Greetings faithful blog fans! Many thanks to those who still check this on occasion. Here’s an update and a smattering of favorite stories in no particular order.

Shenyang in the spring is fantastic. Sunshine, comfortable temperatures, mild breezes, even some great thunder and lightening storms. Save for a dust storm and strong wind gusts on occasion, it’s probably one of the most pleasant places you could want to spend late March to early June.

My birthday was the 20th and since there were a lot of people I wanted to invite, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather and host a picnic at a local park. I made some picnic grade salads and bought a couple of buckets of chicken from KFC and made way for over 40 people! It was a little windy and the Chinese were initially not quite sure what to make of all the food spread out on a sheet of plastic on the ground but eventually they got the idea and relaxed and we ended up having a really laidback time. I realized how lucky I was to have so many of my favorite people all in one place when several of my guests made the observation that in just 10 months, I’ve collected such an extensive and diverse group of friends. Shenyang is truly becoming home.

As far as my Chinese goes, I’m trying to improve my accuracy in speaking standard mandarin and develop my local dialect and accent. I want to eventually be able to turn the local dialect on and off depending on whom I’m talking to (it’s easier to gain someone’s trust using a local accent than standard Chinese) and I’m trying a more diligent, holistic attitude towards speaking correctly (i.e. trying to sound more Chinese and say things in full sentences instead of being lazy and sounding foreign.) I’m realizing I’ve subconsciously created a language bank of the stuff I’ve picked up by osmosis in just hanging out with Chinese people. Now it’s a matter taking a half second longer before speaking to tap into that reserve and say what I’m thinking properly.

The job is continuing to challenge. Every day is a roller coaster as I go from the feeling that I can do no wrong to lacking confidence about my personality and sense of outgoingness to humbly learning and listening and observing others to sharing my experiences and opinions with others. Last week especially it seemed like within minutes I could go from one end of the spectrum to the other. I’m growing in order to fit this job and I can literally feel my comfort zone being stretched. It’s draining--last week the constant conditioning caught up with me and I had a really good series of cries and consultations with loved ones. It’s exciting though because such tangible growth can only mean good things and I sense there’s something really amazing coming up ahead. The most important issue for me right now is just having patience with myself and remembering to have faith in what and who I already am. I’m competitive by nature and I compare myself to others both to learn as well as to gauge my own progress. Unfortunately I usually forget that I’m 23, a girl and have only been in China for ten months so regardless of what I might think, comparing myself to the people around me isn’t a reasonable comparison which means I usually put a whole ton of unnecessary pressure on myself and play the worst case scenario game (which, as you might have guessed, never ends well.)

The great part of growing up so fast is it means I have a lot of stuff to talk about with my students. The last few classes have been unbelievable! The depth of conversations I’ve been able to have with my English majors has been so fascinating to me—in two days, with three different classes, I was able to lead really meaningful discussions about gender roles and inequity and business networking and creating job opportunities. In one class, we talked about democratic political systems, free market economics, education systems and social conditioning, health insurance systems and the roots and butterfly effects of prejudice and racism—in 90 minutes!! Talk about rewarding! Lately they’ve been curious about my experience as a foreigner and working outside of academia and I’m enjoying passing along some of the observations and wisdom that’s been passed on to me. My time as a teacher is quickly coming to an end and I’ll be honest, I’m kind of sorry to see it end. I really enjoy my students and I’ve been using the last few class periods to impart some wisdom and have fun with them. I’m brainstorming ways to stay in touch as one student wrote me in an email, I’m like an older sister to them and in all honesty, it feels like I’ve got some 80+ younger siblings all looking to me for guidance and advice. It’s great to feel needed and be able to help.

Over the May day break (week long labor holiday) I went to Beizhen (small town in NE Liaoning) with the family and then Huo Qi sent me off to Shanghai for a few days to understand the city and the situation and how it compares to Shenyang. I went to Shanghai by myself and immediately found the art museums and English language bookstores. (it’s as if they were calling to me!) I also did the touristy walks along the Bund and Nanjing Lu and basically took in the feel and atmosphere of the city. It reminded me of a slightly cleaner NY or LA, just with a slightly larger Chinese population. In fact, there are so many foreign residents in Shanghai, that depending on where you go, it’s possible to go a few days without hearing or needing to speak or read Chinese. I told some of my friends back here in Shenyang that if ever I want to go and experience American culture or real Western food, I’ll just go to Shanghai…it’s cheaper than flying all the way back stateside. ☺

Link to May Day Holiday pictures: http://willamette.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016756&l=a0648&id=27501078

This last weekend, I joined one of my grad students and his friends and traveled to Shandong, the ancient home of Confucius and Tai Shan, the world’s most climbed mountain. It was one of the best little roadtrips EVER! So we left Friday at 8pm, took the train (hard seat—cheap, crowded, hot…read: no sleeping) 13 hours to Jinan and arrived around 9:30am. We then took a bus to Qufu about 2.5 hours south (sleep = dozing at best) and toured Confucius’ home, temple and cemetery. Pretty cool! Then we hired a (somewhat sketchy, but turned out to be ok) guy with a big van to drive us to Taian where we got dumplings and then to the base of Taishan. We got to Taishan about 10:30pm and started the climb. My wilderness survival friends will tell me that hiking up a mountain at night is not a good idea but Taishan is different. From Taishan, you can view what is arguably the world’s most beautiful sunrise so it’s worth the night hike. Besides, there are something like 6700 steps leading to the summit of Taishan so it’s “easy”— in the sense that you’re not going to trip on any tree roots or get eaten by bears. You still have to contend with the equivalent of climbing 445 stories. On average it takes about 4 hours to get to the top. We took our time and got to the ledge where we’d watch the sunrise from at about 3:30am. We rented long green Chinese military overcoats from vendors at the top (it can be really cold and windy, especially after a sweat inducing hike up) and curled up to wait for the sun.

The sunrise was the most spectacular of my entire life. I sent a text to one of my friends while we were waiting for it to get light and she said that I must be in heaven and I think I must have been. I was sitting on a ledge curled up in my military jacket with my camera, there were daphne plants growing out of the mountain just in front of me with little bees buzzing around at work. I was so exhausted that I kept nodding off but did my best to stay awake while clicking off pictures as the sun slowly rose. I can’t describe it well in words and my camera does only an ok job of capturing it. It was so beautiful. I was so moved that I was breathless and had tears streaming down my face, it was that amazing. The fog over the nearby peaks, the growing crack in the clouds that was lit by the sun, the light on the mountains and the daphne and the little bees…it was as if heaven was opening up right at eye level.

We dawdled on the way down the mountain, then took a bus back to Jinan where Hans and I would catch a train back to Shenyang. (The rest of the group was going back the next day as they had the option of skipping classes and work on Monday.) We were smart on the way back and after a stressful experience at the train ticket office, finally found our way to hard sleeper class where we were able to (finally) stretch out and sleep. As a group we were exhausted (which meant we had to keep an eye on each other because if we sat down, we were usually asleep in less than two minutes) but it wasn’t an uncomfortable exhaustion and we were able to all get along really well and have a great time together. I was even able to help barter with locals for tickets for our group! It was the first trip I’ve been on with Chinese people where I felt like I was an equal and not a liability or needing someone to help take care of me. It is said the people who successfully climb Taishan are deemed by heaven to do great things. I’m not sure how true that is but I do sense that my trip with this group of people was blessed.

Shandong/Taishan pictures: http://willamette.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2016759&l=7c6cc&id=27501078
(I'll add captions and tags to this later...stay tuned)

One of the guys in our group was a student from Inner Mongolia. After my trip there several years ago with Japanese friends where the handsome herdsmen sang to me and tried to teach me to dance in hiking boots, I’ve always had a special place in my heart for Mongolians—outgoing and daring, energetic, intense, amazing horseback riders with a strong tie to nature and wide-open spaces—I get such a kick out of these guys. Well Qunzi from our group was no exception and he and Hans and I led the way up the mountain and became good friends. We had a good laugh on the train ride there…Qunzi was asking me all sorts of questions about America and at one point he asked me if we had pigs in America and if they looked the same as the pigs in China. I said the pigs were the same but that American cows are blue and the chickens are green. Well he was very interested in how this could be possible and proceeded to ask me all about their diet, the color of the meat, the price, life expectancy and he even had one of the other guys in our group wondering about it until I finally told him I was just pulling his leg. Oh did we have a good laugh about that and we kept referring to the “blue American cows” throughout the trip. Hooray for new (and different) friends!

Summer is my favorite time of year because it means I can play outside. I bought a ball and have been playing basketball almost daily with whoever wants to play pickup. The next couple weeks I’m also going to be embarking on some other mini-travels with friends and getting ready for mom to come in mid-July. At this point I’ll probably be heading back to Portland in mid- to late July and staying until the end of August. I’ll know more details as we get closer and will update here when I have definite plans.

For now, life is rich and colorful. I hope you are well and I look forward to your comments and emails. With love xoxo