So, after what seemed like two days of surprisingly very pleasant traveling, we got into Changsha yesterday morning. After having a quick lunchbox lunch (w/ lots of eggy stuff. I think Hunan-ians (?) love egg), we set off to explore the city with two Chinese high school students named Cora and Tiffany. They were super funny and really nice. Cora is taking her graduation examinations next spring, and she's hoping to apply to Carleton, which, apparently, according to her, is known throughout ALL of China among students who are looking to study abroad as an excellent school in the US. Who would have known? jk, although I did feel super special for a moment. Changsha, albeit pretty polluted (The pollution hangs like a permanent blanket of fog over the city; seriously, I didn't see a single patch of blue sky yesterday and I looked hard), seems like a really friendly city. There's not too many foreigners, so our mini-group of five waiguoren walking around did incite some curiosity, but none of us really felt uncomfortable or out-of-place at all. Afterwards, when we had our first "Mao-style" with his dish of spicy and fatty Chinese bacon arranged in a dome covering preserved mushrooms) dinner, lots of older, Chinese guys came to our table and toasted our welcome to the Changsha. If I was with a group of all-girls, I might have felt a little sketched out, but it was really heartwarming (and funny) at the time.
Coolest thing about my trip so far? Aside from meeting really friendly Chinese people (and my one kuai green slushy- although, I don't think I'm in love with the food here yet, still think it's kind of qiguai-weird- a lot of sugary plates with rice- but I'm staying open-minded!!!)...perhaps seeing China from the eyes of my tripmates. Of the 52 of us, about five of us have ever been to China or studied Chinese in school and another five of us have ever lived in a developing country. Sometimes they say things I would have never expected anybody would say, but then I think about my first real impressions of China as an "adult" in high school, and I remember, I once thought that way, too. For example, one girl was totally shocked when we visited Correfour (french super market) that you could buy lots of household appliances in China. Another tried to pay for water with a 1000 kuai note (about $165 with the 1:6 conversion rate) not realizing how far our money goes here. And another was simply baffled that people would go around picking up plastic bottles from garbage cans or trash from sewage drains to sell.
Yikes, 7am, time to let the roomie use the eternet cord, but really quickly: liking China so far, which, if you were around when I was hyperventilating earlier this summer, is REALLY surprising, although I'm going to get a "chinese-american" talk from my field directors sometime this week..and still excited about teaching, like the people around me so far, need to make travel plans!! (email me if you have any ideas of neat places to visit; i'm thinking suzhou and perhaps the tibetian and muslim places in the NW and of course, HK) and...humidity sucks but oh well. bye!! another enlightening day of orientation ahead!!!
