I’M IN CHINA!!!

It was pretty weird to be back at first, but I’m slowly readjusting.  Even though I only arrived two nights ago, a lot has happened.  Fran and I have now separated.  Our mutual friend, Mazhuo, met us at the airport and helped us with our luggage in Beijing.  It was great to see him, if only for a little while; I only had a 4 hour layover and most of the time was spent re-checking bags and figuring out where exactly my next flight was.  I just managed to squeeze in enough time to use Mazhuo’s phone to contact someone from the NGO and ensure that I was being picked up at the airport in Guiyang.  I arrived there around midnight and was told to be up at 9 to meet the program coordinator.  Since then it’s pretty much been busy busy busy.  I met my teaching partner, a wonderful Australian girl, met various program coordinators, attended a cultural art exhibition, made new friends, relocated to Zhenfeng, met MORE official people, and saw some mountains shaped like breasts (双乳峰).

I also received an email from Grinnell College about a class that I took last semester.  It was an interdisciplinary class about the chemistry of art and they decided to write an article about our experience.  Guess whose final project is featured in the article???  Take a look for yourself, it’s super interesting: http://www.grinnell.edu/news/features/art-and-science

Today was also our very first day of teaching.  My Australian coworker and I are teaching two classes of about 30 students, all of whom are English teachers at various schools in the county.  Essentially, we are teaching them English for two weeks to help them improve their own skills as well as giving them new teaching methods to engage their students.  This entire project is being funded by a foreign gold mining company in the county (I think we’ll get to see it over the weekend) as a way to build a good relationship with the people of the county.  Right now they are on pretty rocky terms.  Most of the mine’s employees are not from this area, and because this is a very poor region, people are quite upset by the lack of job opportunities.  Everyone is extremely nice to us, though.  They have shown us around the city and are providing for our every need.  It’s a bit embarrassing, actually.  Up until today I felt like I was just being carted around from place to place without really doing anything useful, but now that work has started, I’m feeling a lot more relaxed.

Our students are really excellent.  The majority of them are very enthusiastic and excited to have us here.  Their English proficiency levels vary greatly; some are completely unwilling to try and speak while it is difficult to get others to stop talking.  It will be a challenging experience, but I’m really looking forward to it.