i will eat your face

Peace Corps Announces New Service Opportunity for Same-Sex Couples

peacecorps:

We’re proud to announce that we will begin accepting applications from same-sex domestic partners who want to serve together as Volunteers overseas!

Same-sex couples may begin the application process starting Monday, June 3. 

:D

So this happened

About a month ago, I got an e-mail from a woman I had met before I came to China. She works for Peace Corps, specifically with the Master’s International students, and was working on putting a piece together featuring the experiences of some MI students around the world. Would I mind helping?

I’m always one to do a favor, so I said yes. Plus, it always seems like Peace Corps headquarters passes over stories about China in favor of Central/South America or Africa. So, sure. I’ll help.

I wrote up my responses to her questions, sent along a few pictures, and maybe two weeks later she sent me a belated thank you. That last thing, the belated thank you, really made me feel like I was in the clear.

Until this morning. When I woke up, saw a newsletter from Peace Corps in my inbox.

Well, crap. That’s not just a mention. That’s a feature article. I can’t even bear to read it, but I know I have beloved friends and family back home who may be interested. Also, a general lesson to just never respond when Peace Corps comes knocking. 

Here’s the full text, for those who care. Tell me if I sound stupid, because I haven’t been able to read about myself since that one time when I was 17 and the paper quoted me saying, “Please don’t harass the cars”. Anyway, here you go:

Master’s International Student Kathryn Johnston Falls in Love with Gansu, China

“I never planned on pursuing a master’s in TESOL or joining the Peace Corps. Both are things that happened to fall in my lap at the right time. Looking back from my 10th month of service, now I can’t see pursuing any other possible option.

“I got lucky finding this path. My old computer crashed with a few weeks to spare of graduate school application season. I had nothing backed up. At the same time, an email appeared in my inbox from a new program called Peace Corps Master’s International at Portland State University. I clicked over to the Peace Corps website, and an hour later I had planted the seed. Deciding to apply for a TESOL degree wasn’t too far from my original plan, and actually fit my life goals better. I have always wanted the teaching position in the end, and teaching English-language learners rather than liberal arts majors better suited my fledgling teaching philosophy.

“Everyone has a different experience and, even though I made my best efforts, I was still convinced that if I got placed in China, things would be terrible. I overcame that fear, got placed in China, but then maintained that getting placed in Gansu would be the worst thing ever. It’s good to admit to being wrong, which I wholeheartedly do in this case: Being in Gansu is the greatest experience ever. Of course, I think I would love any place with the same depth simply because that is what I wanted to do in the Peace Corps: I wanted to fall in love with a place and fall in love with my work. I’ve fallen in love a thousand times over already, and it happens in new ways with every passing day. My students inspire me to become a better teacher, and I hope that I, in turn, can inspire them to be better teachers when they leave our school and front a classroom on their own. I have done things I never thought would be fun, like visiting primary schools, only to get hooked and seek out new chances to return to the schools I have already visited and find new ones to visit.

“I think the most important thing I have experienced so far has been to go to a student’s home for the big winter holiday—Spring Festival/Chinese New Year. I spent almost two weeks living with her and her family, and this is really where I met Peace Corps Goals 2 and 3. I was the first foreigner they had ever met, and (I hope) I represented the American people to the best of my ability. In turn, I was able to tell my friends and family stories about China that often go unheard: stories about a family willing to take in a foreign guest for two weeks, have a huge communication gap, yet still treat that guest with extreme kindness. This is especially poignant to me as my hosts reminded me it wasn’t so long ago that there was not enough to go around to spare such kindness.

“While I stay busy enough that I can hardly even think a month ahead, let alone to the end of my service, no matter what I do in the future, I want to be with underserved populations and teaching skills they can use to create the destiny they want for themselves.”

Chinese lesson

This says: Liǎng rén sān tuǐ pǎo. Literally ‘Two-person three-leg run’ or as you may know it better: the three-legged race. Or, the event I competed in this last weekend at our university-wide sports meeting.

You’ll be proud to know my partner and I came in dead last. 

Bonus from the bike ride!

There aren’t words*. 

*Except these: The box is actually tied to the man, that dog’s snug as, well, a dog in a box.  

Just the worst

Meaning: me. I am just the worst. At providing a thoughtfully curated view of my life here in China. I don’t even care so much about showing the best of the best, but my inability to post something even once a month means that a photo or text dump would be unwieldy. No one needs to think I’m the very best, but they at least should think me capable of writing a coherent blog post. 

In the month since I last updated, a lot has been done. I went to another primary school, flew to Chengdu for a weekend, had a birthday, hosted guests from Tianshui, participated in a sports meet, lost a sports meet, and got my (read as: belonging to the volunteer before me and left behind) bike fixed and took it for an inaugural 25 mile ‘spin’. 

And this is on top of my weekly duties. I teach 20 hours a week, take 4-6 hours of Chinese lessons a week, eat lunch with the students, spend every afternoon at our English club, and then walking home from school (4 miles). That doesn’t count the time I spend on the weekends cleaning (so dusty here!) and socializing. Not to mention the lesson planning. My listening and culture classes are both content driven, so I have to spend the weekends learning the content and then figuring out language skills to match with appropriate items. Most recently I taught Shakespeare (which required I read Shakespeare for the first time ever). This week we’re breezing through the great scientific achievements of the 17th century and dabbling in Francis Bacon. I made a bizarre pledge to myself to read 100 books this year (just started number 34!) I also theoretically (though sometimes in practice) work on my thesis. Professors reading from home - maybe you’ll actually hear about this through e-mail one of these days.

Also, the weather has been awesome, so sitting inside is boring. 

So, pretty much: busy all the time. One of my classes ends in a week (Selected English Short Stories - that requires minimal week-to-week upkeep but the front end was RIDICULOUS) so perhaps the drop from 20 to 16 hours a week will free up blogging times. 

If nothing else fails, it turns out writing ‘update blog’ on my to-do list is a solid plan. It’s how this entry came to be. 

When I teach on Monday mornings:

howapcvputsitgently:

I am a morning person, so I’m like:

and all my students are just like:

I really wish this were just limited to Mondays. I’ve got four 8am classes a week, and Every. Damn. Time. 

On Holiday

I’ve been back from my holiday in the countryside for over a month now, but have yet to say a word about it. I’ve been busy. But I feel like I can at least you give this much, verbatim from my paperwork to the Peace Corps bosses: 

I could write a novel about my time or I could just say
simple things: I got to experience life in the countryside of China
and be reminded of my own hometown back in America. I was doted on by my friend’s mother and ate way more than I could handle if only because it was all so delicious. I was taunted by a 10 year old boy but we still came out of it friends. My friendship with my host deepened immensely, where even her mother was teasing us for  looking and acting so much like sisters. The whole vacation was basically my heart writing a love letter to China and to the Chinese people I’ve met.

Picture Search

I recently returned from a two week trip to Chengdu to participate in our In-Service Training. Returning to a city that felt so mysterious this summer only to find it completely familiar was a small comfort. Reading menus is still a challenge.

My literacy skills are flourishing, for certain, but going to a restaurant still feels like opening up a Highlights magazine and trying to find the rake hidden in a cityscape. I know what I want, but there’s a lot to distract me. 

I will take my distractions up to eleven for the next two weeks, where I leave behind all that is familiar and comfortable and go off to the countryside to stay with two of my students/friends (that distinction alone has a posting brewing) and their families. One stop will include a pig farm. I’m beyond excited.

Until then: 春节平安快乐！Have a happy and peaceful (Chinese) new year!