Living in the Land of Pandas

View of Chongqing from Nanshan Mountain.

A little over two years ago I wrote the post “The Final Countdown”, one month before leaving for China. Back then, I was buzzing with excitement to embark on two years of adventure in the Middle Kingdom. Now, unbelievably, I’m one month from completing my service and the same excitement is buzzing through my veins! 

While I’m very aware of the sand in my Chinese hourglass trickling through at an expedited rate, if you asked me on an average day how many days I have left, I would have to stop and think before giving you an exact number. Though I’m excited to go home to be reunited with my three puppies, to eat endless amounts of cheese and guacamole, and to be with my mom on her birthday (for once), I’m trying to make every last moment in Chongqing count. 

Ways I’ll Spend My Last Month

Avoiding snakes and large huntsman spiders, which I have only just noticed around my campus. Eek!

Having as many get-togethers with my students and colleagues as possible!

Eating lots of Chongqing hot pot--delicious and spicy!

Taking a day trip to Dazu to see the gorgeous rock carvings!

Eating lots and lots and lots of quail eggs! 🍳

Wrapping up my last three weeks of classes!

Baking chocolate chip cookies for my students! 🍪

Buying souvenirs in Ciqikou for my family (and dogs, probably)!

Packing up and saying goodbye to my little apartment!

Enjoying beers with my fellow PCVs! ❤️

Class 3 having group discussions.

Of all of my foreign language classes, my all-time favorite was in Italian 204 where we pretended to be on a deserted island and were negotiating which items to bring. I was pretty fond of the pistol with one shot, la pistola con un solo colpo. Therefore, I’m always most excited to do a similarly themed lesson with my classes here. The class features lots of negotiation and discussion, and this year there were quite some memorable quotes.

Me: “Okay, so our whole class has volunteered to do a social experiment where we live on a deserted island for one year. We only know that the island has fresh water, banana trees--” Catherine: “Banana trees!? But you hate bananas! If you are on this island, you will surely die!”

Me: “What possible dangers might you face on this island?” Virgil: “Being hit on the head by coconuts!”

Me: “What kind of problems could we face while swimming?” Joyce: “SHARKS!” Me: “I was looking for drowning, but yes, sure, sharks too.”

Me: “In your new groups, negotiate which seven items you will bring to the island. When you’re done, rank them in order of importance.” [5 minutes later] Me: “What is the most important item you will bring to the island?” Group 1: “Bear Grylls!”

Me: “You find out one of your friends is stealing all of the food for themselves. How will you punish them?” Monica: “EAT THEM!” [5 minutes later] Me: “Cannibals from a nearby island attack us! How will you defend yourselves?” Monica’s Group: “We will give our leader to the cannibal chief, and she will marry him and live happily on his island.” Me: “That’s not really surprising considering she wanted to eat her friend in the last question.”

Chongqing city turns into a dangerous Slip ‘n’ Slide when it rains and after 18 months of living here, a few weeks ago, I had a pretty bad fall. I was walking towards the front gate of my school for some afternoon classes when I slipped on the silty sidewalk and fell face-first, hard. I like to imagine that it looked a lot like a penguin body-sledding across ice, but it was probably a lot less graceful. 

Like this. That’s what I looked like.

Covered in dirt, my knee aching, I had to cancel my classes to limp home. When my students heard about my fall they sent me adorable messages. The screenshots above are from my student Sunny, who sent me pictures of my “spirit sloth”. Too cute! Haha! I couldn’t stop laughing at the last image, when she sent a picture of a sloth on the ground to compare to me and my fall. 

After several days of bedrest, I told Peace Corps about my fall and they had my school take me to get an x-ray. It felt like something was moving around in my knee that shouldn’t be, and the swelling wasn’t going down. It turns out that I didn’t fracture any bones, but I damaged my cartilage, so Peace Corps cancelled my classes for the next week and I stayed on bedrest.