I finished my last report somewhat hastily, as I finished dotting the I's and crossing the t's less than an hour before I had to get onto a train to Beijing. Thus that effort was more than likely quite abbreviated for the verbose person many of you know me to be. But as I am now at home and delightfully unemployed, this report is going to be as long as it needs to be to quell the boredom that even the hundred plus DVD's I bought in China cannot. Hopefully the result won't disappoint.
Travel/Getting Home
I arrived back at my home in Denver at just after one-thirty in the morning on June 15th, after leaving Nanjing the day before at four in the afternoon. Upon arriving at the Nanjing airport, I found that my flight to Beijing was critically late. As I had an already-tight connection to make to my flight from there to Los Angeles, I was more than a little apprehensive. Fortunately, I was able to change flights, but of course that flight soon turned red on the arrival board as well. When I did arrive in Beijing, I had just under one hour to claim my bag, travel to the check-in desk, get through security again, and get to my flight on the other side of the gargantuan Beijing Capital airport. I missed check-in, but after pleading with the woman working the desk of Air China, my bag was checked, and I was told to "Go! Go fast!" I made it to my flight just on time, and twelve hours later found myself in Los Angeles at six p.m. local time. Again, I had a tight connection, and when I came to customs, I was horrified.
My flight had arrived the same time as flights from France and Germany, and consequently there were about five hundred people in line in front of me. As the minutes ticked off, it became increasingly clear that I was not going to make my connection to Denver. Making peace with this, I almost didn't notice that I still had fifty minutes left when I made it through the line in just before the weight of my backpack cut through my shoulder blades. The problem was that my flight was on a different concourse, so I had to drag my jet-lagged self across the airport to the check-in area for American Airlines, where I was told I had missed check-in by ten minutes. When it became clear that there was no other flight to Denver until the next morning, I went back to the playbook and pleaded with the woman at the check-in desk, remembering to do it in English this time. With a sigh she motioned to give her my bag, and with that I was off to the gate and back home.
Several years ago the greatest accomplishment I could boast of when it came to travel was how I had driven to Grinnell by myself. I couldn't believe at the time how far that was. But when it came time to get onto the 747 in Beijing I didn't even bring a book with me, thinking to myself that I would be on the ground again before I had made any sort of headway in it. It would then seem that one of my lasting impressions of China has been a warped sense of distance-an effect I notice in an even more pronounced fashion now that I am back in the US, as anything in the lower forty-eight feels as though it might just as well be down the street.
Before leaving for China, I had crafted travel plans that would have made a Saudi prince blush--I was going to go to ride the Trans-Siberian Railway across Mongolia and Siberia, then go across Thailand and southeast Asia, in addition to all the obligatory sights in China and maybe Japan, which I considered weekend trips by comparison. Due to a combination of scheduling and my own deeply-seeded sense of cheapness (not frugality-no need to dress it up), I never quite went any place so exotic. However, looking back now I can say that I am more than satisfied with the amount of China I got to see during my short ten-ish months. For example, I have never been to either New York or Los Angeles (I don't count the airport), yet I did get a chance to go to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. I topped things off in the end of May by going to Yellow Mountain, which is most famous as the inspiration for countless landscape painting of mist-shrouded peaks. I relished this chance to get away from the city, but this didn't turn into the return to nature that I sought, as the top of the mountain was just as crowded as any sidewalk in Nanjing at rush hour. As it turns out, seven thousand people spend the night on top of the mountain. Despite the crowding and a layer of fog even denser than usual, I was able to do a lot of great hiking and get many great pictures, despite steps that were too small for me to get my entire foot on, and railings that only came up just past my knees.
Teaching
As for the classroom, things were quite strange during my last few weeks. Much of this owed to the fact that Maggie and I taught our classes together, showing our classes a movie in its entirety and devoting some class time each week to digesting it. Even though I was relieved to not have to plan a lesson and not having to occasionally play the part of babysitter, I was surprised at how saddened I was to not have the same contact with the students that I did before.
When we told the students that only had a few classes with them, I was quite shocked at their reactions. As our students do have a habit of paying lip-service, I expected the flood of "NO's" that we were given, but I was utterly unprepared for the absence of sarcasm. For a moment, I felt this amazing sense of accomplishment, as despite their grumbles when I told them it was time for a quiz or their groans when I called on them, it seemed as though the actually enjoyed my class! This excitement lasted until the very last week, until I noticed a pattern emerging: when told that I would soon be heading back to the states, many just muttered a "bye" and returned their focus back down at their desks. At first I took this personally, and remarked more than once at how callous they seemed to be. However, I have come to believe this now to be more of a cultural issue than a personal one, as no final goodbye I experienced in China was any different. I got to know many people quite well, and I know now that such abbreviated parting words are not a result of not caring. Rather, I think that is just China-acknowledging the past, but not dwelling on it, and keeping focused on the future.
Now that it is passed and I have a new perspective on my teaching experience, I have to say that it was not at all what I had anticipated. The classroom presented a unique set of challenges. I've made clear before that I learned instantly that the image of the silent and obedient Asian student is only in part true, and that part was in classrooms other than my own. For many of the students our classes are the perfect chance for them to blow off the steam that comes with going to class sixty plus hours per week. Because our classrooms are isolated and the grades we give them don't really count, many of them didn't really care about class. This was one of the more difficult problems I had to face all year-how to get students to pay attention when they feel there is little incentive to do so, and when communications are not quite fluid enough for threats to be clearly understood. But really, I think this was just the kind of difficulty I needed-one that presented a challenge, but not one so troubling as to break my occasionally-homesick spirit.
But of course anything worth doing is a challenge, and those trickier aspects of the experience were grossly outweighed by enjoyment I got out of teaching, as for the most part my classes were great. Taking into account all of the factors that could have led to difficulties in class that I mentioned previously, I have to say that I am still both surprised and impressed by how many of my students made a real effort to learn in class. Many of them had a separate notebook for my class, which they did not hesitate to fill with even the least sensible things I said over the course of the semester. I have to say have never felt more complimented than when a cursory glance over an open notebook revealed a virtual carbon copy of the ghastly drawing I used the week before to introduce a new vocabulary word. Moreover, I doubt I will ever feel more job satisfaction than explaining something difficult and being rewarded with twenty-five simultaneous "Ohhhh's" of understanding.
Last thoughts on life as a foreigner
In the first weeks and months of my time on the other side of the Pacific, I complained a great deal of being stared at. Oh, how naпve! Really, given that Nanjing is 98.6% ethnically homogenous, I am actually quite surprised now at how little I was stared at. Of course, I never got completely used to it, but I felt that as time passed, I became more comfortable with my identity as a foreigner. At first I felt quite strange about my Chineselessness, but at some point I realized that since there is and will never be a way for me to blend in the way that I was used to back in the US, and it is quite pointless, and perhaps even harmful to one's sense of identity, to try. This approach aided me a great deal as I headed into places less trodden by the feet or foreigners-such as the rural areas in Anhui province around Yellow Mountain, and the countryside school that Maggie and I were brought to at the end of May. That I learned to say "Yes, I am different from you. Go ahead, take a look," is a lesson I hope will stick with me.
Parting Thoughts
As this is my final report I would very much like to wrap things up neatly, but if the disjointed nature of this report is any indication, such clear summarization is easier said than done. That, I think, is one of the essential features of Grinnell Corps-providing experience by the bundle full, and leaving it up to us to make sense of it all.
End of year tallies (estimated):
Cups of green tea consumed: 700-800
Jian Bing (breakfast burritos) eaten: 200
Number of visits to Lao Difang: 100
DVD's purchased: 150
DVD's that worked: 115
DVD's that worked, but were only in Russian: 4
DVD's that worked, were in English, but were not good: 50
DVD's kept: 60
Money spent: Under $3,000
Thanks toâ¦
Maggie for laughing at my jokes, giving me someone to speak English with at banquets, and listening to me complain about trivial things. Too bad we didn't have a porchâ¦
Austin for giving me someone to talk about Roman military history over delicious, flame-grilled Whoppers with. There will always be a job for you barbequing lamb in my restaurant if you want it.
Fang Laoshi for being our Chinese mother.
Felix for being wise in the ways of Chinaâ¦nay, the world. If Yoda was Chinese, he would be something like you.
Doug for covering our backs stateside, and for taking me to the Phoenix for lunch.
Professors Armstrong and Hsieh for the support, the laptops, the candy, and the food.
Professors Drake, Trish and Armstrong (again), for giving me this opportunity. (I'm talking about the interview specifically-sorry to leave anyone else in the decision-making process out).
All my friends at home who supported me even though they probably could have not done so and gotten away with it with me on the other side of the planet.
My family for picking me up at one-thirty in the morning, and still being interested in my life even though it was so far from their own.
