Tuesday, July 3, 2001

From: Meg Thomsen meginchina@yahoo.com
Subject: Happy fourth.

Hello Friends!

So, I've lifted my backpack and moved again! I am living in Deyang for the summer. We have moved in with families, and mine is so nice! Qin Xiaonu is a teacher at the local foreign language school, and she teaches English. She and her daughter, Li Qingqing like to speak to me a lot (Qingqing is twelve, and we watch Jackie Chan on television and talk about actors, the Spice Girls and food.). Xiounu's husband, Li Dong, doesn't speak any English, so he smiles at me a lot and laughs at my pathetic Chinese.

Almost all of the Chinese that I have learned so far has to do with food. I can say, "Everything is delicious!", "I am full now.", "Thank you for this very good meal." and can name about a dozen Chinese vegetables. I think that my favorite thing to eat here is tofu on a stick (doufu gar). They make it on barbeques all along the river, and it costs 5 jiao (about seven cents). However, all of this food is taking it's toll-- Pepto-Bismol is my new after-dinner mint.

It's strange being the only foreigners in this town. Everywhere we go turns into a parade, with people following us around and shouting "hello!" Two other volunteers and I went on an excursion with our host families. We went to a park with famous carvings everywhere and huge groups of people doing tai qi and Chinese folk dancing. All of a sudden, an older gentleman came running out of the crowd and dragged me into the middle of the park. It turns out that he learned how to tango years and years ago and had no one to practice with! An American would of course make the perfect dance partner! So all of a sudden, I'm tangoing around the park with this old gentlemen with his huge black glasses slipping down his face, with a crowd of a couple of hundred people staring at the waiguoren dancing in the park, and all I could think was, "I'm really in China. And I'm so glad to be here."

Chinese class has been great, although I come home exhausted every day. At lunchtime, there is a siesta, and I really look forward to it! After dinner, my host mother makes me review my lessons and she hammers at my speech until I can actually speak Chinese. Yesterday, I came home with the Sichuanese folk songs that we had learned in class, and the entire family immediately started singing them! Then we sang the songs together, and now they keep asking me to sing them!

I've got to go home now before it gets dark, but have a wonderful Fourth! I miss you folks! And I'll write personal e-mails tomorrow, I promise.

Miss you lots and lots.
Zaijian!
Tang Mali