An unexpected month, healthy concerns, teaching, Chongqing weekend, jotings, personal discovery and more!

Introduction

I had an absolutely rollercoaster month thus far in September.  I have been quite busy and feel that I have much I would like to share with all of you.  As always my blog will feature the people, thoughts, and important things which encapsulated my most recent experiences.  I had a rough and good month for growing as a person.  I suffered two physical setbacks which allowed me to grow immensely as a person.  I also made an important discovery which I believe is the key to understanding myself as a person.  Everything in my life is connected to this single aspect.  Finally realizing the reality of my existence has major ramifications for my future.  I also have been starting up teaching this September with a bang and enjoying the ride.  I am very excited about this next semester and have made adapted my syllabus to feature some important modifications for teaching this year.  Cory and I also had a great trip into Chongqing this past weekend where we greeted some great friends from our past while building new friendships in the future!

Focused teaching: Curriculum changes and adaptations to meet student needs

Reflection usually follows a period of convalesce in life.  In my case, two cases of heat exhaustion in a week forced me to truly take a long look at myself.  I focused mainly on my mental, physical, and spiritual state at present.  During this down time from physical activity I took time to reconnect with friends and co-workers at school.  The advent of fall brought with a new steady stream of eager and curious students and the impending new semester of teaching.  These forces created in me a great desire to improve my teaching and units from the previous year.  Due to the intense mandatory freshmen military training for I have only had one class thus far of sophomores to teach.  Therefore, I have been really able to focus on improving my units, taking input from students, and adjusting my curriculum in favor of my students’ goals this semester. 

My students really wanted to learn as much as they could regarding a variety of topics which I will duplicate in list form: Minnesota (local customs, daily life of parents, typical food), eating etiquette, friendship, dating, relationships, marriage, travels I have taken in the world, recent U.S. history, economy in U.S., veterinarians in U.S., animals, pets, and environmental protection, U.S. geography, national parks, and vacation locations in U.S., College life in U.S., education differences between U.S. / China, popular culture, and U.S. culture.  I am extremely pleased to have this variety of topics to cover in my class this year and look forward to working with my sophomore class especially.  The sophomore class is full of marketing majors, business, and others who are preparing to take a test to measure their English ability this year.  I believe that I can best help them in doing this by offering them extra help outside of the classroom.  With the addition of one of our PCV’s, Ali, we are going to be trying to get an “English corner” up and running at our University.  Hopefully, this will become a place where students can feel safe and comfortable practicing their English with other friends outside of the classroom!

Introducing a new semester!

The arrival of the new semester culminated in three different faculty, staff, and department dinners with the University.  In each meal I enjoyed the palpable excitement from attendees present.  Knowing dinning etiquette, toasting expectations, the food, and different cultural aspects greatly enhanced my understanding of how I should interact with each member from the University.  I refrained from drinking alcohol from a fear of the negative reactions I might have with my health and recovery.  This with drawl from a major aspect of male Chinese celebration did not limit my experience in the least bit as I was toasted with tea and water often enough.  Cory and the new foreign P.V.C, Ali, were also in attendance and both had great experiences as well.  During this period I had an important reverie which forced upon me to accept a few things in life again.  My selfish idealism exacerbated by my idleness and isolation this past summer created in me a fixation with reaching my goals. 

Retrospective look on summer

I discovered that my priorities had become unbalanced during my summer alone in China.  I do not blame myself for focusing on my running, reading, and writing too much.  I know that at the time I felt that these were all worthy goals and deserved a great deal of attention to be paid to them.  Unfortunately, I became obsessed with the steady progress of these goals which began to cost me in my experiences this summer.  I lost sight of what was important in my life and found that I could not have focus myself completely on reaching my goals at the expense of my personal happiness.  My periodical depression this summer drove home this point to me clearly enough.  However, I was still unable to understand why I was focusing so greatly on my goals and not on experiencing China and all of the wonderful things I have enjoyed here.

I soon realized that I was using things like excessive running to calm myself.  With advice from family and friends the prevailing advice was that I was a person who has a great deal of anxiety in life.  Finding ways to positively release that energy without harming myself in the future became one of my major tasks to work on.  Being able to finally realize and start understanding my anxiety has made my life happier.  I now finally am starting to realize situations when I become anxious and ways of actively alleviating the stressors which are obstructing me.  This fresh lens into my personality has been a great break through for me.  I am now able to understand myself so much greater as a person and appreciate why I truly need to work on finding ways of balancing myself and stress in my life.

 

I would rather not dwell on the past and re-construct all of the many impediments which I encountered along the way to this great breakthrough.  I am pleased to have finally put an important piece in the puzzle regarding my personality in place.  I believe that summarizing what I discovered regarding living for only selfish goals in life will do enough for my reader.  Living with goals in life are great and a worthy way of reaching successes in life.  However, when these goals become the single greatest fixation a person has in life they must take a moment to look at things in a greater picture in life.  My heat related exhaustion forced me into a deep period of reverie.  I would suggest avoiding any and all physical ailments if possible.  Going just a little too far can be the difference between life and death in some cases.

Heat Related illness or diabetes?!?!

The greatest reason why I took a long time to continue my chronicles here in China was fear that I might actually have suffered an attack of hypoglycemia caused by adult onset of type one diabetes.  Mr. Tian took me to one of the best hospitals in Chongqing (xi nan yi yuan) which measure my blood glucose levels after taking a glucose powdered substance.  Yesterday, I went back ready for any news.  I really did not know whether my condition was related to heat exhaustion or the beginning of type one diabetes.

            The Xi nan yi yuan is a daunting building to enter for any foreign.  Upon entry a person becomes completely surrounded by hundreds of Chinese residence.  I had to re register in order to have my results read by the doctor.  I brought with my passport, residence permit, hospital ID card, and personal medical history in case of the worst.  After registration a process of health care so different from any experience I had had in the States was about to turn me into a reality game show contest in nervous anticipation from my resultant examination.

After Mr. Tian checked me into the blood examination center we were handed the results from my test to take to the doctor’s office.  After waiting for about three minutes we entered the doctor’s office in front of a group of five.  After we exchanged pleasantries the doctor looked over my paperwork.  My anxiety could not have been greater.  I literally felt like I was waiting to hear if I won a million dollars or would be sentenced to prison for life.  It is truly hard to fathom how extremely different healthcare is in the U.S. from China.

The doctor looked over my results and quickly retorted that, “I was fine, no diabetes”.  I threw my hands in the air and said, “Yes”!  My excitement soon turned to horror as he still needed to read the following four sheets of paper.  What if the other results were bad?  At the end he told me that I was fine and needed to balance my diet and exercise around the weather conditions.  Five minutes with the doctor and basically complete closure was reached from his analysis.  Back in the U.S., I would have had to wait in the doctor’s lobby, had my vitals checked, and had a ten minute discussion with the doctor on my results.  The doctor would have come prepared already knowing my results and not felt in the least inclined to share them with anyone else.  In China, healthcare maximizes efficiency at the cost of all personal pleasantries, comforts, psychology, etc.

Chongqing weekend!

We left Rongchang for Chongqing Saturday following my tutoring session.  I have found that tutoring has been a positive way for me to help someone in need, teach, add income, and learn more about Chinese culture.  Afterwards, Cory and I took the bus into Chongqing to being our three day visit.  Cory and I had an unbelievable time last weekend in Chongqing which started out with a mysterious new twist.  After being dissatisfied with our last hostel experience in Chongqing we located another one with an even closer proximity to Jai Fang Bei.  We arrived but were unable to find our hostel for about forty minutes due to its isolated location!  Fortunately, we endured and finally met our objective only to discover that in the beginning we were less than 100 feet from our hostel from the opposite entrance!  Happy to have finally arrived checked in to start out another great weekend in Chongqing.

            We stayed at a new hostel which was tucked into one of the smaller residential areas near the old city wall.  We meet up with friends every day and experienced a nice break from our routine schedule back in Rongchang.  Saturday evening Cory and I went out to dinner with two friends.  One friend Cory had known for over four years since their last encounter while studying abroad in China!  Her friend was named Star (xing).  Because she was quite small her nickname was (xiao xing).  I enjoyed walking with her and telling her to be careful which would translate (xiao xin, xiao xing)!  Afterwards, we meet up with our two old friends Jack and Lance for a night of downtown entertainment.

The next afternoon we enjoyed a KTV singing, drinking, and eating afternoon with my good friends Emma and Michael.  Emma brought with her roommates who also enjoyed the festivities and dinner following our exhausted voices.  Nothing compares to the endurance of trying to pace yourself during a five hour KTV singing afternoon!  That evening Cory and I went to bed early which allowed us to read and watch Pirates of the Caribbean at our hostel.

We really had no plans on Monday which allowed for us to enjoy a nice period of rest and relaxation walking in and outside of malls in the Jai Fang Bei city center.  Our enjoyment was high when we went to our old bowling spot at the fifth floor of the Metropolitan mall.  Nothing beats being inside on a rainy day in Chongqing.  By this point the weather had cooled significantly as well which left me totally unprepared by not packing any warm clothes.  Cory sagaciously had brought jeans and a long sleeve shirt with him.  I unfortunately was left tucking in my shirt and wearing a baseball cap for warmth.  That evening we had an awesome meal with Cory’s longtime friend, Lili.  Afterwards we shared a nice beer and called it quits early due to walking up early for my morning doctor’s appointment at the Xi nan yi yuan.

Les Miserables: class conflict in America and the world today

I am currently reading Les Miserables.  The book is such a masterpiece that I want to soak in every idea, situation, and feeling which Hugo pointedly portrays.  I am constantly thinking about how the book relates to other societies in the world today.  Reading this book has captured my imagination and allowed me to make correlational inferences with the pending debt crisis’ ramifications for Americans.  I am currently very troubled by the lack of compromise in the U.S. right now due to the extreme polarization of opinions. 

Les Miserables covers a point of French history dating from the post 1789 revolution.  The chronology recounts period of the White Terror of 1793, the rise of Republicanism, Napoleon, the Restoration, and post restoration tension in French society.  Clearly, Victor Hugo portrays societies down-trodden as lacking necessary financial support from the state.  Without such welfare the French lower classes fell into destitution, decay, crime, and starvation.  Hugo is another author in the wake of the existential era in Europe.  He believes that people are products of their own situation and truly anyone would go to such lengths in they were forced into such plights.  Hugo also believes in rehabilitation through religious awakening as his main character, Jean Valjean, turns his life around after he meets a monk following serving nineteen years in prison in Toulon, France.  Hugo elucidates his beliefs that the French people have forgotten their morals and have failed to recognize that the richest class does not have the best in mind for the whole of France’s society.

When thinking about how this might impact my opinions regarding America today I am forced to ask this simple question.  Who is an America?  If the American constitution states that every America citizen has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness than I take those words at face value.  I also feel that if the constitution believes that government should be the right of the people than our politicians have a duty to honor all of their constituent’s voices.  Since we do not have a direct democracy and our country is over 310,000,000 people this becomes an arduous task.  However due to technology today this task may not be as difficult as I make it out to be.  If modern polling can predict the ideals of Americans today than a cross-sectional analysis should provide a clear picture of what needs to be done.    

Clearly, when people forget what made us a great country America will exist in name only.  I do not believe that anything less than a compromise can achieve some sort of balance between the many different groups of Americans who live today.  If a person looks objectively at some of these questions they are forced to realize that they alone do not have all of the answers.  I believe that these types of exercises are healthy in creating a wider view of the world today.  Surely, we cannot speak for all in the world today.  Therefore, can one group speak for all in the U.S. leaving everyone else to become mere obstructions?  If the majority of people polled today are asking for their politicians to come up with a compromise should they be denied by selfish leaders who are only concerned with winning another election?  Where has the vision for our great nation gone?  Can one group be all right while the other one is all wrong?  The real question that people should be asking is what forces are really causing this tension within America and who are supporting them and who is founding them?  Clearly, the groups funding them must have an inherent bias to do so with an invested interest which is probably related to saving their own skin.

When looking into many of these rhetorical questions I feel disheartened to think that some people today still believe in enforcing universal rights.  If people in the same country cannot even agree on something as important as its future than how can people across the world agree on binding resolutions?  One of the great problems which come out of any conflict which is meaningful is that people attempt to place blame on others.  I often want to put some blame on someone too so I can feel that I have washed my hands of it all; however, blame never solves problems and leads to greater conflicts later on.  Blaming people is also a very shallow pursuit because it usually revisits the past in a revisionist manner.   In an effort to paint a new narrative of the past authors paint a picture of the past usually without mentioning the extenuating circumstances, the poor decision making beforehand by previous leaders, and the actually benefits of the decision which was made at the time.  I never have known anyone to make a decision which they actually felt would hurt their own invested interests.    

Another factor which is bothering me in America today is the fact that people still want to argue over whether trickle-down economics or welfare programs are better in solving an economic crisis.  Obviously, neither one works that well because we find are selves back looking at the same problems again and again.  Instead of always looking at are problems in a vacuum a person may find better answers as to why the economy became stagnant in the first place.  Those responsible tend to get away with their greed, excess, and exploitation in the world.  It is unfortunately a story as old as time.   

Capitalism in excess: can resources maintain such usage?

My experiences walking around the Chongqing malls this past weekend induced me to ask a question which has drastic ramifications in our changing world today.  Can people today really believe that unbridled greed is good?  Walking across various Cartier, Louis Vutton, and many other fancy stores I felt a sense that I was in anyone other area of Western Europe or America.  I know realize that even a place like China will soon become as greedy as the Western world has.  With countries like India, China, and Brazil all picking up the reins of the failing world economy they have found that they too are strong and can demand the same resources as the Western world has for centuries.  

It dawned on me that the world can probably not handle another half of the total population consuming as the United States is today.  With all of these forces at play I believe that our world may turn into one filled with pollution, wars of resources, massive inequalities, starvation, and even possible extinction.  There is probably enough food in the world to feed everyone, resources to help the needy, and technology to improve our ways of doing the first two necessary services to achieve balance.  If we do not meet those needs than there are going to soon be much worse problems than a little class warfare back in America.  Those people who have in the world today should become mindful of the billions that are without any of their everyday luxuries such as safe drinking water, electricity, safety, transportation, etc.  Without such changes I fear that we may destroy ourselves in our own greed.

Ending on a positive note:  The greatness of people!

            I am extremely happy that I am able to sit down and write all of these things.  I know that I may not ever become a great person today, but I am living satisfied that I am writing and living my life as I have always wanted to.  Being alone in a foreign country is a tough thing to do and forces a person to really understand survival.  I have learned a lot of things about myself and the world and am looking forward to even better experiences tomorrow!

            I am always constantly amazed at how my life and experiences have shaped my own existence.  My Chinese friends ask me so many questions about what it means to be an American today and how my everyday life is like back in the states.  Even with many of their dreams being repressed such as (travel, society without major responsibilities as a young adult, and society without guanxi limitations) they want to learn all they can about me.  Even with being terribly afraid that they will make a mistake in the classroom they still perform with courage and show great character in their determination to one day visit or study in the United States!


Best,


E.K.

 

   

       

 



               

Brevity may be the soul of wit but it is surely not the soul of my pen!

Part I: Family!

It seems like an eternity since I posted last.  I believe that the enormity of events which has passed in this time encapsulates many of humanities strongest emotions: love, family, friends, and fear.  With so much passing in such a short time it will be a challenge to keep the events to a minimum and in brevity.  I will do my best to proceed accordingly in a sequence of five major themes which do not follow in chronological order.  I am sorry for those who have trouble sometimes following my abstract random thinking process.

I became very excited towards the end of summer as my long awaited reunion with my parents drew near.  I realized that it was going to be an incredible reunion even though it had only been six months.  After being separated from each other for the longest times in our lives I knew that it would be an emotional experience.  Upon seeing my parents for the first time in the Beijing Marriott my heart started beating quickly as we meet for that first time together.  Seeing them safe and sound really made things easier for me and allowed myself to relax. 

Experiencing one another at the physical level was a little strange at first.  Having a relationship exclusively through a computer for six months tends to become quite impersonal.  Seeing reactions and experiencing things together as a family was quite pleasant and not trivial.  Strangely enough near the end of the two weeks I started to become a little hesitant to want to communicate with them.  Not for a lack of wanting.   The imminence of nine months away from one another would be extremely tough on both of us.  I found it emotionally very stressful saying goodbye at the end.  Strangely enough saying goodbye to loved ones never does get easy.  I actually felt that it might have been harder the second time knowing how long it would be until I saw them again.  The naivety of not knowing what a long separation would feel like made our first goodbyes seem trivial at the time for me.

In any event we had a great last day together in Shanghai.  Being that I had just been in Shanghai two months ago I knew the areas of the city we were visiting pretty well.  Having our tour guides accommodate a free day in Shanghai was the optimal location for me.  Due to their flight being delayed at the Shanghai airport I was able to say goodbye over that period of time which was easier than having to do it in a rush or in the prescience of the group.

With all of that fear of the unforeseen also came great hope and light for the future.  Being that my Chinese mandarin has improved greatly in the last few months I am able to have a lot more communication with the locals in town.  Now that I have Cory back with me from America I have my Minnesota connection back again.  Having a lot of new friends in Rongchang makes everything a wonderful experience.  Most of all I will finally start teaching again.  Gearing up for this semester is getting me excited again to teach.

Part II: Zhong Gou jia qi!

The vacation itself was amazing.  I really loved every place we went including Shanghai for the second time.  I was fortunate enough to be able to meet some interesting and wonderful people on the way from Beijing to Shanghai.  Our main group tour guide, Lynn, did an absolutely amazing job of aiding the American tourists the entire trip.  Having a friendly, energetic, and English fluent tour guide truly is an added bonus.  The hotels, food, and service included were all five stars in my book!  I have never stayed in nicer hotels and been treated like a king before.

At each location our tour group also had a local expert guide in the areas we would be traveling.  Jack, Connie, Sue, and Suzie May all did excellent jobs.  I felt that the whole experience was unbelievable from the standpoint of service.  The only low point for most of our group was our hotel in Yangshuo.  Besides this point everyone was overall pretty happy I thought.  Our last tour guide also had some anachronisms in her facts, but all in all a tour service I would recommend to my friends.

I cannot exactly say a favorite place or thing I did.  I would say that I would rank Beijing as my number one, Guilin; two, Shanghai; three, and Xi’an four.  The only reason why Shanghai is ahead of Xi’an is because we also went to Suzhou and Tongli while in Shanghai which I really enjoyed.

The majesty and power of Beijing is clearly present with the CPC’s presence and splendor.  The scale of the Gu Gong (Forbidden City) really left an impression on me after seeing South Korea’s counterpart which seemed almost a miniature fit to scale.  One of my highlights of the entire tour was climbing the Chang Cheng (Great Wall) with my parents.  My Dad and I basically went up as high as we could in the time which the tour allotted for us.  Seeing the wall stretch for miles as far as the eye can see leaves one with a sense of the infinite continuity of its design.

Guilin strikes me as landscape not of this Earth.  It is completely apropos to say that the Chinese are correct in saying that Guilin is the most beautiful place on the Earth.  Reaching the top of the Yao village presented our group with an incredible view of the mountain terraced landscape.  Another highlight of the entire tour for me was the Li River boat cruise.  It truly was an hour of constant picture taking.  I almost did not want to go down for lunch as I rested alone on top of our boat starring at the magnificent view of Guilin’s Karst topography. 

I enjoyed Shanghai better than in June.  I assume that it is because I had become a much more seasoned traveler in China at that point.  It also did not hurt that our less than one year old Sheraton hotel was probably the nicest I have ever stayed in.  Having the opportunity to cruise on river Gondolas down the quiet and tranquil Tongli river town allowed for peaceful repose.  I also enjoyed Suzhou’s silk factory along with the Ming and Qing dynasty gardens we visited.

Shanghai itself was exactly how I remembered it except this time I knew more from experience.  Being able to bargain in the Yu Garden bazaar was an interesting experience.  By this time Dad and I had a couple of strategies which were working very well.  First, always walk away from the street vendor after they give you a price.  They always lower it.  Next, have a real price in mind before you go.  Know the conversion rate and use that to establish what you think is reasonable.  Third, knowing Chinese is a nice tool to have.  I learned not to come out and start with Chinese because they will take advantage of your language ignorance.  Using Chinese is a situational weapon because if you hear them offer a local Chinese a lower price you can call them out on it.  I did this a couple of times and they quickly lowered their first prices.

The only reason that I placed Xi’an lowest was because I was not as impressed with the Terra Cotta soldier exhibit as I thought I was going to be.  The scale, size, and design are completely amazing; however, the exhibit does not allow for one to really view them on the personal level.  I like climbing the Great Wall and hiking up the Yao villages better.  I enjoy activity and scenery much more I guess.  Overall, I really did enjoy the Bell and Drum towers along with the Muslim mosque we went to though.  The synthesis of Islam and Chinese artwork really was quite interesting to see.

Overall I had a great time but there remain some frustrating question marks for me as well.  First, I had trouble going from living in China to having the “foreign” treatment in China.  This encapsulates in my mind several things.  First, the experience of a “foreigner” in China is much different than living in China every day.  I realize that being able to do this is impossible with only a two week tour.  Nonetheless, it is sometimes frustrating to think that many foreigners will come to China and think that they understand China now after such a short period of time. 

In my opinion that is one of the reasons why people around the world do not like some Americans.  Some Americans will come home and say to their friends, “I can’t believe what these so and so people do”, “they are so ____ fill in the blank”.  The truth is that no foreigner can ever truly understand China or any other place for that matter in two weeks.  To actually be able to understand China you must yourself be Chinese.  Even after being here six months I know that I will never understand what it feels like to be Chinese.  I would never attempt to tell someone that I “know China”, or “understand this or that about China”.  It would similar if a Chinese person came to America and said to their friends: “Ni ji dao Mei Guo da xuexeng wanr de cai xingqisi.  Zhen qi guai?”  and made some kind of a comment to the fact.

The one nice thing also about experience is that many in our group will probably go back and talk about all of the great things that we did on the tour.  They will promote better understanding in their own lives by knowing that China is a very complex place with lots of aspects to it just like America is.  Overall many will even recommend a trip to China to their friends.  Greater experience comes from greater understanding.  With understanding come equitable solutions for the future and a brighter tomorrow for all of us.

Secondly, I had a little trouble dealing with what I thought was a little excessive pejorative and degrading statement regarding translation troubles from our guides.  Yes, they have trouble saying the letter “L”, but that does not give a person the right to make fun of it.  If I could tell you how many times I have screwed up communicating in China I would need to write an entire book.  Quite honestly I have never had one of my Chinese friends make a joke of me to my face regarding my poor translation.  I spent two weeks with thirteen Americans and heard several comments of that nature.

The positive with this experience is that people will also come back with greater appreciation for how difficult it is to speak the Chinese language.  It clearly is a double flip of the coin here as well with the “foreign” treatment.  Some of the people on the trip were even trying to learn more about the culture as well.  Together each thing offsets the other to complete a whole experience which develops better bounds between people.

The last sad observation which I made is regarded to cultural egocentrism.  If I could have received a quarter for the number of times I heard people in our group make comments regarding how China was wrong on something I could have a good amount of yuan to spend (6.4 yuan to one U.S. dollar)!  I know that China has quite a few issues to deal with but guess what so does America.  Making comments to the group about those kinds of comments are unbecoming to a culture that values respect and keeping your ideas to yourself.  Those are the kind of ideas that are probably best left unsaid.

I talked with the tour guides regarding what kind of things they had learned from Americans in the course of their careers.  One of the things echoed by several of the tour guides was that Americans are all very different and have quite interesting experiences, backgrounds, and opinions.  It really echoes my experience in China as well.  The lives of the farmers and people from Beijing and Shanghai are quite different.  The experiences and perspectives of each group truly reflect their personal situations in life.

Part III: Cory’s back, hui jia Rongchang!

Getting back to Chongqing and greeting Cory for the first time in two months was great.  Being able to have a friend back who really relates with me is extremely beneficial being half way around the world.  As we got back to Rongchang that night we talked about all of our experiences.  Clearly both of us had great summer breaks.  Looking forward we started to discuss our future plans which have opened us both up to some interesting options.  Being that we are both in China until next year we had previously thought that we would want to teach the following year in South Korea.  As time has passed neither of us are exactly certain as to what road we will choose next.  We discussed teaching in China and possibly remaining in Rongchang as well.  Overall, we both want to play it by ear and see how things are progressing as the year moves forward.  Seeing that I have improved my Chinese is also driving me towards possibly staying longer in China.  I feel that it would be such a great tool to have in life and am having fun learning and using it as well.

Part IV: Danger came when it was least expected; Xiao xin!

Yesterday started off as any normal day for me.  It would be a normal day in the sense that I was going to go on a run.  As I got near the end of my nine mile run something strange happened.  I became quite slow and almost considered stopping.  Now, I have run this route very often and even during times of greater heat so I thought nothing of it.  Finally, I had to stop near the end which struck me as very weird.  When I got back I immediately started hydrating.  Knowing that I was a little less hydrated than normal did not enter into my mind.  Usually I spend all night hydrating when I run in the morning but did not this time.  Maybe I chose not to hydrate while Cory was sleeping in the room too in order to not wake him.  Maybe it was because I was used to running inside for the past two weeks in air conditioning and I forgot to remember that I really needed to pre hydrate in the Chongqing heat.  In any event, after my run I went about working on my daily plans without thinking much of it.

I took not that I was unable to urinate after several drinks of water and gatorade.  Still I went about cleaning, organizing, and un-packing from my trip.  I was upset because my place looked like a pig sty last night.  Cory had to sleep on my futon because he was with a sufficient power supply at his apartment.  All of a sudden I started feeling really disoriented.  I soon realized I must be having a migraine.  I took two Excedrin migraine headache pills and continued hydrating.  As things were getting worse quickly I realized that I had not eaten anything but an apple that morning and quickly grabbed some small snacks to try and help my stomach.  I was not hungry but I realized that things were deteriorating quickly so I tried everything I could think of. 

I finally caved in and put on the air conditioning in my apartment.  With day time temperatures into the one-hundred’s I have still managed to keep my air conditioner off during day time hours in an effort to conserve energy.  As things got worse and worse I realized that I might have suffered some kind of heat related illness.  I was surprised that I was not feeling any sensation in my body as I took a cold shower in an effort to cool down.  Finally, I resorted to putting ice bags on my head and around my neck to do what I could to help.  I soon became delirious and unable to think at all.  My thoughts went strangely between some kind of alternative reality and my current condition. 

I literally thought that I was having an outer body experience.  As things got to the point of completely exhaustion I started to panic.  Shock took over me as I called Cory to my aid.  Thankfully he was there to answer my call.  I am very lucky to have such a great friend who could calm me down and talk me through what was going on.  I was completely lost to what was happening and his guidance was a gift to my weak constitution.

Two days later I am very thankful that I am completely feeling normal and have no further complication from this terrible ordeal.  It is always a gift in life to be able to see how fortunate we are when things are going well.  I know now that I cannot underestimate the power of the Chongqing summer.  I know now that I will always need to be on my guard when training in the heat.  Even with drinking all of the water I do a couple of weeks off of my routine completely through my system off.  Not to mention lack of regular sleep hours, stress, and a cold on my vacation.  Altogether the body is the sum of all parts.  Losing a bunch of small functions is usually less obvious than having one big issue arise at once.  In the case of my heat exhaustion the sum of all parts ended in a much larger catastrophe that could have been prevented.

Part V: Future

Being able to teach again will be something that I am extremely looking forward to.  It has been a long and eventful summer break.  I was able to have great travels, improve my Chinese, meet new friends, enjoy my independence, and re unite with my family.  All in all it was my favorite summer of my life.  With this in my past I am even more certain that this next semester is going to be much better than my first.  Nothing substitutes the lessons learned from genuine experience.  Talking with Cory about are ideas for the future reinvigorated my passion for teaching.

Cory and I are excited to welcome a new American teacher from the Peace Corps.  Allie from Pennsylvania will be adding to our cohort new ideas and background experience.  Judging from our brief encounters I believe that the group will work well together in the future.  I am hoping for the best for all of those in Minnesota as you gear up for a wonderful transition into a beautiful fall season!

Erik

 

                   

                   

A life pausing discovery, great friendships, and future travels!

My last two weeks signified a great awakening in my spirit.  I had put a lot of stock in gaining as much intellect as I could during my time in China.  I believed that reading and writing were two areas which idealized intellectual curiosity and creativity.  I also wanted to take advantage of the unique experiences of learning a different language in a foreign country.  I knew that this was my single greatest opportunity to learn about Chinese cultural as well.  High physical athletic attainment always was something that has always been paramount in my life.  Training my body and mind for the Chongqing marathon helped me fill that void.  However in all my wisdom I had seemed to miss out on the single greatest element of experience itself.   That I neglected to put a great emphasis on was the human factor and wonders of personal experience with local Chinese is something that might seem shocking to some people reading this blog.  I would remind all readers to realize how strange the motivations of others can seem from afar.  After truly discovering my motivations I realize now that is partially why I came so lassiez-faire to China in the first place.  I knew that whatever happened with my experiences it would be fine because I was going to accomplish my goals.  For those of you who question my motivations I offer a word of caution.  First, try your best to understand your own motivations for doing anyone thing.  After you have decided on what that thing is think about it for a while and then try and look through your motivations from someone else’s perspective.  It is always easier for someone else to point a finger than to try and really understand that other point of view. 

Besides this pragmatic element of thinking, I also did truly believe that all people are much more similar and relatable than many think.  Meeting so many great people and learning from them has been something that I would never have imagined was going to be what left the greatest mark on my life and time in China.  Looking back many years from now I will not remember all of the running, reading, and writing that I did.  Sure, it will all make an important impact on my future and are pursuits which I enjoy greatly in my free time.  What I will remember is the kindness of my friends, the excitement of my students, the walks, the dinners, and the greatness of freedom.  One cannot measure such a thing as freedom in the mind of a young person.  The free soul is able to discover so much about oneself, world, and meaning in life. 

Living in my world which placed such an emphasis on reaching goals and targets; I almost forgot to open myself up to the wonders of everyday experience.  I had spent a vast amount of time this summer living strangely like a hermit if I was not training for the marathon outside or playing basketball.  I was getting up late and staying up even later.  I tended to blow people off regarding doing other activities than what would meet my “tight” personal schedule based off of my goals.  Missing a day of writing, reading, or running was not an option for me that I would have considered.  Later, I started to become exceedingly depressed with the lack of meaningful social interaction I was having each day.  I avoided eating my meals outside.  I tended to be a reclusive misanthrope who enjoyed doing everything on a strange schedule just because I had found pleasure knowing that I was doing whatever I wanted to do.  I was selfish beyond all recall and shut off people in my egocentric world.  Sadly this type of behavior is not a new phenomenon in my life.  Being driven to success at such a price is a thing in which I have struggled with mightily in my life.  The last few days I have modified my schedule to be back within the realm of society and I have found that I am again having meaningful experiences.

My second night at this new preferable schedule found myself faced with one of my greatest challenges I have experienced in my life.  People who have not experienced the frustrations of failed communication in a foreign country can never appreciate how priceless clear communication can be.  I know that I certainly did not before coming to China.  As I prepared to go to dinner I took with me my normal carefree manner which has helped keep me balanced in China.  As I went to sit down for dinner twenty or thirty people fixed their gaze in my direction.  Due to the large crowd I know that I was going to be forced to sit with others.  At this very moment of partial terror something unexpected happened.

  Two older gentlemen flagged me over to their table.  As I sat down they started firing away some questions at a normal pace Chinese pace.  The next few minutes an even greater surprise hit me as I started to actually communicate with them better than I ever had before.  It was one of those unique moments when I realized that even though each party in the conversation was unable to comprehend the other perfectly miracles can happen any day.  One or two times things became un-comprehensible for me as I tried my best to understand.  Even with these challenges I had great happiness at being able to get past some questions that would have tripped me up in the past.  I can really thank my improvements on two people: Maggie, and Emma.  Both of these great friends enjoy going on walks which allow me to practice my Chinese as they work on their English.  I have a special place in my heart for Emma as she helped me rediscover how wonderful human experience is.

Maggie’s summer holiday to Tibet kept me with only Emma to have meaningful conversation with beyond the rudimentary level of English.  As most of my friends have left over summer vacation for their home towns I soon kept less social engagements.  Fortunately, a teaching opportunity fell into my lap as I was lucky to have been the only foreigner who speaks English in Rongchang at the time.  Little did I know that I was going to meet a truly special group of Chinese-English teachers who would change my experience in China.  I was offered to teach one class for elementary, middle, and high school students.  As I entered in ready to teach I was struck by the fluency of English from some of my fellow colleagues.  When I finished teaching my day of classes I decided to avoid lunch with the foreign teachers.  Better to keep to my own very important schedule of goal reaching.  I feel ashamed to say that I did this and had been doing it somewhat repeatedly this summer.  I often justified it through my pragmatic argument that no one really could understand how much my serious goals meant to me personally.  In avoiding some opportunities I relied on a coy nature of elusiveness which usually kept me at an arm’s length from making commitments.  Besides, I thought why should I continue to be the object of everyone’s affection?  By this point I was becoming annoyed with my “rock star” attention which I was getting.  I grew a great desire to have this wrongly elevated attention cast off me like Prometheus had desired while burdened with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

I used these excuses and more to mentally justify my solitude.  Personality changes resulting from this neglectful state of being altered my entire life.  I no longer wanted to say “hi” or “hello” to my fellow Chinese hosts anymore.  The ticking time bomb of depression exploded finally due to the exacerbated effects of all of these elements.  I spent several days alone in my house unable to find the motivation to leave.  I did not want to work out and decided to fill that empty time slot with a constant amount of entertainment.  As my mental depression spread to physical depression I entered a strange phase in my life which, sadly, is neither the first time I have over worked myself to fulfill personal goals.  Prolonged sadness over periods of time is truly the greatest ailment a person can endure causing both mental and physical paralysis.  As I hoped to somehow “entertain” away my sadness I received a call from a friend regarding some business we had previously discussed.  After avoiding answering his call for several hours I decided that I would put on a good face and speak with him.  Afterwards something I did not intend happened which changed my existence.  I started to feel better.  Not better from any resolution of our conversation but mentally happier just by speaking with a friend.  When I realized this I picked up my phone and dialed Emma. 

Over the next two weeks I would get to know Emma through a series of encounters.  We enjoyed walks together in which conversation would freely between different topics and ideas.  I really appreciated her sincere desire to be a great friend for me in this time of personal and mental challenges.  Once I began to get to know her better I grew a great respect for her sincere kindness.  I rarely have meet people who have as sincere of a heart as Emma.  We connected on a myriad of topics and ideas.  Our conversations added a new perspective to how I view Chinese youth.  Having a background in Chongqing definitely made an impact on her educational upbringing.  Emma clearly had an intellectual curiosity about herself which is less frequent in Rongchang.

 I enjoyed spending time with the entire group of Chinese-English teachers.  I will make a quick digression on summer vacation in China.  Frankly, students in China do not have one.  As they finish their regular year’s worth of studies almost all enroll in summer school where they go to school five days a week for six hours a day.  I believe that their level of personal stress, competition, and academic rigor is at a level where most American students cannot appreciate.

This week of summer vacation was my happiest time spent over my holiday up until this point.  I enjoyed playing games and meals with my Chinese friends.  I was struck by their ability for thorough class preparation.  Emma was very strong in her English and knew the materials quite well; therefore, she was free most nights for walks.  Her other colleagues were not as fortunate as they spent several hours each night preparing for the next day’s classes.  Even with these limitations they found a couple hours for fun at night.  I improved my Chinese greatly over this month spent with these amiable Chinese teachers.  I really appreciated all of the good memories as I look forward to all of the new great ones coming up when my parents come and visit me in China. 

My parent’s preparations for China are in full-swing at this point.  I felt great satisfaction by being able to help my parents in the way that I was by others as I embarked on my journey to China.  After answering some questions for them I realized that I was starting to become insightful on China and Chinese culture.  Afterwards, I started to think back on the time I had already spent in China and became amazed with how fast time has progressed.  In less than two weeks I will have already been in China for six months.  As I think back to my last departure from Minnesota my greatest feeling of separation has come from the people that I love. The lessons that I needed to re-learn from Emma and her colleagues about the beauty of human interactions made me re-evaluate many of my tight goals and schedules that I like to keep in life.  I was also thrown a life line by my father’s timely advice to remove great blame in life.  I had lived so long blaming myself for so many things without consciously picking up on it that the gravity of this advice did not even strike me as landmark.  However, as I started to reflect and used this advice to really change my outlook I soon realized the gravity of the advice.  My father’s timely advice helped to change the way in which I reflected on my personal experiences which is something that I have done a lot while in China.  Combined with the lessons that I learned from Emma and her colleagues I soon became reticent in my desire to change.  As I have become distinctly focused on making my career meaningful for myself I discovered how important my link to humanity really was.

In my search for personal meaning and my true vocational calling I discovered that I wanted to make the world a better place by relating my lessons from my experiences abroad.  That visionary question came up in manifold ways in H.G. Wells’, “The World Set Free”.  This fictional accounting of a world which works together through creative vision inspired me as a person.  Being able to write about my experiences in China is one way in which I feel great happiness.  I also look forward to being able to eventually return to America in search of further education.  I feel a great connection in trying to continue learning, experiencing, and living abroad still.  That is why at this point I am considering joining Cory the following year in South Korea.  Teaching in South Korea would give me another unique perspective which would greatly enhance my ability to understand the world in which we live in.  The more that I understand the world today the stronger my connections I can make will be. 

Last quick note.  I am currently reading Victor Hugo’s, “Les Miserable’s”, and Mark Twain’s, “Roughing It”.  Both works are exceptionally vivid in their elements and represent two vastly different experiences.  I truly find the work of Victor Hugo as inspiring as well as being a masterpiece of literature.  Seeing the world through the eyes of someone who has witnessed the tumults of the past signifies a world in which one is not able to reach in this life time physically.  Mentally seeing all of the parallels within the human conditions then and now produces a relief in my mind that humanity is quite similar across time and space.  That does not mean that it has to always be this way though… 

I am less than seven days away from seeing my parents and very excited for our reunion!  Best to all friends and family back home!

Erik 

  

A look into my book and a weekend in Chongqing

Hello to all of my summertime reading enthusiasts.  I am going to begin this blog with an excerpt from the book I have been writing regarding living abroad through my personal experiences.

Understanding “Truth”

Most people in particular are drawn to understanding greater meaning in life.  I have always been captivated with discovering truth.  Throughout my life my concept of truth has changed with time.  Truth is something that I feel great meaning in and has been on my mind as I have been writing, running, reading, and living in China.  When I was young I believed in a positivist model of truth.  There must be one great truth and that was going to set me free.  Being from a Christian background I found that truth to natural be in God and Jesus Christ.  As time went on I wavered in my philosophical and religious views and entered into a great gap of thought which opened up my mind to many alternatives.  As I grew to learn truth is veiled in religious, secular, peace, death, sadness, and most certainly in people.  Throughout the accumulation of one’s lifetime truth takes on many different forms at different times in a person’s life.  My truth is different than your truth will be. This change in philosophy has meant the death of positivism for me now as I realize that there is no one great “meaning”, “way”, or “peace” in life.  We all have those gifts in life which are special to us only.  Some people will never even know the extent of the magic of another person.  Even more will live without truly recognizing their own gifts.  I believe in experience.  Through different experiences a person will accumulate a much greater deal of truth than they previously had before that experience.

In rejecting the positivist model I still find my greatest meaning in God and Jesus Christ.  As I previously stated in the paragraph above I believe that all people create their own realities through experience, perspective, education, family, expectations.   Therefore, I choose to believe in God and Jesus Christ just as another person will choose to believe in whatever they find the greatest meaning in.  I find the greatest meaning in this religion because I believe in the legacy of forgiveness, compassion, and most importantly hope.  Regardless of everything else I feel that if a person focuses on these three things they too will find a connection at some level with Christianity.  I have discovered that my changing philosophies regarding truth and religion only became clear to me while thinking, reading, and writing in China.  Here is where the key of experiences comes to be so important in the world today.  Looking into an area such as religion which has a history of hostility between people is a good way to make the example of why experience is so important.

Can a person be truly reasonable?

               Our realities in life are greatly influenced by forces a person has no control over.  For example, family wealth, where you are from, what job your parents hold, social expectations, restrictions, family, education, culture, mores, religion, etc all play central roles in deciding how a person’s unique “truths” will be created in their own lives.  Learning and experiences are hard to come by for most people in the world today.  Living in the information technology age allows people incredible access to things which only a century ago would be limited to the highly educated and privileged.  The greatest achievement of the internet is the equal dissemination of access to ideas today.  Unfortunately not all information is reliable, trustworthy, or correct.  Bias and prejudice will and have always riddled the print of ideas from the beginning of written language.  Media sources throw ideas at people at a rate which makes the brain become apathetic to what it reads and hears today.  The brain is the highest level of consumer and needs to be able to make the best judgment when it comes time to be a reasoned person in the world today. 

The desire to be a “reasoned” person has even made me come to debate the validity of such a claim while in China.  Taking a topic such as philosophy for example bears some fruit on why being a truly “reasoned” person is impossible.  The reality is that most of the world’s great philosophies have never existed in written form.  That is because I believe that people who survive on less than a dollar a day, living without any of life’s great modern technologies, who would give everything to make sure that their family has food to eat, and make sure that they do not starve would have to be some of the best philosophers the world has ever read.  To read about a person suffering merely to survive is something that is profoundly human and would touch the hearts of people.  I often see a vast amount of people searching for food, sleeping on roadsides, and wearing tattered rags for clothes.  Their bodies are so emaciated that I am able to see every bone in their body through their meager covering rags. 

               The fact that we do not live in a reasoned world has frustrated, haunted, and even made me feel hopeless at times in my life.  I was so sure that we lived in a rational and reasoned world when I was a child.  After all I had never seen anything that would have made me believe to the contrary during my wonderful up-bringing free from fear.  I also felt that because human’s where supposed to think and reason knowledge that we most live in reasoned world.  My view also had a religious feel as well as so much in my life has and does today.  I believed that God made humans to be the greatest of all species, the care-takers of the Earth, the “thinkers” of the world, and creatures who were primarily good.  These feelings created a realization that the world in which I lived in must be inherently good in my mind.  I still had not fathomed the many difficulties that I would struggle with in life, the bad things I would see, and the world’s sadness I would know as I grew wiser. 

               My wisdom only has shown through my experiences in China.  The greatest gift I have had in life has been able to see the world from a whole new perspective.  I would do things which I realized people in China thought were completely wrong for reasons which I might have held being in their same situation.  Was I wrong?  Where they right?  Let’s take a sample situation to use for guiding principle.

Most days I go running in China.  During the summer time my running has changed a great deal to the changing environment.  With temperatures usually in the nineties with great humidity I still was resolved to run through the weather.  On most days I would run along the track of Rongchang’s campus which is near to my apartment.  My running would begin sometime around 11:00 a.m. and it would not take long for me to have visitors.  Passing by Chinese of all ages would watch in astonishment at the sight before them as a six-foot-four giant was running in summer’s afternoon heat!  This was a normal routine for me.  Around 11:30 a.m. elementary - high school aged students taking summer courses start flowing out to go for lunch.  Many of these students I taught that summer at one of my teaching jobs so the students were pretty familiar with me.  They always like to ask me, “nice to meet you”, “hello”, or “have a nice day” while I would be running by on the track.  I have become quite use to this type of attention and tend to merely wave at students instead of actually responding back.  In order to continue my running routine during the summer I made some calculated training changes.  First, I limited my runs to an hour at the most; which is about half as long as I was running at my peak of distance training in the spring.  Secondly, I keep myself hydrated to the point of almost being too hydrated.  I drink about twenty liters of water in two days and have a copious amount of Gatorades to replace electrolytes, sodium, and sugar during runs.  Third, I always bring my cell phone with in case of emergencies.  With these reasoned responses to the situation it does not seem like too great of a risk that I am taking. 

               My reasoning does not make the same mark on the logic of my Chinese friends’ though.  I know that they think that running in the middle of the day is wrong because it is simply too hot.  Both realities are correct and there is no right answer.  It becomes merely shaped by the realities of the people at the place, in the time, reading the experience through the lens of their own “truths”.  Reaching such a conclusion is only reached by having an experience such as living abroad.  No one can come to understand so thoroughly the similarities and differences of people until a person lives through it every day.  My emotion response to running makes it something that I find great value and hence meaning in.  I find running in the early afternoon to be a necessity to the fact that I am a habitual night owl who does not wake up some time until 10:30 a.m.  As I continued to get closer to the date of my marathon I was training my running changed in its value.  I find running to be a moment of peace from reality which allows me to put my thoughts in order away from a busy world filled with technology and constant media.

Seeing reason as a “value” or innate human characteristic?

               Some people value reason which is good in my opinion; nonetheless, they will still make irrational decisions quite often it seems.  Until I borrowed a little psychology I was unable to comprehend why reasoning seemed gone from the world.  Studies showing a direct correlation to human responses and reasoned thought hold a great deal of validity in their application.  Strong emotional response from the amygdala sent to the brain creates emotional sensation.  The pre-frontal lobe is responsible for abstract thinking and sends reasoned responses to the mind as it ceaselessly reads the changing environment.  In all situations these two factors have nearly the exact same timing in their inception to the mind; however, when the body receives certain impulses which create a “fight or flight” response the brain tends to disregard the reasoned thought reaction the pre frontal lobe may have sent.  Natural human fluids sent to create the sensation in the body make the person feel things which the mind cannot truly describe.  Tearing my Achilles heel is the one time in my life where I can say that I went through some pretty intense adrenaline which makes describing the situation almost impossible.  Often soldiers have similar trouble trying to describe how combat made them feel as they are rehabilitated back into society.

               With this knowledge I have been able to come up with a greater discovery about why I was wrong about the reasoning of humans today.  It drove me to realize that the human realities of each life, the creative nature of each person’s responses to each situation, and the complexity of the human existence together makes a reasoned world impossible.  I feel that this truth can be traced to many human realities around the world today and in the past.  As far as some things I can think of off the top of my head here are some of the more telling.  First, smart and rich people do not make the best leaders lack a workable vision for a changing society.  Second, people cannot agree on the simplest of things.  Third, many feel lost to the greater “meaning” of the world.  Fourth, some great souls are lost in an existential vacuum of thoughts about how we can or should make the world a better place.   Fifth, the great amount of people today who would rather stay connected to cell phones, computers, mp3’s, etc than take time to think about the world today.   Sixth, people who are afraid that they will wake up old and feeling that they did not accomplishing anything of value in life.  I can relate with many of the above realities because I too have struggled with them at different times in my life.

               The reality is that no one truth is correct; experience is the key to gaining greater perspectives, and that life does not have one “central” meaning which results in a reasoned society.  Even if I did believe that all people thought with reason I do not know if they would be able to come up with great “reasoned” societies because of the unique nature of the human beings lust for power, wealth, possessions, etc.  Even if we all had someone who was the most “reasoned”, “knowledgeable”, and “honest”, person in the world I would not throw my allegiance to them without first questioning their real intentions.  So many societies across the space of human written existence have become hooked onto leaders who professed to have all the reasoned “answers” for their people.  The results of the great reasoned despotic leaders of history are mixed, but many people found a greater appreciation for the horrors of death, famine, and war in their experiences than in achievement of a truly better world.

Why I believe that reasoned thought is important in the world today

               Reasoned thought is still an important value to me as a person, but I am also able to understand why people might not agree with me as well.  I would only ask that anyone who does disagree with a person has an original idea as to why.  I will always respect something thought out and reasoned to fit that person’s unique “truths” they have discovered in life.  I only ask that a person is very careful in assuming what they believe is correct.  Remember to question the sources, bias, and prejudices of the authors at all times.  Please do not think that I am trying to be arrogant in my plea.  I really wish that more people would spend the time, care, and just give a damn about the world today.  That is mostly why I sometimes feel hopeless, depressed, and without motivation to overcome the challenges of the world today.  I know that I am unique, but I am trying to find ways that I am able to grab the attention of people looking for meaning in their life.  If a person feels that they are without meaning in their life and want to do something admirable they need simply to think about the world today.  Think about the rich.  Feel for the poor.  Write Congress.  Join a local Church and go on a mission trip.  Learn about the uniqueness of the rainforest.  Become a member of a gym.  Drive to the beach and collect trash.  Spend time with friends and loved ones; a person never knows when their time is next.  Whatever that thing is that makes you feel alive with meaning in life make time to do it.  Take calculated chances and you will find greater meaning than you ever could have imagined.  Live life connected to the world and still dream.  Never give up dreaming and you will discover the greatest of all truths.  All people who live with meaning inherently altruistic in nature will find peace in death.  Many people who live their lives in search of ephemeral things, easy solutions, money, power, etc will discover the sad truth that all of these things are not going to make the trip with you to the next life or death.

This second piece of the blog entry entails a bit of my weekend fun in Chongqing with some of my good friends from China.

               My weekend in Chongqing was a well-timed break from my Rongchang routine.  I travelled with my good friend Maggie (Zhu shuai).  Maggie lived her first twenty-four years in Chongqing before she moved to work studying animals at one of Rongchang’s veterinarian research centers.  Together we meet up with my good friend Jack Yang.  Jack has been my guest at my apartment in Rongchang and our friendship goes back to my first trip to Chongqing in March.  As a big group we enjoyed a healthy pizza at Chongqing’s best (and only?) traditional Italian pizza restaurant.  I cannot really call it a restaurant because the pizza is made in an apartment which has been changed into a very quaint nook for foreigners and Chinese alike to enjoy real pizza.  I am emphasizing the essence of the pizza because China has quite a few interpretations of pizza which are sold at their own “pizza huts” across the country.  I feel much greater affinity to what I have learned to be traditional Italian pizza over my lifetime.  Thus, I wanted to show my friends out to the only traditional pizza restaurants I knew of in Chongqing.  Afterwards we all enjoyed an evening of dancing and singing at one of Chongqing trendiest bar / clubs.

               The next day Maggie and I enjoyed the movie Transformers III together.  All in all an interesting interpretation by Michael Bay, (I do not know if I would side with humans, an alien race, and condemn the rebirth of our planet only to save some human lives and freedom?), but that is something that I have come sadly accustomed to seeing in most “blockbusters” today.  I did enjoy the application of hope used by Bay and the characters to add a real human element to the movie.  I imagine that doing so is difficult when you are dealing with robots and as always the special effects were enjoyable.  Following the movie Maggie and I went shopping to pick up some food which we cannot buy in Rongchang, (butter, spaghetti, cereal, bagels, bread rolls, Hershey’s chocolate, etc).  Afterwards I meet up with Jack and worked together tutoring a twelve year old Chinese student practice their English.  I really enjoyed working with Jack’s unique knowledge of the challenges of sometimes being able to learn two quite different languages.  Afterwards Jack and I enjoyed watching T.V. with his mother.

               The next day I said goodbye to Jack and meet up again with Maggie for our return bus ride back to Rongchang!  All together I had a great weekend catching up with old friends.

               I am learning a lot of what it means to be a good teacher in China this summer as well by challenging myself by working with all ages of students.  In my experiences I have had to use some alternative methods to fit my audience’s unique abilities.  Reaching out to students of all ages and trying to teach them things of relevance really can be a challenge.  The challenges are exacerbated by the lack of modern technology at one of my teaching jobs.  By not having a monitor, computer, or even air conditioning I feel literally burning for teaching material at times.  I have found that classical-conditioning, rewards, psychology, personality, candy, pictures, writing words on the boards, etc seem to keep my students from drifting off into mental imagination lands.  I know for a fact that I drifted early and often to such lands as a child and want to do my best to make learning more than memorization for these young minds.

               I finished reading the wonderful biography on Dietrich Bonheoffer and was greatly moved by his incredible will.  He truly was someone who welcomed death rather than live complacently in Nazi Germany.  He had ample opportunity to do so as he was from a very distinguished family and could easily have just given in to protect his image.  He chose isolation and eventually his work for Abwher’s secret service resulted in his capture by the Gestapo and execution less than two weeks before Americans liberated the camp.  Abwher was ostensibly a Nazi secret service agency; however, the Canaris was able to keep secret his explicit involvement in one of the plots to overthrow Hitler only through his connection with the agency which Bonheoffer was to join in 1941.

I recently started reading H.G. Well’s, “The World Set Free” and have taken to it from the onset.  I look forward to upcoming weeks of relative quite before I head off to Beijing to join my parents on a two week vacation in China as a family!

Best wishes to friends and family