Savoring the China life

12 days until America...

I'm still trying to savor everything around me; realizing that I probably won't see it again. Even if I do happen to return to Nanchang in the future, it won't be the same as what I experience now. For example, we are seeing an alarming influx of foreigners in our area. I used to be able to go months without spotting a foreigner on our side of town. Now it is only weeks. It's an epidemic.

I hope Nanchang and China in general never loses its innocence and quirkiness. Yesterday I was walking around a little park with one of my students, Debbie. We were meandering along, when she suddenly came to a halt, and quickly covered her eyes with her hands. I looked all around us, feeling very perplexed. In answer to my questioning look, she pointed a finger to a couple in front of who were walking and hugging each other. She whispered, "We can't walk that way. I'm so embarrassed."

I assured her that THEY were the ones who should be embarrassed, and they certainly weren't going to ruin our walk in the park. I just told her not to look, and we kept walking.

This week I noted other strange things in my classes and around town; things that have become quite normal:

Like my student fainting at the podium during her final exam speech, because of her "stomach pain," and all the girls who carried her out of the room; how I gnaw on chicken and duck bones for lunch in the cafeteria nearly every day; how I actually enjoy gnawing on chicken and duck bones; how we spit the bones on the table; how I fit so well in the crowded 220 bus; how I never have to worry about violent criminals; how one student sits in the front of my class and always peels a random giant piece of fruit with a rather large knife; how my favorite old man in our neighborhood will pause as he's digging through trash cans to smile his toothless grin at me; how we have to walk around the children going to the bathroom on the side of the street; how we use umbrellas when it is sunny outside; how we are always mindful of wearing modest clothes; how we can't say whatever is on our mind whenever we want about politics or spiritual matters; how the Chinese language has seeped into my brain; how we haul our 5 gallon drinking water up four flights of stairs once a week; how firecrackers don't make me jump anymore; how my students shout in unison, "GOOD MORNING, MISS LAURA!!" at the beginning of class...

And the list goes on! Thanks for thinking of me. I'm really starting to feel a great sense of loss. For better or worse, this has been my home, and it will be difficult not returning.


When you look up, sometimes you can see a beautiful, flowering magnolia!


Baking apple bread while communicating only in Chinese with our friends, Hannah and Lisa.


A creepy doll Jodi and I were given as a present from our Chinese friends.