The figurative dust kicked up by my transition from the US to Xinjiang has settled, so to speak. I’ve already confided in a friend of mine that I really believe, after four weeks here, I can safely say I’ve settled in, made a “home” (though we’re all still is waiting for a beautiful Uyghur carpet), created a job routine, and forged connections with my students. This is a good thing.
However, as the figurative dust settled, the real dust rose. Weather.com describes the current weather, which started about two days ago, as “Widespread Dust.” I couldn’t describe it better myself. While I know from some of the veteran expats of Korla that there is a such thing as a “Dust Storm,” a phenomenon that is apparently forthcoming, this gentle cloud of dust that has blanketed the city is a new enough experience for me to be tickled. The violently howling wind and the BB-pellet swathes of high-speed sand are absent for the time being, but still, the dust is everywhere, just floating. If my mind were stubborn enough, I may be able to convince myself its really, really small snow. Anyways, what do we do when there are millions of tiny particles loitering in your breathing air? Bust out the ultra-sensitive, expensive photography equipment, of course!
The sand filters the sunlight unlike any other light-hampering weather I’ve encountered. I’m sure a physicist could explain this is scientific terms, but all I can say is that the way the light colors objects and the way the sky is tinted is “unnatural,” to me, in that my world has never been illuminated in this manner before. The sun, too, is different, a perfectly defined, perfectly white circle, dimmed enough so I can break the ancient elementary-school-science rule of never look directly at the sun. Unfortunately, the picture I took doesn’t capture the circle-ness of the sun too well, but you can see, everything is sort of… blah. Still, if we’re on the subject of weird weather, this situation still takes second place to the hellish apocalypse scenario given to us back at USC when I think every single tree in Southern California was on fire. At least here in Korla it’s not raining burning ash.
So, when the desert is roused from its sleep and is aggressively invading all openings, be they on inanimate objects or living things, what do the Chinese students do? They hold their high-intensity, all-student-body exercises in preparation for sports day, of course! So when I trotted outside to take a picture of the incoming dust cloud, I was blessed with the oppurtunity to take pictures of my students in action. Apparently, for Sports Day, the sophomores and juniors have been assigned grade-specific activities which they must partake in (flawlessly! This is China!) when the actual ceremony rolls around. Ergo, they are practicing every day. The sophomores get to do this awesome activity which I can only describe as “synchronized, simultaneous mass jump rope.”
The juniors, my students, get to do this stupid activity which I can only describe as “a three-legged race with a lot more legs” which looks silly even when they’re doing it right. When they mess up…well, it’s pretty funny.
Needless to say, I’m looking forward to the actual Sports Day when everything is polished to perfection… although I’m definitely going to miss the hilarity that ensues when one person in the human chain tumbles over. Just like dominoes, but I guess such an activity does impart a distinctly communist moral. More pictures from the sandy day and Sports Day Practice here.
