"Love the People to Whom Fate Brings You Together"

Pic 1: Double Decker Bus
Pic 2: Having fun posing for pics
Pic 3: Mike and I with the candy cow he bought me
Pic 4: Hotpot :)

I am on such a high right now! I apologize for the blog-binge but I have to talk about my glorious day/night with my students! I love them so much!!! Today, at 2:00, Nick and his mom came and picked me up. The whole way to our destination his mom gloated over me and insisted that I come to their house tomorrow for dinner—something that I sooooo wanted to take her up on, but unfortunately already have plans with Bethany so I had to pass up.

Eventually we reached our destination—a place in downtown Chengdu—and we said goodbye to his mom and then went and hung out and drank soda waiting for Simmy (which, by the way, I could not pay for…this entire day I wasn’t allowed to buy ANYTHING). Once Simmy came, the three of us went to this section of town where EVERYTHING is second-hand. We walked into this alleyway which was lined with peddlers only selling cell phones—it was out of control! Nick and Simmy haggled and argued and inspected so many phones that we ended up spending 3 sweaty hours just on phone shopping. However, what seems like an arduous task actually was a lot of fun and gave us a great opportunity to get to know each other better. Finally, we settled on a phone that was ridiculously cheap and is really quite cool, although I insisted on not getting a SIM card since I will only be in Chengdu for a few more weeks (meaning right now I don’t have a phone number, I’ll buy one in Guizhou). After that, because I once mentioned that I wanted a hair straightener, they whisked me away to a mall-area where Simmy pointed to a group of straighters and said “which one do you want?” I already grasped the fact that they weren’t allowing me to pay for anything today, so I acted like they were very different from the straighteners in the states (they were the same) and that I didn’t think they would work on my hair. After some persuasion, I convinced them that I didn’t want these foreign devices that probably only work on Chinese hair, and so instead we went to a photo booth and took a bunch of sticker-photos of the 3 of us. :) Soon after, we were joined by Mike, Tom, and one other female student whose English name (I feel terrible admitting this) I cannot remember (I just always avoid saying her name) and they decided to take me to Jin Li, a historical tourist area of Chengdu. We took a double decker bus (the top was open air) all the way there, and then walked around and explored. It was a lot of fun and they kept buying me things in spite of my insistence that I didn’t want or need any of it. Afterwards, they wanted me to try hotpot, a Sichuanese favorite that I’ve yet to try, and so we took taxis to another district of Chengdu to go “the King of Chengdu place of hotpot” because it’s “the best” (AKA: most expensive….way too expensive for 5 students who just spent a fortune on me anyways!) hotpot in Chengdu. Hotpot is like an American buffet, but the food isn’t cooked. On your table you have a pot (it’s hot…) with boiling oil and you add the food you pick out at the buffet area to it and then eat and eat and eat. Yes, I ate. I ate whole fish (head, scales, tale in tact), I ate solidified duck’s blood (yes, I mean literal duck blood), I ate pig’s intestine, pig’s stomach lining, duck neck, octopus, quail egg, and a plethora of other Chinese traditional foods. To be honest, it was ALL delicious! I couldn’t believe it, but I really did like it!! My students thought this was hilarious. It was great eating with them because we could speak English and so they actually could comprehend how weird and unique of an experience this was for me (“you know, Valerie, Chinese people have been around for many, many years, and we always eat this food so I think it’s okay—you should not be scared.”—this is really quite true!). Afterwards, instead of allowing me to take a taxi or ride a bus alone (they all lived near the hotpot place and I am on the complete opposite side of town), Nick, Mike and Simmy all piled into a taxi with me, made sure I was dropped off right at my door, and again, wouldn’t allow me to pay a thing.

They were so overwhelmingly kind, and it wasn’t a forced behavior—I insisted and insisted that they allow me to pay (actually, once earlier in the day I was able to get into the taxi first and whispered to the driver “I will pay, they are not allowed to” so I was ONLY capable of paying for that and it was heartily protested) and they wouldn’t have any of it “we are so moved that you are teaching in a place like Guizhou for free—Guizhou is so poor, no one wants to go there, we cannot allow you to pay for anything when you are in our presence!”. They have all insisted that we must keep in touch when I’m in Guizhou because they’re afraid I’ll be too lonely there; they also insisted that when I come to Chengdu in the future, I will stay with them in their homes. I love them so much! I needed tonight, and I definitely needed all of them. While the Peace Corp America community is outstanding and I LOVE my fellow volunteers, there is a lot to be said for host country nationals’ companionship. They kept quoting Chinese philosophers who believe in the fate of meeting people in a country as populated as China, and I definitely believe there is some truth to what they said because, honestly, I don’t think any other 5 people could have made me feel as “at home” as I did tonight. I feel extremely blessed.