Yunnan Trip Part 2: good food, booze, and a band

Here my story of my trip to the Yunnan province to China will continue
with my visit to the Dai village. After having just survived a horribly
cold night sleeping on rough wooden boards in a room with only three
walls pulling up to the warm welcoming Dai village was very exciting.
The village is on the border between Myanmar (Burma) and China so it is
on the southern most border of the Yunnan province. It was pleasantly
warm and the fields were filled with banana trees. The village was
beautiful with tons of flowers, children running around in the sun, and
villagers sitting outside selling handmade crafts. It was so nice to be
walking around in the warm sun breathing in the clean fragrant air! My
host mother was extremely nice and made us a delicious lunch. We had
sweet sticky rice with peanuts, delicious fresh cucumber, and a bunch of
other dishes that I actually really enjoyed eating. After lunch our host
mother took us on a tour of the village, which included a rice wine
tasting. The tasting started with a “mild” local rice wine which tasting
nothing like wine and was strong enough to make a couple of the girls
with me cough. Then we tried three more wines which increased in
strength ending in a clear “wine” that triggered several peoples gag
reflexes and tasting like drinking rubbing alcohol. So after four or
five shots of progressively stronger liquor the old villager running the
tasting gave us another shot of the first yellow wine we tasted which
now tasted suspiciously good. Needless to say we all left the wine
tasting laughing happily with smiling faces. That night we had another
delicious meal prepared by our host mother and then went to the village
party where we all learned local village dances and danced around a
giant bond fire. We also reciprocated the cultural exchange of dance my
teaching all the children in the village the chicken dance. After the
party I went back to my host house with the other four girls in my group
and we went to bed slumber party style on the floor of the living room.
I feel asleep content, happy that I didn’t have to wear my coat to sleep
and happy to have a full stomach. 

      An old Dai village man trying to get us to drink more "rice wine".

The next village we visited was a Bai village. Unfortunately the food
was not delicious like the Dai village. Instead the dinner my host
mother made me consisted of fish with bones and scales, lard soaked in
spices, and several unidentifiable foods that looked like organs and
worms. I tried most of the food and then tried to kill the awful tastes
in my mouth with some rice. In general I ate a lot of rice in Yunnan,
lots and lots of rice. The Bai people are known for their dances so the
village party was full of beautiful village dances. The village had a
small stage that had a band of local men playing traditional instruments
and providing the music for most of the dances. After the party we went
back to our host house and then went on an epic adventure to go to the
bathroom. We left the house and went down the windy path through the
village, we had to jump over some chasms in the path, avoid the piles of
poop, duck under the low hanging roofs, walk down a hill, go over a
small river, walk on giant paving stones across some muddy grass, and
walk to a field where there was a wooden stall with a hole to go to the
bathroom in. As I was waiting for the other girls I looked up at the
stars and then couldn’t take my eyes off them. The sky was gorgeous! It
was like being in a planetarium with every start in the sky visible and
shining bright. I could see all the constellations and more starts than
I can count twinkling in the beautiful sky. I just stood there thinking,
“Oh my God, I am standing in the middle of nowhere China in a village
staring at one of the most beautiful end to a challenging day of cultural immersion.


The final village we staying in was a Naxi village in Northern Yunnan.
The village is surrounded by mountains, some of which are the beginnings
of the foothills of the Himalayas. The mountains were absolutely
beautiful. The tallest mountain was gorgeous – caped with beautiful snow
with clouds clinging to its peaks looking like all the majestic
mountains I’ve seen on planet earth and national geographic movies.
Also, knowing that on the other side of the mountain lay the Tibetan
cultural region made me more meditative and peaceful. My host mother was
very nice and since all her children had moved to the city to work there
were twenty girls from my program staying in her house. Ten of us slept
in the attic, which was surprisingly warm since she gave us a ton of
blankets. Like all the other villages we had dinner with our host family
and then went to the village party to see traditional village dances and
share some American culture by singing old rock classics and modern
songs like “Dynamite” which Lily (one of our staff members) translated
told the villagers was a song about the celebration of life, which I
guess it kind of is.


It was strange to think that our trip was ending the next day. We had
been traveling through Yunnan for almost two weeks and it seemed like a
different world, a totally different China. Being in Yunnan has made me
rethink how I feel about China and has really changed how I understand
China. Staying with ethnic minorities, especially in their villages, was
an eye opening experience. Although many times the people and places
seemed so vastly different from home in many of the villages I was
struck by the generosity and friendship the people shared with us. And
although they don’t have toilets or heat I found that they like to
celebrate life the same way my giant polish family does back in America –
with good food, booze, and a band. 

                               The Bai village women 

                              Me in the Naxi village

Yunnan Trip Part 1: beautiful and terrifying

I’m back from my two-week trip to the Yunnan province of China. It was a
mandatory academic excursion trip that focused on learning about and
interacting with some of the ethnic minorities in that region of China.
On the trip we stayed with five different ethnic minority groups in
their villages. In each village we were assigned a host family who we
spent the day with and then spent the night in their home. If you
pretend you're watching a national geographic movie where there are men
and women dressed in traditional village clothing dancing around a fire,
pooping in a hole in the ground, and eating bugs for lunch you can begin
to picture some of my experiences in the villages of Yunnan. I’m not
kidding – I’ve become an expert at the squat and go bathroom method.

The first village we stayed was home to the Yi people. This was actually
my favorite village because the food was actually really good and my
host mother was wonderful. The home where I stayed with a traditional
dwelling with minimal electricity (only a couple light bulbs), no heat,
and a rooster to wake you up early in the morning. When had a big lunch
with lots of dishes with local vegetables and pork from the freshly
slaughtered pig. We also had water containing a stick with leaves in it,
which I later learned was a local grass used to make tea. It was
actually really good but I couldn’t help thinking about the Polovick
side of my family joking about eating tree bark. Later we climbed into
the back of some trucks and rode up a nearby mountain to get to a lake
where the Yi women were going to perform their village dances. I
seriously thought I was going to fall off of a cliff and die as we drove
up the winding dirt road standing in the back of the truck with only
each other to hang on to. Fortunately I survived the ride and got to see
the Yi women perform their beautiful dances, especially their famous
dragon dance. I couldn’t believe that I was standing in a village in the
middle of nowhere China watching Yi women perform a dragon dance for
Chinese New Year. It was incredible. After the women finished performing
they tried to teach us the dragon dance. It was way harder than I
thought it would be. The women made it look so easy, but the dragon and
the sticks supporting it were really heavy! Being in the Yi village was
just the beginning of a trip that was like nothing I have ever
experienced before.

The second village we stayed in was a Hani village much higher up in the
mountains, which means that the people often turn to baijiu (a
disgusting tasting clear liquor with a 60% alcohol content). When I got
to my host families house after hiking up a ridiculously steep hill my
host father immediately insisted on pouring me and Emily, the other
student with me, a glass of baijiu. One sip was enough to make me cough,
but we had been warned not to reject the offering since it would be
extremely disrespectful. So we chocked down our glasses over lunch that
was one of the scariest meals I’ve ever seen or attempted to eat. There
were actual bugs in a dish on the table and my host brother was poping
them in his mouth just like they were the peanuts next to them. I ate
another dish which I didn’t know had bugs in it but quickly discovered
was not something I wanted anywhere near my mouth. After lunch we met up
with some local children to hike the rice terraces. The rice terraces
were absolutely beautiful. It was like looking at a postcard only I
could smell the freshness of the air and feel the mushy ground
 under my feet. My captivation of the beauty lasted until the terraces became as narrow as a balance beam and not falling off into the murky rice paddies became my top priority. I was getting a little scared at one point and out of no where a little Hani girl grabbed my hand to guide me on the path. It was so sweet, and such perfect moment of kindness and human connection that at least for a while I totally forgot about my fear of falling. The Hani village was beautiful and challenging and another part of the journey that has opened my eyes to a world I’ve never experienced before. 

The story of this journey will be continued in blogs to come…

你好 Ni hao! Hi!

Learning Chinese is really really really difficult. I think it is
probably the hardest class of my college career so far. The sounds are
different and even when I write in pinyin (American letters) the letters
mean totally different things. For example the letter q is pronounced
“chi” and the letter x is pronounced “she”. I already have a good
study group that meets the night before every class to work on homework
together and study for our dictation quizzes. Aside from my Chinese
language class I am really excited about my other classes. I am taking a
research seminar to help with the progress of my Ricci project and the
professor is extremely knowledgeable, helpful, and encouraging. He has
already helped me to think about what I want to do with my project and
make sure it is really what I want to study. I have decided to focus on
Buddhist temples in Beijing, especially some of the historically
significant ones. My research mentor is also wonderful and has even
offered to drive me to some temples later in the semester. My favorite
class so far is Daoism. The professor has a great sense of humor and has
us meditate in class. I am also taking a sociology class focused on
society and religion in China. The class seems like it is going to be
extremely helpful for my research project and will also be a very
interesting class. My professor is a Pulitzer Prize winner and seems to
be an all around amazing person. He wrote one of the books I have for
class and is going to have the author of one of our other books come and
speak to us about his experience in China. We are also going to get to
go on some field trips! Overall, I am already really enjoying my classes
here and love learning so muchabout China and Chinese culture while here
in China. My classes have been keeping me very busy.

I’ve also been preparing for a two-week trip to the Yunnan Province of
China. It is a mandatory educational study trip sponsored by my program.
We will be traveling through Yunnan for two weeks and five of the nights
we will be in minority villages spending the nights sleeping in the homes
of minority villagers. Unfortunately I won’t have internet access during
the trip so I won’t be able to post any blogs for the next two weeks but
I’m sure I will have tons to write about when I get back!

Incense and Awe

Today I started my research for my Ricci project on sacred space by going
to the Yonghegong Temple in Beijing. When I existed the subwaystation I
was immediately aware that I was close to the temple. The street
was lined with little shops selling incense to be burned in front of
temples, Buddhist prayer beads, and other religious goods. I began to
smell the incense wafting over the walls of the temple before I arrived
at the entrance. I was the only white person standing in line with the
many Chinese people who were all holding bundles of incense. I’m glad
I’ve learned some basic numbers inChinese so I could ask to buy one
ticket. I walked toward the path and the closer I got to the main gate
the stronger the smell of incense became (fortunately it is a smell I
love). When I entered the temple complex through the main gate I was
overcome with the beauty of the temple and the beauty of the
people praying. It was hard to believe the number of believers lighting
incense, bowing in prayer, and offering incense to Buddha. There were
people of all ages from teenagers to the elderly and dressed in
everything from simple traditional outfits to high heels and fashionable
coats.

I felt like I was intruding on a very private beautiful moment of prayer.
For a long time I just stood and watched as people offered incense and
prayed bowing down on their knees. Finally I got up the courage to
walk inside one of the temple halls and since the young monk at the
entrance didn’t stop me I figured it was okay. Even though I am not a
Buddhist I truly felt like I was walking on sacred ground and was very
moved by the experience. The giant gold Buddha in the hall I entered was
beautiful. The emotion I felt when I entered the temple hall and saw it
transported me back to the first time I stepped into Saint Peter’s
Basilica in Rome. I was in awe of the beauty and mystery of the temple
hall. It was an indescribable experience. It was so moving for me, and so
prayerful. Even my prayer had no words I felt a powerfulsense of prayer
in my heart. When I exited the temple I remembered why I had come to
China and why I am a religious studies major: to experience these
kinds of places, to study them, and to grow in my understanding of the
world and myself. Going to yonghegong temple was an extraordinary experience
and I can’t wait to visit more Buddhist temples in Beijing.

Dealing with Duality

It is still hard to say how I feel about living in Beijing. The tastes,
smells, sounds, sights, and textures still leave me in some level of
culture shock. I think that the hardest thing I’ve had to wrap my
head around is the many seemingly contradictory experiences of life in
Beijing. As I walk out of the International University of Business and
Economics campus I live on and into the local neighborhood I notice how
the streets are littered with cigarettes and trash, and garbage collects
along the curb. It seems to be a place lacking any sort of cleanliness,
but when I step into the subway system it is spotless with airport like
security for your bags. The extremely efficient, brightly lit and clean
train pulls up exactly on schedule and as it flies out of the station I
almost feel like I could be in a futuristic episode of Doctor Who as I
listen to an unfamiliar language, speeding underground in a sleek shiny
metro car. When I walk to local restaurants around campus I see
shiny expensive cars driving on the same street as bicycles towing carts
of heaping piles of wood or other supplies. There are fancy restaurants
with big red lanterns next to the local hole in the wall restaurants no
bigger than my dorm room. The fancy hot pot restaurant I went to served
soup with little fish in it(really, a whole fish was in my soup, eyes,
scales, and all!) but the best meal I have had yet is the delicious baozi
from a restaurant that is more like a room with three small tables. At
first glance it would scare away anyone frightened of the lack of
hygiene. It is a place where you don’t let the rough wooden chopsticks
hit the table but you can count on the steamed buns and dumplings being
fresh and delicious. At first I thought the whole hallway I live on in
my dorm smelt like Chinese take-out but now I seem have become accustomed
to this smell everywhere. So often this city seems so modern teaming with
businessmen and technology but then I remember that there are no laundry
dryers, YouTube, and facebook don’t work, and I wonder how this great
contrast exists. Last Saturday I went to the Forbidden City, a beautiful
site of Chinese history. It was remarkable that to get to the gorgeous
palace built over five hundred years ago for the glory of Chinese
dynasties I had to walk through Tiananmen Squareand consider the great
contrast in these two historical sites. I am still processing what it
means to be in China, and especially in Beijing. My senses have been
bombarded with all the new surroundings and although there are
somethings I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to I can definitely get
used to sitting with some friends over a couple dishes of steaming hot
baozi from the hole in the wall restaurant where a little happiness can
be bought for less than a dollar.

Beijing

I can’t believe I’m in China! Really, I still don’t think it has sunk in
that I am here and will be until the middle of May. I am staying on an
international university campus in an international student dorm.
The hallways often smell like fried rice or a compilation of Chinese
dishes, and in the community bathrooms the toilets consist of wholes in
the floor. Fortunately I have a western style toilet in my room that I
share with my roommate from Saint Louis University. So far I haven’t seen
much of Beijing as I have been settling in and going to orientation on
campus. It is definitely going to behard to blend in here as a white,
light hair, blue eyed American.

So far I have already eaten more Chinese dishes than in my whole life previous to coming to Beijing. It is typical to have lunch or dinner with a group at a table with a lazy susan where all the dishes are passed around to everyone so I’ve been able to try tons of new food.
I’m a fan of the kung pow chicken here and have had some delicious fried
noodles with beef. I’ve also had some stranger dishes like haven’t been
so appealing to my taste buds like a soup containing fish balls, shrimp,
black chicken, bok choy, and mushrooms. My skills with chopsticks have been rapidly improving out of necessity although I’m still struggling with some foods. My friend Hung who is studying here helped me out with a very helpful lesson so I’m getting better.There are lots of cultural differences here I’ve already seen and I’m sure tons I will discover in the near future. So far it has been really overwhelming to be here, and as my jet lag is just starting to wear off hopefully I can discover more of Beijing soon. 

Arrivederci Roma

Today is my last day in Rome. I can’t believe how fast the time has gone. This whole semester has been a challenging and life changing pilgrimage. In one of my classes I was asked to write a reflection about the semester and one of the quotes from our textbook The Italians particularly struck me. “A moment of revelation comes, it must be admitted, practically to everybody […] Each has his own way of reaching maturity. Some need the imperceptible passing of the years. It takes but a tiny incident for others; like the shaking of a kaleidoscope it precipitates an abrupt change of the picture” (176). Rome and all the other wonderful places I have traveled have all acted in their own way as the shifting colors of a kaleidoscope, shifting my view of the world.  Being immersed in a culture where I don’t know the language and don’t know the customs has taught me to adapt in new ways. I have learned to love Italian cappuccino and cornetti and the culture that surrounds it. I know I will never be able to eat pasta again without thinking about one of the amazing dishes I’ve had here. The vino will never be the same and I’ll miss wandering around the city center and seeing masterpieces of Bernini on my way.

I’m ready to go home to see my family, and I know I will need every day I have before flying to China for the second part of my Ricci Scholar adventure. But that doesn’t make leaving any less easy. It is hard to think about not greeting my friends with a ciao or going out for some pasta and vino for a birthday. It is hard to think about leaving the city where I can go visit the Vatican when I need to say a special prayer. It is hard to think about leaving a place that I have grown to love. Rome has offered me the opportunity to embark on a pilgrimage that has helped me to mature and has changed my picture of the world and myself. Roma has taught me so much and has truly been like the shaking of a kaleidoscope allowing different colors and shapes to surface, changing me and the way I see the world.

Arrivederci Roma!

My Blog will continue in January when I head to Beijing, China!