Xi Xia

It was the beginning of a sublime three-day weekend. Sleep-in on Saturday, May Day on Sunday, Chinese Labor Day on Monday, which, of course, meant no class. My only goals were to shave my face and to fry up some chicken legs. I’d been researching how to do it the KFC way and perfecting my technique through trial and error for months. Sure, I didn’t have half the proper ingredients but damn it I was ready! My students had other plans for me.

On Saturday morning around eleven I woke up to an ardent knocking on my front door. I put on some pants and yelled, “do you know what time it is?” The knocking continued.

“Oh yeah, I’m in China and they probably can’t hear me, let alone understand me… especially through the door,” my brain blurted out to my empty bedroom. Buttoning up a shirt I walked to the front door.

“DO YOU KNOW WH—“ On the other side of the eyehole were four students smiling up at me. Opening it I sputtered an, “Oh, oh hey, how’s it going?”

We were to jump on a bus and head to Xi Xia right then! Serving in the Peace Corps does call for a lot of flexibility after all. The Colonel would have to wait.

What are ya, chicken?

As I unbuttoned the shirt to put it on they shoved a small paper bag filled with jian bing into my other hand and said, “it’s your breakfast!”

I wasn’t mad

Our destination, Xi Xia (pronounced ‘she sha’), had been talked up ever since I arrived at site last year.

“It is so beautiful.” – Cora, freshman oral English student

“I really want to go there, Matt.” – Ana, student who has never been there

“There’s a secret entrance that students can show you so you don’t have to pay the equivalent of $10 to get in.” – written on an old, brown-stained note left by the previous male volunteer at my site

“If Xi Xia was a boy he’d be my boyfriend <3.” – back-side of said note

As it turned out, it was a place FULL of magical wonders and EVEN MORE Chinese tourists. And even that secret entrance!

 

Who doesn’t enjoy toking a smooth one down by the river?

We hiked around and spoke English with each other while taking in the sites, which I suppose did something to fulfill the first goal of Peace Corps China: don’t ever embarrass yourself by speaking Chine—I mean teach English.”

But honestly, what would Peace Corps be without a dose or two of daily embarrassment?

Even for the sake of fashion

My students were enthusiastic to have me along and took many selfies and group selfies with their selfie sticks. Taking selfies is an epidemic in China just as it is in America. I’ve seen little kids do it, students in class do it, and breastfeeding women in hair salons do it. Everyone does it and if you don’t you won’t be able to shove pictures of your life onto the ever-widening social life raft that is WeChat (a social media platform in China similar to Facebook Messenger).

It’s surprising to me that ‘selfies’ is still underlined in red on Microsoft Word. The dictionary people really haven’t defined it yet? This is 2016! What’s the deal with that?

Come on I say!

The first word suggested to correct it is selfish. I can’t see how that’s relevant, though. What could the personal benefit of randomly shoving your arm out into empty space be? What if you were eating a big burrito? Gone! What if you were on the phone with your mother in law? Talk to you later! What if there was a big mean looking ex con walking within arms reach? Whoops.

Oh sorry sir I was just trying to take a… a photo of myself.

Here are few selfies that the students took and sent to me later:

While hiking around I met a few interesting Chinese people. One woman approached me speaking fluent English! I was dumbfounded… usually all I get is a quick, “I don’t understand what you’re saying,” rattled off to me in Chinese. But this woman’s English abilities were better than mine.

She’d been a middle school teacher teaching specifically English for 28 years. That November she was going to Boston for three months to study. It would be her first time in the States. She asked me what she should do there in her free time and I, having never even been within a hundred miles of Boston, mumbled to her to, “Go to a hockey game.” She heard, “Play in a hockey game,” and said, “No no no!”

Me at a loss for words in 2 languages

That’s exemplative of cultural exchange for me here in China.

That night I got home exhausted by the full day. Xi Xia had really taken it out of me. By this point the chicken legs had been marinating in salt and pepper water for over twenty-four hours, definitely wayyyy too long. But I didn’t care. I just hopped into bed!