China Gray

The full arch of one Peace Corps week is filled with enough potholes to topple a semi. Fortunately, it wasn’t momentum that I’ve been relying on to get me through my service. Instead, I’m looking toward maneuverability and openness to navigate each ravine and climb out on the limbs of bamboo dense enough to darken even the next hour.  After arriving in Chengdu by plane we took a couple buses to the hotel, dropped off our passports, and picked up our “walk-around” money in the lobby. I then promptly went to my room leaving behind the excitement of the bold as they went out to explore the nearest bar scene, but already under the Peace Corps wing they were required to avoid a couple black listed bars (both due to their drug scenes). Being caught going to either bar, we were told later, would result in instantly being sent back to the US. The Peace Corps image is serious and precious and the actions of one volunteer can and have blasted pillars from the foundation carefully bui...

Written at 2 pm on June 18th while waiting to board my flight from San Diego to San Francisco. Shuffling through the airport with a duffle filled with backpacking gear, twenty pounds of daily needs on my back, and hopefully less than fifty in my rolling bag, I’m on my way to San Francisco. Staging starts today, which also marks the beginning of my Peace Corps service. I will be working 24/7 and expected to represent the USA accordingly. Although my often disgust with the states doesn’t exactly inspire a good representation, my sincere respect and admiration for the goals of Peace Corps does. I should show up to registration by 6 pm dressed in business casual with a basic knowledge of what will be expected of me. The guts and glory of the expectations are to be relayed over the next 48 hours at staging, however, these have already been enumerated in previous paperwork.  Peace Corps has ten core expectations (abbreviated below): Prepare your life for a full 27 month co...

 Overlooking Zion National Park in Utah from "Angel's Landing" The rush of not doing anything is intense! I pack and unpack my bags, shifting and relocating certain items, in order to prepare and return from short travel stints. I visited Zion National Park, Na (my girlfriend) in Madison, WI., Green Gulch farm and Zen Center just north of San Francisco, my Father in L.A. and back to San Diego for my mom. Each trip is another review of my packing order and a test of my current traveling set up. My packed stuff has slowly become more refined; 10 shirts, no 7. 14 underwear, no 6 pairs of backpacking underwear. Wall adapter, no, I'll buy it in China. Over the last 5 months my bag has slowly grown and shrunk in size. I feel ready now.  But I called this "not doing anything" as if all that travel was me just sitting idle at home. While not "nothing" in the normal sense of the word, the feeling of anticipation leaves all this movement dwarfed b...