Life is beautiful! I never imagined Id be taken in as quickly as I have or that it would be possible to spend the first two weeks in rural China by myself without feeling lonely. In all actuality, everyone is overly welcoming and curious about me. I cannot leave my apartment without hearing"Hello, Ms. Fei Fei!"(my English name is too difficult so I let them call me Ms. Fei Fei… I've actually grown to love the name), and I cannot enter my apartment without my phone ringing from an eager student, community member, or acquaintance who wishes to speak English with me. Currently, I'm sitting in my office of the English building, and while entering the building, I had a student on the fourth floor (while in class) lean out the window and shout out"Ms. Fei Fei! Good morning! and then their whole class ran to the window and waved and shouted. ;) While this may eventually get to be too much, for now I'm enjoying the celebrity status; it's fun to be the Meg Ryan of China for the next two years. :) To keep my sanity, I bought a cell phone and only give the number out to friends, so if I need to escape I just don't answer my home phone and then if it's someone I wish to speak to, they have a secondary number to reach me.
Campus life itself is fun. While my apartment rarely has running water (I've come to realize that 1-2 showers p/week isn't nearly as disgusting as we make it out to be…I barely stink!), I have little to complain about. My classes are great, my students are as diverse as you can possibly imagine (I have students who wish to discuss politics, evolution, etc. while I also have students—in the same classroom—who, when I ask "how (one second pause) are (one second pause) you?" they don't understand me and, if they answer at all, say "yes"—they are all English majors, mind you), which keeps things interesting and difficult and fun. "Differentiated instruction"never was as necessary as it is in my little China community.
Yesterday I had the pleasure of being a judge for a speech contest, which couldn't have made me happier. When I was in high school, speech contest was my ultimate passion, and they just happen to have it in China and make it a huge deal! Our school had auditions yesterday, and I got to help narrow the contestants down to three, and now am in charge of coaching our top student, which is a fun challenge. She will then audition for CCTV (China's cable, in charge of all TV channels) for the chance to get to be on TV speaking English. Next week, I am also apparently helping out in the drama department and helping direct the next play, which I am told is "the biggest event of the year." Whether that's true or just the school's way of getting me to take it seriously, I'm excited. :) Lastly, the biggest thing I have coming up (which is my biggest dread…can I say that again? I hate this.) is next Friday's grand opening of our school. Because we have a new campus, we are having a huge celebration of more than 10,000 people coming and guess who will be dancing and singing on the field for the entire crowd? That's right, our very own Monkey Val who apparently not only is funny because she looks and sounds different and towers over almost everyone on campus, but because she also can sing/dance at the drop of a hat, just like a monkey! Oh boy! And by "oh boy" I really mean—Dear God, spare me! I have expressed my distaste at this request, and insisted that if I have to do this, the entire English department should have to join me, and was told "Oh no, we cannot sing, we are teachers!" Slap slap slap…slap slap! But aside from the pain of next Friday's anticipated deathbed, everything is fun and grand and I love it. :)
Soon, I shall have pictures posted, including photos of a nearby dog market (yes, dog market—Guizhou province is known for its dog consumption…in all fairness, in the states, we put dogs to sleep every day and just dispose of the bodies…at least here they don't go to waste, right…?). Currently, I don't have internet access (I'm told it will be installed by next week, but I was also told that I would have a fire extinguisher, window locks, and bed I can sleep in without it collapsing two weeks ago and I still haven't seen any of those things, so time shall tell), so uploading pictures is too difficult. My apartment is now furnished to the best of my capabilities and limited spending (including a COFFEE POT and lots of DELICIOUS coffee sent by mom and her friends—god bless you!), so that's fun and Im excited to share it with all of you!
Finally, as stated, I have very limited internet, and I realize many of you have been trying to get a hold of me to no avail or to short responses. Please know I cherish your emails, and as soon as I have an internet connection that allows me to respond without taking an hour to process "send" I will be happily responding. I miss all of you SO much and I don't want you to take my lack of response as an indication that you shouldn't keep writing, it's simply that responding to one person takes about an hour, and I have lots of emails backed up and not lots of free hours. :) Please keep the emails coming, the stories flowing, and know they are read happily and cherished on my end.
Peace and love! Wo ai nimen! Zaijian!
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