Daily Discovery

December 31: The last day of the year - always a special day, I think, but an even better and more special day when it is spent with friends and family. This afternoon my Wuwei host family invited me over to celebrate the holiday: first, going to buy some veggies for dinner; then, making dinner and a strange looking, but delicious red bean dessert, and then watching a movie in Spanish(!!!) before watching the Chinese television countdown and taking a few pictures to celebrate the new year! Welcome to 2018!

December 29: For the first time, the air quality in China has become a concern for me. Unexpectedly, too, I must add, given the wonderful air quality Wuwei has had since I arrived. Then, last night into today, it suddenly changes from 'good' air quality (AQI: ~60) to 'hazardous, above device limits' (AQI: 999, but that is because the app display only reaches 999, actual measurements passed 2000; an AQI of 150 is considered unhealthy....). I couldn't see much outside my windows, and decided that when not in class, I would devote my time to remaining inside my apartment with my air purifiers and waiting for this phenomenon to pass, hopefully soon.. but for the meantime, when I walk outside my apartment to get to class, it's time to wear the mask.

December 27: Well, it is December 27th, Christmas has passed here in Wuwei, and it is on to celebrating the western New Year! So, many departments are taking advantage of this close-to-the-end-of-the-semester reason to have a little fun and celebrate by putting on a show for all of the students and staff. One of my departments, the business and administration department where I teach hotel majors, hosted an evening show tonight - which was a lot of fun and a nice excuse to get out of the apartment that I now have back to myself after my host mother left.

December 25: Merry Christmas! This was a strange Christmas, as I will write about in an upcoming full blog post, but one of the things that made it particularly strange was having to work and teach and go to school on Christmas, something I've never had to do before. It was still tinged here and there with small Christmas moments, from one of my students answering the question I ask every class, "What day is today?" with "Today is Monday, December 25... MERRY CHRISTMAS!" to a small chocolate treat my teacher friend bought for me between classes.

December 23: My host mother one of her younger cousins arrived in Wuwei yesterday, so it has been great to have the opportunity to see them, explore Wuwei again with a few pairs of fresh eyes, and to see the city from their perspective. On our trip around the city, we had to stop by a bakery with multiple locations around the city to try some of their baked goods (or so my host mother says!), so we grabbed a very lightly sweetened chocolate cake and a looks-better-than-it-tastes fruit dessert.

December 21: I had a great surprise today as I walked into my supervisor's office before my final class of the afternoon: mail! And not just a single piece of mail, but a double dose of love from home. I received a letter from my grandma, with a great Christmas card - and lots of love - inside.

I also received a huge box full of goodies - but I don't know what most of them are yet since they are all wrapped up for Christmas. Okay, so I know one box must be Mac-and-Cheese because it just has the right heft and sound, but the others, inside a stocking now sitting under my gorgeous Christmas tree, I am not sure. The best part? I'll actually be able to celebrate a little bit of Christmas, particularly since my host mom from Chengdu is arriving tomorrow AND she'll be here for Christmas AND my family sent a few things for her, too. This box was just what I needed lately, and I am so thankful for it - and looking forward to the rest of the surprises it holds.

December 19: My new teacher friend from the department showed me this 'gift' that another teacher in a different department had given her. "A cute little bird," she said, and so it was. A little bird carved from a daikon radish from a teacher in the food preparation department. It's amazing the skill and talent that goes into such a simple table decoration!

December 17: Yesterday, one of my friends, a student from the satellite site of a different university here in Wuwei took a national English exam, so I decided to make some custard (see earlier posts! from Dec. 10th) as a treat for her to try after her exam, but first we went out and got some delicious rice noodles for lunch. I had the vegetarian version, which had an egg, tofu strips, rice noodles, some bean sprouts, some greens, and of course, a spicy broth - it was great, the best that I have had in Wuwei, and now that I have learned the secret spot from the students, I will definitely be going back!

December 15: Another Friday, another week of teaching complete - it seems like the weeks fly by as the semester progresses. This Friday, however, I had a shopping trip this afternoon, which is pretty representative of how I meet people here at site.

I gave my WeChat information out to my students, who lived on the first floor of their dorm. Then, a few weeks later, I see that it has migrated up to the fourth floor of the same dorm, to students I've never met, yet who want to talk to me and meet me. So, a few students that I've been talking with over the last week invited me to go shopping this afternoon for some snacks. I thought this was a great idea, particularly so that I could get some local guidance and what is delicious, and what is, well, not so much.

This worked, to a point - they would pick something out and I'd ask, "What is this?" "It's a delicious snack!" they'd respond... "Yes, but what is it?" "Don't worry! It's delicious." So, while it is delicious, I am not so sure what it is, exactly. And of course, they had to pretend to buy themselves a box of delicious and special fruits, only to give it to me as we left the store. It was delicious, but they wouldn't eat it, and they wouldn't even share, even though it was pretty expensive, so I am grateful to have meet such kind students who want to share their culture and food with me.

December 11: This has to be one of the greatest discoveries I have made here in Wuwei thus far. A few weeks ago I ate some dumplings with students, and this was a first in Wuwei for me, as dumplings from a restaurant have been difficult for me to find. Walking out of the local market to go to the store, I stumbled across the restaurant the students had purchased the dumplings from, and decided to take a quick look myself.

It was one of the best decisions I have made! The dumplings are delicious, and such a great deal. You see, you can order dumplings and get them cooked and served in the restaurant, or you can buy them prepared, but raw, to take home and boil yourself. So, I ordered these delicious curry potato-like stuffed dumplings, and the price is around 30 dumplings for ¥10! Thats like two or three meals for a buck and half. Even by Chinese standards that is a great deal for dumplings - frozen factory dumplings at the large supermarket in town are more expensive, and the dumplings are at least three times the price in Chengdu where my host mom tried to buy some from a restaurant. The best part? Easy to freeze the extra for lazy nights after class.

December 9: A few days ago, I was informed by students and the English club of an upcoming English movie night this Saturday (tonight!). I helped encourage students to come to the movie showing, which was being held in the auditorium on campus. I was pretty excited to see a movie, and to go to the movie with students.

What was the movie? Titanic! I thought it was an interesting choice of movie, but definitely a classic and very famous movie that many people have heard of it, so I was interested to see the student's reactions to the movie. The first reaction? It was when the English club told the students that it was a 3 hour movie: a collective gasp ran through the audience, but nobody left and they were determined to watch it. We started the movie and students were really enjoying it: they loved the scenes where Jack was teaching Rose how 'to spit like a man,' and the first on-screen kiss got a huge reaction from the students (they told me they thought it would be a good movie since it was about romance!). The last reaction? Sadness, disappointment, because just as luck of the timing would have it, the moment that the Titanic struck the iceberg, the clock in the auditorium struck 9PM, and the English club decided that it was too late to finish the movie and they would show the second half at a later date. I'm still not sure how I feel about this, writing this Discovery back in my apartment after returning from the Titanic: Part 1... I hope the students will come back to finish watching the movie.

December 7: It's quite common here in Wuwei (and perhaps in China in general) to see students wearing clothes like shirts, and sweatshirts and jackets, with English printed on the back, the front or the sleeves even if they do not know what it means. Many times the English is spelled incorrectly, or has been translated from a Chinese saying, perhaps, and seems awkward, and at times funny. However, I saw this jacket today walking out of the cafeteria, and I think that the jacket's message is important for all of us, but I find it particularly timely recently.

December 5: I cracked, or tore, open my first bag of raisins today... raisins that were given to me by my host family in Chengdu, and I am not sure if it is because they are Chengdu raisins, or Chinese raisins, or if I simply haven't eaten any raisins for so long that I forgot how good they are, but these raisins were phenomenal... I think the best raisins I've ever eaten, not that I am a raisin connoisseur or anything. Anyways, it warranted a top-slot in the running for today's daily discovery. They were delicious - really sweet, and chewy, but also not as dry and tough as I remembered raisins from the States. Now that I have made this mini-discovery, I will be heading to the open-air market and buying raisins there; hopefully, they will be the same!

December 3: Another day at the Peace Corps China office in Chengdu, working with Volunteers from around China and PC staff to plan training during the winter. On the fifth floor of the office, I noticed that the Peace Corps China library is quite extensive, with a large and (much-longed-for) collection of fiction novels written in English available for checkout. My backpack was a bit heavier today as I embarked upon the train ride back to Wuwei.

A side note about the train rides: with today's 17 hour train ride from Chengdu back to site in Wuwei, this will mark the completion of 171 hours on a train - while it sounds like the title to a murder mystery, it's not. At least, I hope not.

December 1: Wow, it is hard to believe that I am already writing "December 1" on my daily discoveries here - it is December! And with the arrival of December, the weather has begun to cool a bit, so I'm heading a bit south this weekend! Actually, I'm heading to Chengdu for two days to engage in IST planning; I applied to be a member of the Volunteer group that helps determine the schedule and content of the winter training (two weeks) between the end of the fall semester and Chinese New Year!

This weekend, instead of taking the train and having to reschedule classes, I opted to take advantage of the Peace Corps' offer to fly me to Chengdu. I took the flight in this evening, so I didn't have to miss class, and while it was a bit of transportation switching - bussing to the bus station, riding the bus to the airport, flying to Chengdu, taking the subway to campus, and then walking to the hotel in Chengdu, it was pretty enjoyable - and made me consider how far I've come in self-survival skills in my short time here in the Peace Corps. One perk? The flights in China (as long as they are over an hour long) all come with 'dinner,' though, I was still a bit hungry after the sandwich - luckily, I packed a few peanuts for a travel snack.