A Space Boy Dream, or Ben in China

glorious victory!

2005-10-24T15:26:00.000+08:00

it only took a third of a year, but i finally got to speak with siara yesterday. it was heavenly....

all apologies

2005-09-04T22:25:00.000+08:00

hey everyone.

i'm sorry for taking my sweet time keeping you updated--things have been incerdibly busy this past week--and, if i wasn't scheduled to teach my first class tomorrow morning at 8 am, i would be writing you a great blog right now. unfortunately, this is just a quick note to tell you what's to come: tearful goodbyes (i love you, nainai!), constitutional oaths, volunteers gone wild, water ballets, the throes of lanzhou jiaotong university, the enemy rears its ugly head, and more...
i guess i'll also have a story or two about teaching my first class. how 'bout that?

talk to y'all soon....

"Very Framous Panders"

2005-08-14T16:22:00.000+08:00

Above is Pride, the official mascot of Panda Pride cigarettes (which my host father smokes). I got to meet Pride this morning when my family took me to Chengdu's Panda Breeding Research Base...but more on that later.

So, training's going well. My Chinese class and I are putting together a performance (in Chinese, of course) for the ceremonies at the end of training. As of now, it's about robot pandas who scheme to take over the world by stealing Hello Kitty's Atomic Bamboo. Perhaps we have too much time on our hands. The really fantastic thing, though, is a startling close complete with song and dance. It will be fantastic.

Otherwise, my oral Chinese has finally seemed to overcome the insidious second (rising) tone, or so my instructor tells me. It must be happening on an unconscious level as I still can't hear any aural difference when I'm speaking. I've lost a little gusto when it comes to studying vocabulary as well. A shipment of books arrived for me this week, so I've been fairly busy with those. I was eager to enjoy the new _Harry Potter_ (thanks, brother), and, after I finished, I wasn't too excited to return to Marx. So, yesterday, I started reading Naomi Klein's _No Logo_; I've been devouring it like candy (here, I was going to insert a western food that I missed the most, but as I started to brainstorm what that food might be, I realized that I was probably treading in dangerous waters and that it would be best to go with a safer, more generic simile--like candy. We have candy here). Anyways, I found a split infinitive about ten minutes ago (which I can generally tolerate if it's not in a published work), so I had to put it down--for a couple of days at least. It just irks me.

This weekend has been a blast. My friend Katie and I wandered around Chengdu Friday night, looking to make some mischief. Unfortunately, we couldn't find any trouble. We did, however, find a seventeen year old girl named Pepe who was drinking milk and chomping on a meat stick. She gave us balloons. Last night, my mother and brother took me to a teahouse where we watched a Chinese revue of sorts while enjoying a "very framous" tea. (P.S.-Everything in China is "very framous"). There were a lot of dancers dancing, one magician magicking, and some masked opera performers breathing fire and such. It was great. There was one performance in which a man played traditional Chinese instruments, one of which I've decided to call a Chinese fiddle. It was my favorite.

Then, today, of course I went to the Panda Base. The Pandas are adorable. But, I've kind of decided, that they weren't real pandas, just men and women dressed up in Panda suits. Their movements and actions seem too human. They're especially cute when they're chomping on bamboo. Pride, above, just loved to sit on that deck and roll over a whole bunch--he was hot. We also saw a horde of red pandas--the species that might be putting raccoons in the running for the cutest animal ever. They were all playing together and staring at the people and panting up a storm--I wanted to smuggle one under my t-shirt. The base has a museum of sorts with a bunch of taxidermied animals and old bones and such from ages long past. The wierdest thing, though, was that they had jars of panda reproductive organs in formaldehyde--it was creepy. In all, the base was great. Its a fairly large place, and you have to walk these thin, steep trails through a hilly, bamboo forest to make your way around. It was the perfect respite from the sounds and smells of Chengdu.

Well, my Chinese cousins just got here, so I have to run. I hope y'all are doing well. Take care.

Birthday Party Cake Fight!

2005-07-31T23:05:00.000+08:00

I'm currently working on a long post about my time in Gansu. In the meantime, please enjoy this photo of tonight's multi-birthday party. From the left, my host mother's brother (shushu=uncle), my friend mary, me and neinei (fyi: she is, of course, standing). Mary's was last friday, my uncle's tonight, and neinei and I share August 8. The cake fight was followed by a dance party during which I taught my extended family the Electric Slide. It was, quite obviously, a blast.

Take care. Check back tomorrow for my post about the past week.

Gansu Calling

2005-07-31T16:32:00.000+08:00

Well, I've had quite the week. The train ride wasn't that bad, after all, and we had a great time. It was wonderful to see so much of the country. Sichuan is very lush and beautiful, so it was incredibly interesting to watch the scenery metamorphose into the desert as we traveled north. Camels and mountains and dunes, oh my! Unfortunately, I forgot my camera as I was packing, so I don't have any photographs to share. I'll make sure to keep it handy when I travel back to Gansu next month; the scenery really is breathtaking.

We pulled into Zhangye after thirty-six hours on the train. The China 10s (we're the China 11s) were waiting for us at the train station, and they immediately took us to our hotel. They gave us about an hour or so to shower before dinner, and then we had an excellent meal at this little hole in the wall resaurant. Gansu is famous for its mutton and sweet-and-sour pork--both of which we enjoyed. After dinner, they escorted us to a dance club, where we were allowed to play our own music and dance about on top of this multi-colored glass platform. Dancing my little heart away, I eventually shattered a section of the glass and decided to take a break for an hour or so. As we were preparing to leave, Weezer came on, and we all had to rush back to dance. Unfortunately, a China 10 (whose way was graciously prepared by yours truly) did some more damage to the dance floor, so we had to rush out of there pretty quickly. The bonus, I guess, was that the second crash provided a quite emphatic end to "Say It Ain't So." This incident has already made us, the Gansu crew, quite notorious amongst our colleagues.

We woke up bright and early the next morning (Sunday) to hop a (hot, sweaty and extraordinarily crowded) bus to a Tibetan minority festival up in the mountains of the province. After only six hours on bumpy, twisty, and quite frightening mountain roads, our bus driver told us that the roads would only continue to worsen ahead, so we best turn around. Well, it was certainly a disappointment, but, trying to make the most of it, we turned around and held a picnic outside of this very small, very beautiful mountain village. There was a number of people who had set up tents as a kind of base camp about an hour from the festival. They slaughtered a sheep for us and cooked it right away. They also shared some rice and wine with us. We had an excellent couple of hours trying to communicate with them and wondering around the hills. My friend Katie and I befriended this nice old lady who showed us around a small Buddhist temple in the village. I ended up getting sunburned pretty badly in the altitude. After the short break, we re-boarded the bus for another six hours back to Zhangye. Even though we never reached our destination, the trip was a great success--it gave us more time to get to know the older volunteers and was, frankly, just a lot of fun. Misadventures seem to have a way of being perfect.

Monday we began our summer project. We assisted the 10s in teaching a melange of primary and secondary school English teachers about Western methodologies and culture. Despite my reservations about teaching more experienced teachers how to teach, I knew that I could help the teachers learn more about American culture and decided that, hopefully, this knowledge could help them to engage better their students. Also, their oral English was surprisingly poor, so I hope that it was helpful for them to converse with a native speaker. On Monday, we basically just observed our older colleagues. I was assigned to the "Culture" group (the others were Environment and Current Events). Tuesday, I aided a 10 on a lesson about American dating. There was one hilarious moment when I tried to explain speed dating to the class; I have never seen a group of people look more bewildered. I guess it is a fairly confusing concept.

The following day, I taught a literature class on the balcony scene from _Romeo and Juliet_ (after introducing the lesson with a fairly awesome explanation of "hump day"--thanks Jess). We read the scene and did some role plays, and then I had the students rewrite the end of the play. Here are my two favorite alternate endings:
1. In heaven, Juliet is very ugly. When Romeo comes upon her, he does not recognize her as his mortal love but falls all over again regardless. He subsequently mauls his face so that she doesn't feel physically inadequate, and then they have many gorgeous babies.
2. Following Romeo's experiment with pharamceuticals and Juliet's dalliance with seppuku, they both turn into beautiful butterflies and live forever.
I find it truly amazing how the Bard could have overlooked these clearly more fantastic endings.

Thurdsay, Katie and I taught a two-part lesson on American slang. Our lesson plan was adopted by another volunteer, Matt, on Friday who tweaked it just a bit. For example, I walked in to Matt's class as his thirty, Chinese, middle-aged students said in unison: "Man, I'm wasted! I've been boozing all night with my homies. Keep it on the down low from the old lady, but I got into a rumble cuz this dweeb trashed my new kicks." Yeah, Katie and I didn't teach that. That night, our China 10s invited us to a toga party at one volunteer's apartment. Although I was convinced that they were just hazing us trainees in an attempt to have us crazy foreigners wander the streets of Zhangye wrapped in bed sheets, I acquiesced and dressed myself up like Caesar. When we got to the party, we were fortunately not the only ones in togas, and we all had a great time getting to know each other better. The 10s are pretty serious poker players, so we played Texas Hold'Em with Jiao (Chinese cents).

The following day I taught a fairly interesting lesson on party culture, during which I had the students play a game I ripped off of "Who's Line Is It Anyway"--in which a "host" had to guess the profession or identity of his or her guests by asking a series of questions about him or her. Then, we played Pictionary to review vocabulary from the week.
The experience, as a whole, was a pretty wonderful one--our students were really interested and felt like they had some new tools for their own classes. One last highlight involves my roommate Clayton teaching a class on Cowboy culture: rodeos and ranchin' and such. Anyways, he had the class listen to Willie Nelson's "Mama, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys" and fill in some blanks as a listening activity. He then got the class to sing along with him. The best part was, however, this one woman who adamantly refused to sing along because she very much wants her son to be a cowboy. It was fabulous.

Later on Friday, we hopped back on a train to return to Chengdu. We arrived Sunday afternoon, and my family promptly carried me off to the multi-person birthday extravaganza. To clear something up, cake fights are not commonplace at Chinese birthday parties--we're just a lively bunch. After we cleaned up the mess, we had a mini-dance party. First, my cousin performed a traditional dance; next, Nainai spent about ten minutes trying to teach Mary how to box step. Then, I gathered the family around to teach the Electric Slide, which we eventually enjoyed while dancing to Avril Lavigne's "Skater Boi". Chaos ensued, and I sang "Complicated" to a gleefully flabbergasted Nainai before calling it a night.

Unfortunately, the rest of this week hasn't been quite so spectacular. I've gotten a cold and a fever which comes and goes. Luckily, I don't feel too sick and am still attending class and moving along as usual. I hope you all are doing well, and I apologize for not having blogging sooner. Take care.

Vaudeville!

2005-07-20T19:30:00.000+08:00

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.

like a peppermint eaten away...

2005-07-19T22:44:00.000+08:00

i apologize for being so lackadaisical about blogging, but i've just been too busy lately. between language lessons, pc protocol briefings, homework and new friends, i just haven't gotten around to a computer, and the temperamental internet connection at my host family's house hasn't helped one bit.

however, i'm doing quite well. being this short for time is at least quite good from preventing a sudden onset of homesickness. i'm coming along with mandarin adequately, i guess. consoling my wishes of learning a little more quickly, i've read that culture shock primarily results from expectations set too high, so i'm trying not to be so hard on myself. this weekend, i thus determined, was to be enjoyed to the fullest without language study conducted in a militaristic fashion. i went to a dinner party at a fellow volunteer's host family's house and had a great night.

the food was delicious, and, besides having to bite my tongue at some fairly ridiculous gender expectations (such as some of the chinese women chiding the female american guests who did not join in the joyous practice of dumpling-making), i had a very pleasant time. katie's family was exceptionally kind (as i've found almost all of the volunteer's hosts to be), and her younger host-sister proved to be quite the accomplished pianist who entertained us with some traditional chinese music. we had a very jovial discussion with the family about our motives for being in china and what we hoped both to gain and to give from our experiences here. and the evening culminated with katie's cousin escorting us several volunteers to a wonderful back alley of teahouses where some of the more liberal chinese students tend to gather.

we settled at a table outside the "chinese che teahouse" (as, having observed a sign decorated with a very distinctly chinese che guevara above our table, that is what we decided to name it) and enjoyed a discussion about the general insufficiencies of language which segued into our frustrations with mandarin. all in all, it was an awesome evening, and i've been back to the che guevara teahouse every night since to study.

otherwise, things have fallen into a fairly steady routine. today, we had a medical briefing on the avian flu. for some reason, i've come to enjoy our medical breifings the most of all the presentations we're required to attend. today i got to thinking about influenza in general. at least the last two global pandemics (i'm not sure about the third most recent, the spanish flu, but i imagine it originated in europe which was highly susceptible to disease after world war one) began in or around south east china. there was also the sars scare a couple of years ago, and now the possible threat of the avian flu transforming so that it could pass between humans. anyways, there seems to be this interesting, and frankly quite frightening, phenomenon occuring right now: it seems to me that the cradles of civilization are, for at least the past century or so, under a constant barrage of maladies from terrorism, religious zealotism, war and occupation in mesopotamia to more biological threats here in asia (and i haven't even said a word about the awe-inspiring amount of pollution here which is even more abjectly connected to western capitalism). and it's beginning to disturb me that we, as a people, don't think about why this is strange. not that i have any answers--i just find it disquieting. and interesting, i guess. where's brian when you need him?

anyways, i'm off to bed. tomorrow, i'll find out where i'll be stationed for the next two years. take care.

Me and Little Nainai

2005-07-13T22:30:00.000+08:00

Things are slowly becoming run-of-the-mill here. Believe it or not, I've fairly easily fallen into a routine. Making new friends has made my transition a lot easier. It almost feels like I'm at summer camp, or something, where friendships are accelerated because of a small, incestuous environment. Regardless, I know I'm lucky to have such great colleagues.

We had a classroom management seminar today; it was taught by China 10's (I'm a China 11--the 10's were the first group back after the SARs scare, so they had to start from scratch and now, a year later, have some good tips for us). I'm really excited about working with Chinese students. Because competence is measured only by national exams, the school system here is set up in a way that encourages principally rote memorization as a learning style, and it seems like my biggest challenge as a teacher will be to reconcile my aspirations of encouraging critical thinking with the students' desire to know only what appears on their exams. Schooling here seems inversely related to the American style because the Chinese students work the hardest to pass their college entrance exams and expect something of a respite once they get to university. Sure, we have our SATs, but I really believe that our first twelve years of school are a lot less challenging than the ones that follow (for those of us that go to college, at least). Obviously, all of this is just speculative at this point, but I'm nonetheless pretty excited to meet the challenges that await me with the younger students, at least--my upperclassmen will most likely be different.

Otherwise, my language acquisition is progressing relatively well. Last night was wonderful because, with my host family, I shared my first meal during which I felt like we really began to communicate without either absurd gesticulations or resorting to a dictionary--albeit relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things, it felt like a big accomplishment at the time. I'm still waiting for the right time to get a photo of them to post. My friend Mary took some pictures of us the other night at "hot pot" that I'm hoping to post eventually. "Hot pot" is a Sichuan specialty. Not unlike the banquet I already explained, this meal is also communal, but each individual cooks his or her own food right at the table. So, the servers bring out a plethora of raw meats and vegetables that you cook in the boiling oil sitting before you in the middle of the table. It was, without doubt, the spiciest meal I have ever had--the oils are spiced with god know's what, and, if you want to eat (and stay healthy), you have no choice but to cook your food before you in the hottest thing that you have ever tasted (yes, my mouth went numb). I found it imperative to have a couple of beers along with the meal as it seemed to be the only beverage that cooled my mouth. Anyways, Mary apparently has a photo of me and Nainai ("grandma") toasting with our glasses that I'm waiting to post. By the way, I fall in love with Nainai more everyday. Of course, she's no substitute for my biological grandmothers, but she's just as sweet. I've decided that she looks like a Muppet. Elmo+Animal=Nainai. Anyways, I'm off to bed. Take care all.

xoxoxo

Wo Xiang Ni Men

2005-07-09T13:50:00.000+08:00

Above is a photo of the rooftop garden (see below).

I just saw the bestest most communistic thing ever! What was it you ask? Well, I'll tell you. First of all, Chengdu has a quite cacaphonous soundscape--it's nothing in particular--just the aural atmosphere of the city is something less than pretty. So, I was walking down the street when out of nowhere this wonderful Muzak started blaring from behind me--I shut my eyes and found myself, a year ago, in an elevator on Wall Street staring at the head of the balding, middle-aged lawyer in front of me. Ah, memories. Anyways, I opened my eyes and realized that the source of this glorious, recorded orchestra was nothing other than a garbage truck. Yes, a garbage truck blaring elevator music as loud as stereophonically possible. If that isn't the best argument for communism ever, well, then I don't know what is!

So, I've had several very adventurous days, which I wrote about late last night in hopes of plugging in my flash drive at the waiban (internet bar) and sharing my experiences with all of you. Alas, the computers at this bar cannot read Word, so I have to start all over again and cannot promise you the premeditated work of prose genius which I had initially planned on posting. Oh well, here goes...

First of all, my host family is wonderful--very generous and kind. My only lament is that they are a bit overprotective. For example, my host brother was staring over my shoulder reading all my emails earlier. Regardless, they are a marvellous family, and I couldn't have gotten any luckier. Fortunately, they are one of four host families, that are all best friends, who decided to host volunteers in the same apartment building, so I don't feel quite so isolated. There is Liu Lao Shi ("Lao Shi" being an address of respect--surnames come first around these parts) who is an engineer, which--in a country developing as quickly as China--is a very prosperous job, and his wife Gao Lao Shi, who is a teacher of Chinese at a nearby elementary school. Their son, whom I call "Didi" (brother), is an eighteen-year-old student convinced that I'm the best American sports player ever. Because I've chosen to ride that wave a little bit longer, I told him I have too much studying to do this weekend so basketball will just have to wait. But the prize of the family is "Nainai" (grandmother). She's this little 4'5", grey-headed woman, with dark, beady eyes, who loves to point at me and cackle when she's not either shoving food down my throat or speaking at me one hundred words-per-second. In a word, she's amazing.

We live on the top floor of a six story apartment building. I have my own spacious room and bathroom with my very own, very special "squatty potty," as we volunteers enjoy calling some of the more particular toilets in China. We have a rooftop garden complete with a small creek, goldfish, seating area, and all sorts of vegetables, herbs, and flowers. It is breathtaking. If it weren't for the heavy pollution in the area, I'm sure the view would be spectacular. It's mighty fine as it stands, but I can only imagine how gorgeous it would be otherwise.

Unfortunately, I have to run. I'll write more as soon as I get a chance, but it's hard to find time to sneak away to the internet bar. Hopefully, I'll have better access when training is over in August. I love you all. Take care.

I Can Feel the Distance As You Breathe

2005-07-05T20:04:00.000+08:00

The journery from San Francisco was more than trying. I've been a walking zombie for the past couple of days, and I'm still jet-lagged. Having fallen prey to the directorial genius of Clint Eastwood, the gregariousness-inducing hysteria of new situations with new people and an all-around feeling of restlessness on the plane, I didn't really get any sleep on my pan-Pacific flight. And when I did have any down time, I found myself sucked into the vortex of Bonnie "Prince" Billy and was still unable to sleep. Finally, I slipped away on my flight to Beijing after losing my chest x-rays, which the PC required me to carry internationally, in the Tokyo airport. Fortunately, another volunteer found them, and I wasn't shipped off on a return flight to the states. And yet again I proved myslef incapable of ever handling anything when I lost my backpack on the flight to Beijing. Thanks to the grace of yet another volunteer, my backpack was finally recovered--in an overhead bin in first class--and there is no possible explanation for how it ended up there.

Side note: The informational/safety videos for Northwest Airlines are insane. Everything about them is slightly off. The actors have crazy-eyes, and the overall mise en scene is just plain disturbing [fighting the temptation to write 'plane' and take the Guinness World Record for cheesiest pun in history].

So, we finally get to our hotel in Beijing at about nine o'clock in the evening. After a quick shower and two pages of _Das Kapital_, I fall asleep. The curious thing about my sleep was that about every hour or so I would wake up from a terribly vivid dream; after about the fourth time, I realized that each vignette of a dream concerned one or another anxiety I have about living in China for the next two years. It was surreal. The next morning, we boarded a flight for Chengdu.

I have never felt like such a foreigner before, and not all the DVD-quality bootleg movies in the world could make me feel any more at home here yet (nope not even _Sin City_, _Batman_, or _Cinderella Man_). Fortunately, we began our language training today, and, as I work to tear down the great wall that is Mandarin Chinese, I will feel better and better about being here.

I'm sure, however, that it will be a long time coming before my stomach lets me know that it's confident about going to the dinner table. No, the food's been relatively great. There have of course been as many misses as hits, but, over all, the Sichuan cuisine is good. We arrived in Chengdu on July 4th, and the PC staff had prepared a banquet for us in the dining room of our hotel. For those of you (much like myself before yesterday) ignorant of Chinese banquets, they basically consist of mountains upon mountains of food placed in front of you. And for someone as inexperienced in the language as yours truly, I didn't have the slightest hope of learning what it was that I was shoving down my throat. The curious thing about the banquet is that you share each dish with about seven or eight other people, and eventually you have no idea how much or how little food you've consumed. Putting bites of each dish in either a small bowl or a saucer, there is simply no way to judge the quantity of food you're eating. Whole dishes disappear and are quickly replaced with new ones. This goes on for about an hour, and, after the fruit is served, the meal is over. Generally, Sichuan cuisine is at least moderately spicy, and last night's meal was no exception. This evening, we were on our own for dinner, so I went out with some new friends of mine. We each had an entree and two beers for less than one US dollar. It was fascinatingly cheap and tasty, and we felt a whole lot cooler, thrifty and adventurous than the kids who spent about $8 at the Pizza Hut.

Well, that's all folks. I'm sleepy and must still study some Mandarin. I love you all. Take care.

And by the way, my Chinese name is Hu Jia Ming.

Quand San Francisco S'allume

2005-07-02T09:02:00.000+08:00

I am tired, nervous, overwhelmed and completely out of my mind....and this is just the beginning.

Today, the Peace Corps gave me an itinerary for my first week in China. I think it was "Wednesday-Lunch on Your Own" that sent me over the edge. The reality of my going away struck like a lightening bolt, and I still haven't recovered from it. I feel dizzy even now, several hours later. Point being, I'm not entirely capable of writing right now, so I'm going to have to make this a short introductory post.

San Francisco has been a blast. Redding and Lina have taken great care to show me around and take me out. Last night we went to a small bar in Haight/Ashbury that looks as if it hasn't been touched since the late 40s. There was a magnificent "Turkish" mural behind the semi-circle of the bar and a jukebox with jazz and obscure showtunes from many decades ago. It was such a marvelous place. It honestly felt as if we had travelled to another time.

Ok. I really can't think. Butterflies and all....

I love you all, and I can't wait to let y'all know more about China and the great people I'm with as soon as I get settled.

Take Care.