I know it's been a while since I updated the world on my whereabouts, but I have just finished writing my proposal for the Fulbright and decided to use my remaining internet time to try to throw some things out there about where I've been lately.
I think the most important things to update on first are how classes and group things have been going and then next time I write I will try to tell you all about the wonderful spring break I just got back from and the other activities I've enjoyed. Ok.....
So for our two classes we meet twice a week for each class and spend Tuesday and Thursday in "Site visits" where we go see factories, meet old Carls doing cool things, or see some other political economy-related business that helps us to grasp a better understanding of how China works, which is no easy task. A couple weeks ago we had one of the better visits yet to a glass factory. They are called Libbey and they make drinking glasses for Ikea as well as the food service industry and they're pretty cool. We walked through the really hot, really loud factory area wearing ear plugs and watching two guys use metal sticks and a strong stream of air to blast some messed up glasses off the assembly line. Weird thing was they knocked every single glass that came out onto the ground... I'm not sure about that, but I was laughing hysterically. The real reason I write about this visit is that... dun dun dun... Libbey started and is based in Toledo, OH!!! I don't know if any of the Toledo family is keeping up with this, but at the very least I can write it for Dad since I know how tied he is to his roots there. It was pretty exciting, everyone in my group thought I was pretty strange for being that excited about something that had to do with Ohio, no matter how exciting that state may be to some of us. We also have 3 Indiana kids on this trip. Cool, right? They sell corn on the cob in the street here for about 30 cents and those kids get so excited. I do, too, but I think it just runs in my blood.
Another big trip we took as a group was to a town in Shanxi province called Fenyang. Carleton has had a relationship with the high school and hospital there since the early 1900s through the first study abroad program Carleton ever had. It involved students spending two years abroad. Just about one of those years was spent en route in a ship from the US to China. We just took a train and a bus. We visited the students in the high school there, taking about 3000 photos a day and making my cheeks hurt so much from smiling that I might have finally learned how to frown. We stayed in a government-owned hotel with internet in the rooms (i know, i should have posted sooner) and where we had two huge banquets with the town, hospital, and school officials. This involves the head table being toasted with fenjiu (a very strong rice wine made in the town - we visited the factory there one day, too) and everyone else being toasted as the officials go around to every table and try to get everyone involved. Being in that town involved a lot of pictures, a lot of fenjiu, two big basketball games that we barely won, and a lot of marathon-like days. It was strenuous and somehow fun in a weird and painful way, but I don't think I need to do it again in the forseeable future. We also visited a nurse's college and I told them all that my mum wants to be a nurse and is in school and they all just looked at me with the same face they used when we were speaking english too fast. I think it's pretty unbelievable to have a mom learning to be a nurse. So Mum, I guess you are cool.
From Fenyang we went to a town called Pingyao that is a walled city and I spent 4 hours walking the city in the dark with Chase talking about everything from China to the program to boys and home. It was a great city to wander and get lost in, even if we saw a dog that looked like a wolf and couldn't find any bread when I needed it most. The hotel also had the most amazing beds I have ever seen or slept in and I will be attaching photos of that as soon as I have them off of my camera and onto the flashdrive. I was roommates with Bea who also was bit by a dog that night and we kept joking she would turn into a werewolf and attack me in my sleep, but so far I have no bitemarks to show and haven't noticed any symptoms. And, as we all learned in New Moon (the second in the Twilight series), werewolves are hot.
So, on that note, I am going to leave and get some food and plan my call home to wish the little sister a happy 18th birthday tomorrow (I feel old) and Mum a happy Mommy's Day. I will write some more at a later date, perhaps tomorrow.
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