tastes and smells

After two of perhaps the most humid days I’ve experienced, I just remind myself it is actually probably really healthy, right? I am sweating all the toxins out of my system. I sweat, so much in fact, that I don’t think my sweat stinks anymore. Is this content inappropriate? Should I not talk about sweating and stinking? Regardless, I think my sweat probably does still stink – it is more likely that I am just used to smelling my sweat, so I don’t notice it anymore.
Any comments or questions about sweat? I’d love to hear ‘em.

So. I am slowly getting to know the city of Chongqing. It really is big. I know I have written that like a million times, but it is a really, really big city. There are districts and business areas and buses and monorails and taxis and bridges and tunnels and mountains and rivers and skyscrapers and underpasses and overpasses and people and people and more people. So many people. An unbelievable amount of people. Friday night, my friend Jason and I decided we would try to make brownies. Jason inherited very nice sized toaster oven (really it is more like a convection oven, and I think you could probably fit a turkey in it if you wanted to) and you all know I would hardly pass up an opportunity to bake. So we needed butter for the brownies, which is not an easy thing to come by in China. We decided to check the regular “Chinese” supermarket and if they didn’t have it, we would walk to the Metro stop and shop. Who knew that Friday nights around 8 are a time when what I believe to be every other person in Chongqing goes to the supermarket. The only comparison I could come up with is the time I worked at Dunn Bros. the night of Thanksgiving midnight madness. Some of you may know what I am referring to – going to the supermarket revived symptoms of the post-traumatic stress disorder I developed as a result of that fateful night. Anyone who was out that night in Albertville might understand what living in China is like.

Tonight I attended a dinner with 3 other PCVs serving in Chongqing and a group of about 30 Americans who are in China for a trip with the National Geographic Expedition. We were invited to have dinner with group by their leader, Bill, who was the Country Director for Peace Corps China from 1993 (the program’s first year) to 1999. I was pretty excited because it was a free meal for us and bound to be some great banquet-style Chinese food. The four us amongst the group and chatted with the travelers, who are here for a 3 week whirlwind tour of China. It was a wonderful evening. I enjoyed talking with Americans – although I see other PCVs on a regular basis, it was great to have some new perspectives not affiliated with the PC.

More significantly, I realized as we ate and talked that I have learned A LOT in the last 3 months. Table manners, types of food, language, and just everyday life were all things we talked about, all things they had questions about. As I ate I realized I have picked up so many Chinese habits (eating out of my bowl instead of off my plate, eating w/chopsticks right from all the dishes, spitting out the bones on the plate [I know that sounds disgusting, sorry]) and I was doing it all absentmindedly. It wasn’t until the travelers asked why I was doing what I was doing that I realized it. Maybe that seems insignificant, but it was really crazy to me. Creepy and exciting at the same time. In the end, I am extremely happy that I went to the dinner. It has given me an entirely new perspective of my experiences so far. Now that I think about it, I guess you could qualify it as a mild form of reverse culture shock. Weird.

Again, I hope you are all doing well. Enjoy the wonderful fall weather of Minnesota/Wisconsin or wherever you are. And just think of me, the sweat-hog of Chongqing.