Reflections On Year One

I can hardy believe it.  Ten months ago my husband and I boarded a plane in Minneapolis, took 2 flights (17 hours of flight time and 20-hours of travel time) and landed in Guangzhou, China.  I can still vividly remember the car ride from Baiyun Airport to Foshan.  My head was on a swivel as I tried to soak in every sight, sound and smell my senses could take in.  Every things was so new, so foreign so...not Minnesota.

Now, I sit gazing out my living room window at the garden of our beautiful apartment complex.  This is a view that I have grown accustomed to as I have sat working on my papers, emailing friends and family, and trying to learn chinese.  Today, I sit here thinking about going back 'home' in under two weeks.

I am excited thinking about catching up with old friends, as thinking about all the milestones I missed at home over the year have been difficult at times.  I am thrilled to see family that I have only been able to see with the aid of Skype (thank you 21st century technology) .  But this hardship of moving away from friends, family and familiarity does not come without its rewards.  These rewards, for me at least, have not always been the tangible.  They have been in the form of lessons learned about myself, the amazing people that I share this world with and the beauty of our planet.

So what lessons have I learned?

Kids are kids.  Perhaps I haven't paid much attention to all the children in the US as much as I have here, as they are everywhere.  During the weekends, grandparents will bring their young grandchild(ren) (yes, there are many people in Foshan who are wealthy and therefore have more than one) out to the ponds and play areas in our complex.  I can even sit on my porch and hear the kindergarteners at the school in our complex go through their morning exercises.  Kids have been the easiest for me to start talking to in chinese, even though their vocabulary is MUCH better than mine.  Kids won't judge you if you make a mistake, they just laugh and smile and go back to playing.


The Value of Family.  Now, I have always valued my family and I love them and miss them dearly.  In China, most families live all together.  A household often consists of the mother, father, both sets of grand parents and then the child or children.  This set up often leaves the grandparents in charge of raising the children.  Everyday I see moments with grandparents and their grandchildren that make my heart melt.  From watching a grandmother netting minnows in a pond with her grandson to a grandfather dancing with his granddaughter at one of the many evening dances, it is just so beautiful.  It makes me miss my grandparents and parents very much.  If you are reading this, I love you and miss you!

Exercise is not just something you do for 45min a day.  Now, I have always been known to be on the move. Running, skiing, biking, swimming and tennis have always been a part of my life.  Coming here to china has made me really have to think about how I 'workout'.  I have been lucky enough to have a great complex to run in and access to a park and river route where I can run when the air is clean enough.  Also, every Tuesday I go to a competition pool (where the 2010 Asia Games where held) to swim laps.  There is even a gym about a 5min walk away that has spin classes, yoga class and all the workout equipment of a gym back in the states.  However, on my runs here I have noticed something that I do not see back in the states, people of all ages out moving, dancing and walking.  Each morning on my way to work I walk by several people doing these crazy exercises where they are swiveling their hips and clapping their hands.  At first I could not stop giggling in my head as I went by thinking how funny these people look.  Regardless of the humor of watching a 75 year old man walking around a path and slapping his rear end, he gets it.  The importance of moving everyday regardless of your age or fitness level.  It is no wonder why China's life expectancy is rising so quickly.  Now, if we could just get the men to stop smoking...

Chinese is hard...really hard.  Now, let me be honest with you.  I never thought learning Chinese was going to be easy.  But being a tonal language I have yet to develop the ear for hearing the difference between jiao (small money), jiao (old) & jiao (glue).  In fact, if you are not careful, you could accidentally call your mother (ma) a horse (also ma).  YIKES!  I have, however, been surprised at how much I enjoy learning the characters.  Their stories and meaning are often so beautiful and have so much meaning.  Plus, walking around town and being able to read where the woman's bathroom is has come in handy a few times!

Traveling is the best education I have ever had.  Before coming to China, I had only been to a few places abroad, Jamaica, Iceland, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, and yes, Canada.  But in each of those places I 'fit in'.  Even in Jamaica, with its colonial history and longtime openness to foreign travelers, I felt it was easy to get around.
          Traveling in China is different.  Everywhere I go, before I open my mouth, people know I am not from here.  There have been times where the staring, pointing and 'guilo' comments have been a bit too much.  However, for every uncomfortable moment there are countless ones where a person will come up to you and want to talk.  Perhaps people come to talk to us just to practice their english, or just to see Nikolai's 'strange' blue eyes up close.  Whatever the initial reason, the people that I have meet have helped me understand this country and its people so much better.
          I could read all the books in the world, but nothing would compare to the small discussion about age we had with a Naxi woman in Yunnan.   With our very limited Chinese and her broken Chinese, it took very little to understand how physically demanding her 80 year-old life had been.  The smile on her face when she announced her age was a testament to how proud she was to have made it this far and still be carrying around loads of bricks and crops from the field on her back everyday.  Simply amazing!

Unintentional humor is underrated.  The majority of this humor stems from cultural differences.  From butt slapping exercises to 4 adult men on a motorcycle to a woman doing a dance routine on a treadmill, these are things you just do not see back at home.  It is moments like this, that have gotten me through the tough times of being away from home.  I know when I eventually leave China, this is one of the things I will miss the most...after hot pot, of course!

I have always learned more from my students than I could ever teach them.  The students here are just lovely.  Now, don't get me wrong, they are still kids.  So, there are the ones who will miss class, not turn in their homework, or try to text in class.  But over all, they are really amazing.  The students here have pushed me to become a better teacher.  Regardless of where I am teaching, the kids is why I do this job.

This list could go on and on, but I feel that these points are the strongest.  I am looking forward to going home next week.  However, I am also looking forward to coming back and learning some more about myself and the world I live in.