The Nuts and Bolts of the First Two Weeks

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 built over the last 22 years. 

Walking into the hotel we were instant celebrities as the staff gawked and opened up their phones to capture such a not-chinese crowd (we’re a pretty diverse bunch). And yet, their kindness was unmatched; sincere smiles meeting our 14-hour-plane-ride drooping faces. 

The hotel lobby was a shiny gray tile that contrasted starkly with the smog-gray concrete. Gold framed the walls and ceilings while a deep red wood railing spiraled up in accord with the stairs. The long front desk sat opposite the front door, situated low to accommodate a new average, one that marks me as “tall”. Relativity sure can be great.

Three or four at a time the elevator took us and our luggage up to our rooms on the third through sixth floors. Next in line, the gold doors parted from the middle and I stepped onto the elevator, pressed “4” and worked in a blur to get myself into bed.

Since that first night of crawling into bed, our Peace Corps overlords have kept every day packed with information, preparation, activities, food, and time for meet and greets. I can confidently say I know just about all the faces of my 67/69 (not really sure what our total number is these days) compatriots. With a common experience that underlines all of our exchanges, sharing is an infinite hallway of open doors; we just need sufficient time to walk the steps to the next open door. 

The generalized day has been and will be for the next week: breakfast from 7:30 to 8:30 am. class until 10 or 10:30 and another one until 12:30. Lunch until 1:30. Class until about 3:30. And then end the day with immunizations / medical interviews / language classes and placement tests / “getting to know you” meetings. At night, Kayla, a China 19 who is finishing up her service in a couple weeks, has been setting up night time events that include; yoga, pilates, trivia, and sports. And I’m in bed by 10.

Classes have been on a wide array of subjects but these first two weeks can be separated into just a few categories; administrative/medical and Teaching English as a Foreign Language. Starting in week two we’ll add Chinese Language classes. 

On the note of Language classes, after an informal interview in Chinese, a take home series of essays to write in Chinese, and an in person written test, I placed into the intermediate category. My first language class will be tomorrow, and boy am I stoked. Three hours of intensive lusciousness filled with character and curves that pop with 5000 years of alterations. Chinese sure is an elegant hunchback. 

I’ve said little about the city, the people, my new friends, and my long distance relationship. I’ve skipped talking about food as well but all of these will get further significant space. But hey, this is a blog, not a 30 page autobiography, but a blog that aims to bridge two worlds over the river of my experience. But I think next time merits a story filled with pandas and pictures. They’re just so gosh darn cute.

A picture I took while at the Sichuan, Chengdu Panda Conservatory