Vaudeville!
On Friday morning at 9:35 AM, Standard China Time, I'll have boarded a train. For the next thirty-two hours I will be in transit to the Gobi desert. I will arrive in Zhangye, a city in the Gansu Province, at 6: 30 PM the following day. I will remain in Zhangye for the following week of my training--while there, I will work with other trainees in a teaching practice session led by current PC volunteers. On the morning of July 29, I will board another train which will carry me back to Chengdu over another thirty-two hours. I must say, I am not particularly thrilled about my travel plans (I can't believe PC isn't flying us for such a short trip); however, Gansu is supposedly very beautiful and significantly less developed than Chengdu--which I find thrilling.
I will be sad to leave my training group this quickly as I'm travelling the farthest and we've become very close very fast, but, fortuantely, we'll only be gone a week this time and have a whole month together before we're sworn in as volunteers. And the more I find out about Gansu, the more excited I become. Although I will be leaving the bougie, Peace Corps heaven of Chengdu and all its wonderful ammenities for god knows what, I'm not too down. If I'm assigned to the capital city, Lanzhou, I'll be living on the Yellow River and the Silk Road. Apparently, all the civilization along the Silk Road is terribly fascinating--having been used as a trade route all throughout the Roman Empire, it seems to harbor quite the cultural and biological melange living along its route, and, on the river, it's something of an oasis in the Gobi. Much like most that's happened since I left San Francisco, I never imagined I'd be living in the Gobi Desert, so that's obviously exciting. And because we'll be so much farther north, we'll have central heating in the winter! And, although I'm not convinced that sand storms are worth the trade for a more manageable interior climate during the winter months, I am looking forward to seeing a new part of the country so quickly. Also, tonight at dinner, my host father said he'd be sure to come visit me, an offer which, despite the outcome, was very kind and uplifting.
Anyways, I have to study. I leave you with the follwing quote from my Lonely Planet, China:
"A rugged, barren province consisting mostly of mountains and deserts, Gansu has long been a poor and forgotten backwater controlled only loosely by Beijing." Awesome, eh?
Take care.
P.S.-My friend Todd and I have decided to put together a Chinese vaudeville troupe.
I will be sad to leave my training group this quickly as I'm travelling the farthest and we've become very close very fast, but, fortuantely, we'll only be gone a week this time and have a whole month together before we're sworn in as volunteers. And the more I find out about Gansu, the more excited I become. Although I will be leaving the bougie, Peace Corps heaven of Chengdu and all its wonderful ammenities for god knows what, I'm not too down. If I'm assigned to the capital city, Lanzhou, I'll be living on the Yellow River and the Silk Road. Apparently, all the civilization along the Silk Road is terribly fascinating--having been used as a trade route all throughout the Roman Empire, it seems to harbor quite the cultural and biological melange living along its route, and, on the river, it's something of an oasis in the Gobi. Much like most that's happened since I left San Francisco, I never imagined I'd be living in the Gobi Desert, so that's obviously exciting. And because we'll be so much farther north, we'll have central heating in the winter! And, although I'm not convinced that sand storms are worth the trade for a more manageable interior climate during the winter months, I am looking forward to seeing a new part of the country so quickly. Also, tonight at dinner, my host father said he'd be sure to come visit me, an offer which, despite the outcome, was very kind and uplifting.
Anyways, I have to study. I leave you with the follwing quote from my Lonely Planet, China:
"A rugged, barren province consisting mostly of mountains and deserts, Gansu has long been a poor and forgotten backwater controlled only loosely by Beijing." Awesome, eh?
Take care.
P.S.-My friend Todd and I have decided to put together a Chinese vaudeville troupe.
posted by Benjamin Hudson at 7:30 PM
1 Comments:
Ben,
Its so great to read aobut what you are doing. I have just been moving to your home town of Augusta. Not nearly as exciting as China though.
Your trip makes me wish I was back in South America Doing research.
Be safe.
Tony
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