Hello everyone!
Well, I can finally say that I am a Peace Corps Volunteer. I was officially sworn in as a PCV on Wed., Sept. 3rd by the director of the Peace Corps. Director Tschetter came to Chengdu especially for the occasion, and I was glad to meet him. It was quite an eventful week, and I am still in a major transition period, or at least that is how I am feeling. Last weekend we moved out of our host family’s apartment and into a hotel in downtown Chengdu. We had a few more days of training and then the swearing-in ceremony. The ceremony took place the mid-morning and by the late afternoon I was on a train headed for my site in Chongqing. It was completely overwhelming with all the commotion, transporting tons of luggage, and trying to say goodbye to all the other trainees (now volunteers) I have spent the last 2 months getting to know. Because of the vastness of China, most of us probably won’t see each other again until the middle or end of January when we have our “in-service training.”
I arrived at my site pretty late at night on Wednesday. I put together a short list of things that happened within my first 24 hours:
First day at site:
• Woke up at 6 am to the campus wide siren/alarm
• The only English speaking TV channel doesn’t work – but that’s okay because I should watch the Chinese channels to practice my listening.
• My shower head broke off when I picked it up
• No hot water (that was fixed by the next day)
• Gas took a while to turn on because it hasn’t been used in awhile
• I prepped for my first class. Went to the classroom with my counterpart because he wanted to show me how to use the computer. Not one student shows up. Turns out the students just assumed because I missed the first two sections of the class, I wouldn’t be there.
• My counterpart wanted to walk me home. I needed to stop at the store on campus. So part of getting to know my counterpart was he and I choosing the best kind of toilet paper.
• When I got back to my apartment, I could not for the life of me get the door open. Called a waiban’s (the waiban is the office for international affairs/foreign teachers) assistant to help me. He sent a worker to help. It was the small guy who came to fix my shower earlier in the day.
I guess you could say it has been a little bit of an adventure so far. I went shopping today for food and some things for my apartment, which has been fruitful. I figured out that there is a place that is right around the corner from my building that sells French baguettes!! I think I will be very happy here!
As I said in my post about my site visit, Chongqing Technology and Business University is beautiful and I am glad to be placed here. Even though I am living a city that feels like Manhattan, it is nice to come back to a campus where there are plenty of trees and mountain trails for hiking.
I will be sure to add more about my site as I learn more – everyday holds new discoveries at this point.
I begin teaching this week – wish me luck!
No comments:
Post a Comment