Few thoughts

Since I’ve been gone from the states starting June 30^th, I haven’t had the urge to blog mostly because I was waiting for a grandeur moment to record and deliver for people back at home. To me it seemed like every day during training was a regular routine so I didn’t bother sharing what happened. From talking to other volunteers, maybe the grandeur moment for family and friends isn’t something new that happens, but simply being involved in the process of traveling, living and experiencing China every day in different ways. So here I am writing after being in China for three months.

To be perfectly honest, Chengdu, Sichuan didn’t feel like I was going to be a volunteer. Back at home everyone asked, how did I like china so far. Of course I loved it, because it was new and exciting and there was so much to observe. However, I knew where I would be after training was going to be different, therefore, I didn’t want to generalize all of China based on one location. Everyone has this image of the Peace Corps experience of you living in a mud hut, carrying an empty bucket of water to the nearby river, and teach to children in a rugged 4-walled building (if you are lucky). Most people’s reaction to the Peace Corps being in China was, “Why?” I had the same reaction when I arrived to Chengdu. Chengdu is one of the common places for tourist scenes and for foreigners to study and live there. There are also a bunch of foreigners that own a bar and make a living, perfectly content with their lives in Chengdu. The level of education is solid, there are many bars and clubs, huge malls with designer clothes and apartment complexes for wealthy families. Mixed into all that is the old streets and apartments that have been there for decades-the old and new generation. If you turned to a different street corner it would feel and look like China, characters on every sign and stores that were aligned next to each other, spanning nearly 20 miles, in a small 10 by 10 space. Other times it looked like any other street in the world with busy people rushing to get to work or to school.   

Training began as soon as we arrived July 1^st. 74 of us were taken to our training site in Chengdu, Sichuan- the southwest part of China. We were divided into 4 groups and I remained in Sichuan University prior to being relocated to our permanent sites.  We attended classes discussing the health and security issues, rules and regulations, TEFL training, language classes, different aspects of our service, and model school. My site manager’s name is Xiao Ping. If you sound it out it sounds like “Shopping”. He told us that was the reason why his wife loved him. We loved him because he had an amazing attitude and a surprising sense of humor. Our language teachers were the most incredibly patient people I have ever met. We would need to pronounce every word at least 10 times (individually) until we at the slightest sounded like we were saying the right tone or the right word. Safe to say, thanks to them I learned basic Chinese survival skills. I can still however, mess up saying “peach” or “condom” based on the difference in the tone.  During training, I met people who become great friends. We’ve created inside jokes, had quotes held against each other, played ping pong, random nights of walking around the neighborhood, exploring, and helped each other through some confusing times from “What the hell am I really doing here?” to “How do you say this in Chinese?” It was definitely bitter sweet when we received our site placements and knowing that some of us were 30+ hours away from each other.