, and the partnership between it and Oberlin began that still continues today in our four fellows.
The house itself was not his only house by any means, but as a house in his home town, it has special importance. It contains several museum-like galleries of different currencies from around China, through history, and even around the world, as well as artifacts and photos from prominent members of his family. There were no English explanations anywhere, so I had to rely on Anne and her Chinese tutor for explanations. It was especially fun to see the little room connected to Oberlin Shansi. There were pictures of the founders of the Memorial Foundation and the first four Shansi fellows to China. It made me feel, once again, that I was part of something much bigger than just Jagori.
On my last night with them, we all went into Taiyuen for a basketball game. The American star Marbury was playing with the local Shanxi team for a short period of time while selling shoes. None of us particularly liked Marbury, but we still wanted to see him in his last game in China anyway. It was an exciting game and the Shanxi team won. As a sizable group of foreigners in the second row by one of the baskets, we got some attention ourselves. We started the wave successfully several times, cheered, chanted, and made lots of noise. During half time and after the game, a number of reporters came over and wanted to talk. In one article the next day, we were called “the driving force of the game.” More simply stated, we were loud and excited.
After almost two weeks in Taigu, it was hard to leave. I really enjoyed the people and the atmosphere there. James went with me back to Beijing on another errand he had and passed me off to Mia, yet another Shansi fellow.
I only had a few days with Mia, but we made the best of it. She took me to a few fun neighborhoods in Bejing where we walked, window shopped, looked for fabric, and ate. We went to a Peking Opera show together as well. It was really fascinating with great costumes and an interesting plot. The singing style, warbly and more straight-tone than Western opera, took some getting used to, but I liked it by the end. The subtitles certainly helped, but were frequently too verbose to make any sense. My one complaint is that this particular play was really lacking in acrobatics.
I also attended one of Mia's classes. One particular group of her students is preparing to go to Nepal to teach Chinese. Since there is not a Nepali class at their university, they are taking English instead. I commandeered the class for an afternoon and taught them Devanagari script, the writing system for Hindi, Nepali, and a number of other South Asian languages. It was exciting to see all of them so excited to learn it, something that would be very useful to them in the not so far future.
After a much-delayed flight, I arrived in Japan. I have been staying near Kobe with my friends the Andos for about a week and a half now. It has been a good time with lots more relaxing, eating, and the added bonus of plenty of tea. I will be writing more about my adventures here in my next blog entry.
