What's Happening???

As most of you probably know, I hopped on a plane in New York City at the end of August 2017 and embarked on a sixteen-hour journey to the other side of the planet. Since then, I have been living in the city of Changsha, China, where I am teaching English in Beiya Middle School.

This is kind of the craziest decision I've ever made.

However, as my parents are keen to remind me, I haven't really shared all that much about my life with folks back home. As the new year begins, I want to use this blog to change that- to share my experiences, thoughts, feelings, and stories with anyone who's interested, and also to make a record for myself, because otherwise I'll forget things for sure.

My first few days in China were kind of a blur. The jet lag was obviously a big part of this- my body was suddenly twelve hours out of sync- but the culture shock was even more disorienting. I've done a fair bit of travel in my life, but all of it was to Western countries, in cultures and languages that I was at least passingly familiar with. Here, I am an alien, come to a different planet.

Streets here are completely bonkers. Traffic "laws" seem more like suggestions, cars drive on the sidewalk when the main road becomes too clogged, and mopeds run rampant wherever they please. I learned very quickly that pedestrians do NOT have the right of way. When you aren't dodging a stream of cars and bikes you still need to be careful; the walking areas are mostly clean but they have occasional landmines. People spit on the sidewalk a lot, and it isn't uncommon to see discarded cigarettes scattered on the ground. I've also seen children pooping right on the side of the roads, casually held up by their mothers. That really caught me off guard. Weaving in between everything you can find small dogs, always on the move, seemingly oblivious to the humans surrounding them.

But even with all these hazards (and, in part, because of them), I tend to have a lot of fun just walking around near my apartment. I live on the 15th floor of just one of a large cluster of 33-story buildings, and the ground floor is a pseudo-underground grid of building gates, restaurants, clothing stores, fresh food markets, hardware shops, street food, even a few small, hidden-away sex toy booths. The markets are always interesting- walking through them is like going into some sort of exotic, smelly, morbid zoo. I see vegetables I don't recognize, chickens and ducks in cages, fish and eels flopping halfheartedly in shallow bins of water, and strange pieces of pig hanging on display- I'm talking tails, hooves, snouts.

There are also times when it feels I'm the one in the zoo. There are not many foreigners here, so people tend to stare. It doesn't bother me though- mostly it's a friendly, curious thing. The best is when it's young kids looking- sometimes they get surprised and confused, sometimes scared. But most of the time I'm greeted with smiles, so it's all right. As strange as it is, I don't think I'll ever get tired of random children excitedly shouting "Waiguoren!!" (which means "foreigner!") when they see me.

Overall, the thing about Changsha that has made the strongest impression on me is the kindness of its people. Nearly everyone I meet is friendly, curious, and helpful, and even after they realize how little Mandarin I know they try their hearts out to keep a conversation going. I've been met with more warmth and generosity than I ever expected, for that I'm grateful.

I want to share something that a friend I met here told me while we were having dinner one night. People will sometimes greet each other by saying 吃饭了吗 (chifan le ma), which literally means "Have you eaten yet?" A guy on the street said this to me during one of the early weeks of my stay here, and I was confused- I thought he was asking me to dinner. But my friend told me about how not too long ago most of China was living in serious poverty, and food was scarce. People didn't always know if they would be able to eat on a given day. This stuck with me, and I think it makes the hospitality I've felt here that much more significant. In a way it reminds me of Nicaragua- obviously China is far wealthier and more developed, but both countries have experienced some pretty serious turmoil in recent history. In spite of this, the people in these places are consistently hospitable and generous- anybody who's been to El Sauce can back me up on this.

These first five months have really flown by, but I'm super excited for the rest of my time here! I'm making a commitment to update this blog regularly, so if you want to hear about anything in particular feel free to let me know. I'll be traveling outside of China during February, so most of what I write about in the near future will probably not be Changsha-related. Anyways, stay tuned, I've got lots of adventures coming up!