College Craziness and the Hessler Hustle

February seems like forever ago.

Streets of Macau

The Giant Buddha in Hong Kong

After returning briefly to Bangkok for a few days after the islands, we headed up north to Hong Kong to celebrate the Chinese New Year. The trip ended up being bittersweet. Hong Kong was awesome; John’s health was not. Somewhere during our tour, John was bitten by a particularly bitter mosquito. After several international phone calls, a few two-hundred dollar withdraws from the bank, and a dozen trips between the hostel and hospital, we were relieved to know that John was likely infected by Dengue Fever, a non-contagious, usually non-life-threatening severe tropical virus. Athough the parades, fireworks, and shopping was fun, the best part of the trip was making it through Chinese customs without purple-n-red-chili-pepper John tipping off the thermal temperature sensors.  Our return to Beibei was timely and rejuvenating. During the rest of February I spent countless hours preparing for the GMAT exam.

The month of March was completely dedicated to my MBA candidate profile. March 7 marked the date of the GMAT exam, which I took in Chengdu, China. While visiting, I befriended local Chengdu people Dan and Justin (wife and husband, respectively), friends of Maggie Zhou, a friend from Rongchang (Sean and Cassie’s teaching campus). I was able to see the famed Chengdu Pandas, visit the beautiful People’s Park, and beat the locals (Dan and Justin) in Chengdu-style Mah-Jongg. For those of you unfamiliar with Mah-Jongg, this is quite a feat.

After returning from Chengdu, I spent my non-teaching hours as a busy hermit: writing/editing college essays, researching schools, filling out applications, etc. After the whole process was over, I was able to take two weeks for The "Peter Hessler" Experience: visit the famed Three Gorges Yangtze River Cruise and a tour around Fuling and the White Crane Ridge Museum. These sites were all mentioned in Peter Hessler’s River Town. the book I read this summer, previous to my China experience. I am reminded of his stories everyday. It seemed poetic to get to visit these spots during my teaching experience here, living in a town down by a river..

Cribbage n' beer on the boat. I lost in cribbage many times. 

*China owns the only underwater museum in the world, The White Crane Ridge Museum. Unfortunately, it is nothing more than a glorified submarine ride. The impressive, ancient carved rocks that are now completely submerged due to the Three Gorges Project are barely made visible through the murky river water, and the visitor only has six 3’ diameter glass window from which to gaze upon them.

*China has the world’s largest power station in terms of installed capacity (Yangtze Three Gorges Project), generating 22,500 MW. It’s a great feat that benefits countless people, yet it also displaced 1.3 million people and damaged many archaeological sites (like the one above) in the process. Was this right to do? The answer surely can’t be black or white.

*Chinese rarely shake hands, and surface level talk is minimal if not nonexistent. After all, surface level talk can be costly when living in the suburbs of a city with 34 million people. A typical conversation with a passing student in Beibei goes like this…

ME: “Helllooo! How’s it going?” (often forgetting one of my over 800 student’s names)
Student: “Going to eat! You know.. chi fan!” (After several nervous, failed attempts to greet with a more intricate English phrase)
ME: “Okay sounds good. See you!” (No handshake or hug, just the standard yet slightly awkward wave)

Three Gorges River Cruise