in case you're in need of a chuckle...

+ On the brit. lit. midterm, several students mistakenly analyzed the character of Santa in Milton's epic Paradise Lost. As in: "One of the main themes in Paradise Lost is disobedience, like when Santa rebels against God very much."

That wicked fat old man!


+ The following lines came from the first draft of one of my thesis students who was writing about Gothic culture and literature as an important trend throughout history and still today. In the latter part of her paper she began to connect elements of the Gothic to the modern Goth sub-culture with the following results:

"Gothic people, at the modern time, never mean the people come from ancient Goth tribes anymore. Goth means someone (especially youth) who crazy about Gothic fashion. There are three main branches about Goths.
1) Perky Goths: There are all kinds of Goths from all walks of life. A well known phrase it the perky Goths, the insanely happy and bouny fans who revels in every aspect of life no matter if it's bad or good. They love nothing less than experience of anything, the more the better.
Perky Goths are to be found clubbing, having picnics, avoiding relationships with mopey Goths, being sociable amongs others, whilst the mopey Goths sit on IRC being mopey, or sit in bars being mopey and most the Goths known as Perky Goths.
2) Cyber Goths: A mixture of black, bright colors and glowing alien designs to make a cyber Goth! A breed of perky Goth, Cyber Goths can be found clubbing. Listen to trance, hard techno, industrial, etc. Glos in the dark Goths. Dance, dance and dance, bounce, bounce and bounce!
3) Trad Goths: Traditional Goths who listen to punk and guitar based Gothic music, 80's music. Frilly clothes, big, big hair. Frequently these ones complain about all the bleep and bloop that the cyber Goths listen to! They are crazy about medieval re-enactment and educated in the classics (Latin, history, art). Trad Goths are diminishing in numbers.

Don't ask me where she got her sources on that one... strangely enough, that particular section didn't make it into the final paper.

From the same paper we get this tidbit:
"Goth fashions have a range. People can wear black, or they can wear black. All Goths love black -- it goes with the territory."

Sure it might be a little (plagiarized?) sarcasm, but I prefer to take it as is.

sparknotes from the last two months

+ late April: hiking in the hills across from Ben's place in Dingxi, taking advantage of the first really warm weather and the sunny skies! We walked through fields and then up a hill whose sheer loess soil face had bones from old burials sticking out.

+ My british literature midterm grades ranged from a low of 18 to a high of 96 and everything in between. I don't even know how to interpret a range like that! I mean, with such a low grade in the mix I feel like I fucked up somehow, but clearly SOME students were fully capable of doing well on this exam. I see this course that I'm teaching as an AP English class, and I'm doing my best not to dumb down the material or my expecatation just because English is not their first language. Still, I want them to have every chance to succeed... mulling over this a lot right now as I start work on making their final exam.

+ Massages. We've discovered a foot massage place where, for 25yuan (less than $3), we receive a foot soak and 90 minutes of hand, back, foot, and leg massage. They're open 24-7 (no need to inquire about what goes on in the back). Needless to say, they now know most of us by name and have become a favorite meeting spot among the volunteers when we need a break.

+ I have a new cell phone. The reason I have a new cellphone is because I lost my old cellphone down a squattie potty. I don't see any reason to elaborate on this one... just another Kristen moment. I'm really hoping this is one of those things you only have to do once in your life.

+ Summer project planning is coming right along! Michelle and Kari and I spent a whole day and half the night planning logistics and curriculum for our 2+ weeks of teacher training work this summer, but we're really excited about what we've worked out. Keeping in mind that every single detail could be changed on us at the last moment... we'll be in a city about 10 hours north of Lanzhou working with 180 teachers. We're planning on having an overarching series of workshops on individual and peer development, having all the teachers work on individual plans for dealing with specific problem areas in their classrooms. Each morning is devoted to actual english lessons, with all topics in the first week dealing with innovative ways to teach English and approach it with different techniques, and all topics in the second week dealing with major social issues and their relevance to students and teachers here and how to bring discussion of those into the classroom as well. Each PCV is also responsible for directing one afternoon session with presentation and activities, dealing with relevant topics ranging from education topics like Multiple Intelligences to cultural topics like world religions, influence of the media, etc. Anyway, I won't go on... obviously I'm psyched about the program. In two weekends the three of us will be going up to Jiuquan to visit the site and see what facilities will be available.

+ Prom -- yes, you read that right. In the town of Tianshui, about 4 hours southeast of here, there is a not *too* expensive hotel that sits over some natural springs, meaning that there is both a pool AND hot tubes (luke warm, but who's measuring). This was the second annual prom that one of the PCVs living there has organized and held at that spot. The theme was Enchanted Forest, and we had unicorns, forest elves, tree people... good times all around.

+ We celebrated Ben's 24th last weekend with korean bbq, beer on a barge in the Yellow River, late night massages, strawberry shortcake and good friends.

+ Marilyn, a spunky China 12 who arrived with us last summer and was in her 70s, passed away two weeks ago after collapsing in her classroom. She was beloved by her students who called her Grandmother and by all of us who had the chance to get to know her. I admired her energy and her straightforward idea that "as long as [I] have my health and half a brain, [I] might as well be off doing something to help." She'd always wanted to be a Peace Corps volunteer, and with her children grown and her husband having passed away, she figured there was no time like the present.

+ Lately the weather has gotten hot during the days, and often sunny, but most late afternoons still end with dust storms or thunderstorms! Once the wind passes though, it leaves the air cool and fresh at night. I LOVE spring and early summer in Lanzhou.

+ T-6 weeks til my family arrives in China!!!

May holiday travels

In China there are two main national holidays outside of Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) – the first week of October celebrates the founding of the PRC (National Day), and the first week of May celebrates International Labor Day. Every May holiday the provincial leaders organize a trip available to the Gansu “foreign experts” (yeah, that’s me) to see parts of the province generally missed by the guide books. This year they took us on a 5 day excursion to Longnan, the Southeast region of Gansu, a far greener place than I am used to. The first day was a bus marathon through some stunningly wild canyons somehow lined with the age-old terracing to be found in nearly all agricultural regions of China. We stayed at Wudou that night, and spent the next day at Tianchi Lake, a smooth and clear gem set into the mountain top high above a steep and verdant valley. The next day we went to Wan Xiang Dong, a cavern complex cleverly enhanced with garish colored lights to help us enjoy the natural beauty. Still, it was fun – anyone willing to clamber through a pretty small rock tunnel into the back section of the caverns could see some very old inscriptions, and scramble around some areas that I imagine might have been off limits in any American caverns this developed. I predictably managed to crack my head on some rocks on the way out, but nothing that some aspirin and a few days of ouches couldn't fix.

We continued on through a long series of valleys that afternoon to a small town even closer to the Gansu/Sichuan border. After dinner, the Townsends and Kari surprised me with a birthday cake! There is really only one chain bakery in these parts, called Aili Cake. We're pretty sure that the 3 to 1 icing to cake ratio proves that birthday cakes in China are really only for having food fights with (this also seems to be what the average Chinese family thinks judging by viewing birthday dinners out on the town). More relevant to this story, the cakes come with a Burger King style crown which I wore out to pick up beer and snacks after dinner. Pretty much every person that we passed in this tiny town gave me a Happy Birthday greeting… it’s probably one of only a few phrases in English a lot of them knew. As my students would say “it gave me a good feeling.” The next day we spent all day hiking through a valley in a national park called Guan e' Gou. The ravine passed waterfalls and beautiful trees and eventually climbed up to the snowline of a big mountain. Some people climbed up into the snow, but we stopped at a shelter just below if for some cards and some serious basking in the sun. That night we had some fairly unpalatable roasted sheep for dinner (I think I'm one of the only people that enjoyed that particular meal. What can I say, I love mutton, even over-roasted!), but were treated to a bonfire and traditional dancing afterwards.

The last day was another marathon bus trip all the way back up to Lanzhou. We were actually making fairly good time and were reallllly starting to look forward to dinner when we ran into a traffic jam. In the middle of the countryside. Seems that one side of the road ahead was being repaired and a cement truck got a little too close to the shoulder of the other side and it caved in, leaving that truck tilted and firmly stuck. Unwilling to wait for a resolution to the problem, a truck full of boulders decided to have a try with the side of the road under construction. As soon as it got completely into the repair zone, it promptly sank through the loose soil and was also firmly stuck. Neither of the trucks, quite possibly the two heaviest around, looked to be going anywhere soon, but they had effectively blocked the whole road – something which certainly didn't deter all the other drivers on either side of them from jockeying for position, filling the roads both in front and behind of the dueling trucks. Various official vehicles drove up but had nothing to offer and left. We were convinced that we were going to be there all night, and the provincial leaders didn't seem prepared to entertain the thought of back-tracking. Finally, after surprisingly few hours, a digger and a chain and some sort of steam roller were cleverly rigged up to pull them free, and off we went.
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The next night, Ben and I and John and Erin Townsend took the overnight train up to Jiayuguan, site of the most westerly fort of the Great Wall. It guarded what has traditionally been considered the 'mouth' of China, and is smack dab where the Silk Road moved into China from Xinjiang (to the west) and Persia (even farther west). We saw some fairly uninteresting tombs from the Wei and Jin dynasties, walked along a reconstructed section of the Great Wall, and finally checked out the fort which was really very impressive. Jiayuguan is located in a small oasis, with gravelly desert all around and the beautiful snowy peaks of the Qilian Mountains in the distance. There are also some lovely smokestacks billowing smog out the back of the town these days.

We found a great driver who was headed to the oasis town Dunhuang that afternoon to pick up a 9-day contract job that he had from a travel agency, so he took the four of us along with him for just over his gas costs. It was a great deal for a 5 hour drive through the desert, and he was a great guy. He was incredibly patient with us, willing to explain himself over and over again in different ways in order to point out things like the nuclear power (?) plant we saw in the distance. We chatted quite a bit and by the time we got to Dunhuang, he announced that he wanted to be a volunteer too, and offered to take us out to one of the main tourist sites for no extra fee. Sweet as his offer was, we were pooped for the day, and wanted to find a place to stay and some cold drinks. Before he drove off though, he reminded us again that he too was a volunteer!

Our hostel had a pretty fancy lobby, and although our dorm room was in a much shabbier wing of the place, the beds felt comfortable and the shower had both hot water AND pressure. At the end of the hallway past our room was what looked like a lounge:
Kristen: “Hey John, is that a rec room at the end of the hall? Do you there there is any pool?”
John: “Not sure – maybe some snooker…”
::cut to Chinese girls in an array of baby doll nighties and heels flouncing past us down the hall::

Staying in a whore house really isn't so bad, though there was a pretty noisy exodus around 5am.

The next day we had a lazy day in Dunhuang which is a pretty laid back little town, and then headed out to Ming Sha Shan once it started getting a little cooler. Ming Sha Shan is the biggest of a series of picture perfect sand dunes that roll away from the outskirts of the oasis. John and Erin headed inside of the park, and Ben and I headed around the sides to find a guide and some camels to take us out into the desert for the night. Buttercup was my camel and I have to say she was a little skittish, but she didn't spit on me, so I think we got along okay. Ben was riding sweet sure-footed Charlie. We made our way out into the dunes and caught the sunset just as a great wind started to pick up. It was... perfect. Coolest place I've ever camped, though the wind made getting the tent up pretty difficult! The next morning, we woke up to an eerie sunrise and hungry camels.

After meeting back up with the Townsends, we headed out to the Mogao Caves for the afternoon, a really ancient site considered to be the greatest depository of Buddhist art and scripture. We were able to go into about 10-15 of the hundreds of caves dug into the cliffs. One held an enormous seated Buddha, several stories tall. Standing at his feet and staring up at him literally struck us dumb. It was absolutely awe-inspiring. We also saw the famous reclining Buddha whose delicacy and lines reminded me of the some ancient Greek marble work, though more simple. I think it's the loveliest statue I've seen yet in China. We also saw the library cave, which once contained thousands upon thousands of the manuscripts accumulated from passing caravans and wanderers passing through this cross-roads on the Silk Road and had been secretly sealed up for centuries. Unfortunately, nearly all the manuscripts were taken out by one European group after another in the early 1900s.

That night we took the train home – I think all four of us were ready for another week of vacation just to recover from all the traveling! It was a great week though – we traveled from the very bottom of Gansu where it was brilliantly green and terraced, to the deserts above Lanzhou, far to the north. It was a special look at the province we live in, and definitely gave me a better perspective on the myriad environments and challenges that face the very poor areas of Western China.
--> Check out pictures in the Gansu collection at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/china-travels/collections/

back in the blogosphere, up where the air is clear c'mon lets go fly a kite

Well, the last of my graduating seniors just turned in his final thesis draft and materials to me, and shutting the door behind him was actually pretty bitter sweet. The last few weeks have been really intense, with all the editing of their papers (and making many lectures on plagiarism) on top of my regular classes, but after seeing one or more of them almost daily for the last two weeks, and this after months of intermittent meetings, I can't believe they're finally finished and about to graduate. All they have left is to survive their oral thesis defense next week and they will be home free to graduate.

I'm pretty close to home free on this semester too – June 22nd is my last day of classes, this Friday is the last English Corner of the semester. Of course, finishing up this first year is also pretty bitter sweet (though admittedly more sweet than bitter). While I'm looking forward to summer holiday, summer project, my family coming to visit, and meeting my new site mate next September, we're all bracing ourselves to say goodbye to the 11s who will be leaving in waves throughout July. Seeing them preparing to leave and go back to their lives from the “before” time is really making me think. Sure it was hard to say goodbye to friends and family for over two years when I left last June, and my life here has large holes in it without those people present and without pizza and cheeseburgers and deli sandwiches; BUT, my life here is, in all other ways, very complete. I am living alone for the first time, and painted the walls by myself and own a fern and an ornery washing machine. I have neighbors and a milk lady and a water man and colleagues and a class of 6 year olds and lots of students with whom I spend a great deal of time, and a very satisfying job and love and a family of other volunteers here. Also a bowling alley and as many incredible travel destinations as I can squeeze out of my holidays. For all that, when I leave here in July 2008, it is easily possible that I will never come back to Lanzhou, never see most of my students or colleagues again. That kind of abrupt cutting off is going to be very hard I think. Luckily I have another year of life to enjoy in Lanzhou before it's time to say goodbye – and then 5 months of travel to dull the edge of leaving before I make my way home.

I know I am a solid two months behind on the blog (haha thanks for all the reminders, mom), so the next entry will be dedicated to the travel we did during the first month of May over the Labor Holiday, and the one after that will be highlights and happenings of the last two months, and then a final few tid-bits from the accidentally hilarious writings of my students. I'm apologizing in advance for the novel-length of these entries... take your time! Love and miss you all.