I just received a letter that I wrote myself at the end of my year spent in China. It was hilarious in its predictions of the future and specific in its recommendations. The things that the letter asked me to do haven't yet been done. I've got to get going. I think the list holds some keys to the reconciliation of everything that is swirling around in my head about the world. One of the things it asked me to do was tremendous amounts of reading. Something about living in China gave me this HUGE appreciate for the vast amounts of amazing reading (in English) we have here in the US, and I wanted my future self to take advantage of it.
I've been reading a book lately called "Coming Home Crazy", by a man who taught English in China right before T-square in 1989 (Bill Holm). The book is filled with very humorous and insightful essays about his mishaps, adventures and observations about a Minnesotan man bumbling around in a 6,000 year old culture. One section made me laugh a lot today and I'm going to type part of it here for your enjoyment.
"About twenty Minnesotans arrived in Xi'an when I did. Some were old, some middle-aged, some young, but all Midwesterners united by their fat, by continual complaining abuot it and by imaginative and expensive plans to do something about it. Unconsciously they had done the only useful thing possible. They arrived in China for a long strech. Dieting, planned exercising and the twelve-step program are about as effective against fat as slingshots against howitzers, or herbal teas against brain tumors. They pass conversational time and facilitate the exchange of goods but leave the bellly pressed snugly against its buttons. But China works. You walk or ride a clunker bicycle slowly for miles a day; you shiver indoors for six months and sweat for six; both activities dispose of your stomach; you each when you can and what you can and buy whatever you have enough language to ask for, if it is available, though probably not; you have diarrhea occasionally, a gift from the local bactieria, and therefore think intelligently about what you put in your mouth..."
This makes me laugh especially because many times I hear international students complaining about how much weight they have gained after coming to America. We try to warn them when they arrive, but they usually think we are joking. I also laugh because I just started employee wellness personal training (planned exercising, imaginative and expensive plans) and we'll see if I can work on my post-China pudge (cringe...) in the heart of cheese country.
Wish me luck people. I'm a far cry from those daily hour long power walks in 130% humidity in Nanchang.
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