When I last posted, well over a month ago, I was in Indiana, sort of glowing over the fact that my paperwork finally got through and that my upcoming stint in Xinjiang was no longer hanging by a thread. Now, I’ve been in Xinjiang for three weeks.
Needless to say, a lot has happened since I last posted, but I don’t want to make a long, meandering post describing the transition in excruciating detail that will ward off readers. I’ll keep it nice and succinct. Here goes.
My experience here so far has largely been a whirlwind. I hit the ground running. After a nice, disorienting flight from Los Angeles to Beijing followed by another from Beijing to the provincial capital followed by a much shorter one from the capital to my city of residence, I was immediately told I would teach the next day. As I’m being told this by my boss (Lisa, or, alternatively, MASTER LIU in Chinese – talk about different cultural systems of address), I’m sort of staring out the window of our car blinking profusely, trying to wink away a combination of bad jet lag and newbie awe. Go figure, Lisa wasn’t kidding. After sitting in on a class held by the other foreign teacher, I taught 4 classes the next day. Poor me. Jetlagged, I woke up at 6 in the morning that day – which in reality is 4 in the morning, because Xinjiang is on “Beijing Time” although the province is located a good two timezones west of Beijing. With nothing to do but wait, I braved the darkness and ran two miles at the track right outside my dorm. Unfortunately, my victory over jetlag means that I haven’t ran since then. D’oh!
Every other day or so I make forays into the city to buy stuff to make my cozy little corner of the world something worthy of the name “home.” I replaced my uncomfortable dining room chair with a plush rolly office chair that I paid a little over 20 American dollars for. I printed out some pictures, put them in frames, and hung them on the wall. I bought new sheets for my bed, and now am perkily ensconced in blue flowers every night when I go to sleep. Next on the list are a little table to do work on and a carpet. Thank God I’m on the Silk Road; I’m going to by an awesome Uyghur carpet. It’ll blow your mind. Stay tuned.
That’s it for now. I’m teaching and trying to settle in. My brain’s operating system is painfully being converted to Mandarin Chinese with a little Uyghur add-on here and there. I can sense it in the air – I’ll eventually start talking more and more to interesting people. And of course, I’ll let you guys know what happens when I can.
In the meantime, I’d love it if you could swing by my flickr account and take a looksie at the sporadic pictures I’ve been taking of my new situation. There should be a little flickr box on this blog’s sideboard that you can zap yourself through, otherwise, here’s a direct link. Once I become a fixture rather than a novelty here in Korla (despite being Asian looking, I still do get a lot of attention. Probably for speaking poor Chinese), I’ll start busting out the Canon and I’ll have some sweeter pictures heading your way.
