We returned from our two-week trip across China just this past weekend.  The following is something I wrote en route to Beijing.  I will have a couple additional installments coming out soon. -- Rob

 

Ramblings on the Train Ride to Beijing
Sunday October 29, 2000

Right now it is just past 8:00 am and we are on the train from Guangzhou to Beijing.  By looking at the beds you wouldn't think that I had much sleep.  However, as I am apt to do while traveling, I slept like a rock.  Maybe it was the motion of the train or it could be that the bed and pillow are just a touch softer than the one at school.  Either way, I'm not complaining.

I woke up about 7:15 when I heard David being asked questions by a Chinese traveler.  I soon joined in the guessing game of garbled Chinese and English words we used to communicate.  We were able to decipher a few key words like foreign exchange student ( liuxuesheng) and American (Meiguo ren).  Our Chinese friend was able to say thank you but it was enough to communicate a friendly smile from each of us.  While we were talking, the man was looking at the cribbage board and deck of cards I had put in my shoe the night before.  David asked him if he wanted to play and dealt him a hand.  Unfortunately, he wasn't sure how to play, so I took his hand and showed him how to play.  I think he lasted all of about two hands and then he went to talk to his friends but he still kept watch on the game.

When Peter our travel agent told me that we would be in the hard sleeper, I anticipated that the beds would be similar to those I have seen in the dorms - a sheet of plywood covered by a thin mat roughly an 1/16" thick.  Much to my surprise, the beds had a pretty decent cushion more than an inch thick.  I also had anticipated that the set up of the cars would be similar to the European trains I had traveled on and to a certain extent I was correct.  The one major difference is that there are no doors to separate each of the small compartments.  In each compartment there are 6 beds - three on each wall.  I was fortunate because the students headed for the top bunks and left me the bottom.  There really is limited seating in the small aisle-way, so the bottom bunk is also used by many as a sitting area so there is a fair amount of headroom.  It is also a nice distance from the speaker which was blasting music into Shane's ear on the very top bunk.

My overall opinion of the train in China is that it is a rather pleasant experience.  Our trip will be a total of 24 hours and most of us have spent our time catching up on some lost sleep (one of my favorite things to do while traveling), reading books, playing cards or just taking in the country side.  I spent part of my day yesterday reading the book Legacies: A Chinese Mosaic by Bette Bao Lord.  Rita Andert, one of the students from last year's group, had recommended it.  It tells of stories of people during the Cultural Revolution and how they either participated or survived the ordeal.

I decided to bring the laptop because I can only fit 36-40 pictures on the digital camera at a time.  When I went Guilin for four days, I even brought it because I took about 75 pictures.  I also get to type for about two hours before the batteries go out.  When I am in my dorm it is difficult to get a block of time to type unless it is after midnight.  I typically finish my class prep somewhere between 1:00 and 3:00am.  I could probably get to bed sooner if I told the visiting Chinese students that I had things to do, but I really don't want to miss out on the opportunity to visit with them.  Before I left, Mark Widdel told me that I would probably be assigned to teach one conversational English course.  I asked about it when I arrived and Mrs. Guo said that I should write a letter to the head of the English department telling of my interest.  I did and later inquired about it only to get the response that maybe I should wait until Mr. Lu returns because he will be the head of the department.  Once he arrived, I told Mr. Lu figuring that he may want to assign me to a section.  As of yet I have heard nothing.  I hinted at it again last week when I told him that I had been invited to teach a couple of the classes for one day and that I would be happy to be a guest lecturer for him as well.  At this point it looks as though I won't be teaching the Chinese so I figured my contribution would be to spend as much time with the Chinese students as possible.  That way I will at least be helping the students to practice their English on a regular basis.

This leads me to talk about another way we spend time practicing English.  Mrs. Krim, an American teacher who has lived on the campus for the past 3 ½ years, has instituted the "lunch program."  We have been rotating the schedule each week from M,W,F to T,Th;  Each of us are assigned to meet with a dorm of Chinese students over lunch.  This has been a good opportunity for each of us to meet each of the students and "try" to remember their names.  Just last week I had lunch with students from the 2000 class.

I don't remember if I already told you how the classes are set up, so let me explain briefly.  When the students start their college experience they are already assigned a department and they take all their classes with the same cohort.  So the 2000 class are all those who started this fall of 2000.  The '99 class is large enough to be broken up into '99-1 and '99-2.  Last year, the '98 class was two sections, '98-1 graduated last spring and '98-2 should be graduating after this term.  Since the 98-2 class is all that remains, we just refer to them as the '98 class.

The 2000 class is a little more shy and their English is much poorer so they have been hesitant to speak with us.  When they come to the English corner they stand in the distance as observers and only will participate very briefly.  By meeting with them during the lunch program I think they feel a little less threatened or intimidated by the more "seasoned" English students.  The other day, we spent a good deal of time with the students using their little electronic dictionaries trying to figure our some of the words I was using.  The one I remember best was "costume."  This was a couple days before our Halloween party last Sunday and I was trying to explain that one of the activities would be a costume contest.  It took awhile, but I think they eventually understood the concept.  Getting them to participate was a different story altogether.  In my last e-mail I wrote about the Halloween party, so I won't go into it again.  The only disappointment I had was I was hoping some of the Chinese students would be a little more creative and come up with some costumes.  Mrs. Krim spent some class time with them giving them ideas of some simple things that they could do without spending any money.  The only costume I really recall was Angela who put up her hair in some sort of pig tails.  I'm not sure if she had any character in mind, but it was just a different look  (I sent this as the picture titled "Angela and Zorro.").

I have a feeling that my battery life on the computer will not last too much longer and I know some of my writings have been a bit long for e-mail so I won't go on much longer.  What I will say is that thus far, I really haven't found myself longing for home too much.  Sure I miss my family and friends, but thanks to technology like the internet I have been able to stay in close communication.  I could also go for a nice Subway sandwich once in a while, but I understand if my craving is insatiable I can have that satisfied in Beijing in the next couple days.  When I look out the window now, I see fields not unlike some that I would see back home, but when I see the standing corn it reminds me of my favorite time of year - deer hunting.  Six years ago my brother Mike and I thought we would try our hand at hunting and as most novices we didn't get a thing.  Heck, the only deer I saw during that season was the one that jumped in front of my car when I was headed to St. Cloud.  It didn't matter though and we have gone every year since.  Mike did miss out on opening day a couple years ago because his work responsibilities brought him to Ireland.  Just looking out the window made me think that next Saturday across the State of MN there will be something like 400,000 crazed hunters blanketing the country-side in a sea of orange.  It's definitely one my favorite times of year because of the friendships, the thrill of the hunt, the stories of the ones that got away, and even freezing my butt off sitting in my stand before sunrise.  It's a one time a year event that I plan to rarely miss.  Taking the train to Beijing and traveling through this country is a once in a life time experience that I don't regret for one moment.  It's definitely worth the trade off.  Bambi will just have to look out for me next year.