I wasn’t sad when I left Jishou, and this bothered me. I would look at the students and teachers crying around me and wonder why I wasn’t crying. The students waved at us with teary eyes as our train pulled out of the Jishou station, but I stood calmly and watched them through the window.

Those last few days in Jishou and Shanghai I analyzed my feelings like this: we had a job to do, we did a damn good job with it, and it was time to move on. In a brief six weeks I learned an extraordinary amount from the students and they learned from me. Perhaps that sounds presumptuous, but I know it’s true. The students told us. During our last teary precept, which was Thursday, August 9th, Nick, Arianna and I brought all of the Dragons together and reflected on the summer. It was amazing to hear our students recount the small details of our interactions over the summer that meant so much to them. It was more clear than ever that we provided a singular experience for them, and that’s what we came to do. So I left with a comfortable sense of satisfaction and a perceptible but not overwhelming amount of sadness.

Now I’m on a plane from Moscow to NY and my feelings are changing. I just reviewed my pictures from our last day in Jishou and felt a sudden pang of sadness. I’m going to miss those guys. They’re the best and they deserve the best. I can still do more for them and I will.

(I also just watched A Beautiful Mind on the airplane which was emotional and is not helping things right now).

Here are some memories that make me miss the students:

–During one precept, we were discussing whether one’s personality is different when speaking a foreign language. Maybe “personality” is too strong, but I do think that one might say something in a foreign language that they wouldn’t say in their native language. For example, one of the students mentioned that when they’re speaking English they often throw around the phrase “I love you.” In Chinese, however, they rarely say it (so when they do, it carries much more weight). During our final precept, one student’s final comment to the three of us was, in Chinese, “我爱你们” (I love you.)

–Some of the Dragons that we went on our home stay with like to call me “ben ge”. “Ben” is the second syllable of “Reuben” and “ge” is a friendly way to say “elder brother.” I like this name.

The first thing I plan to do when I get internet access, after publishing this post, is respond to two emails from students from a few days ago.

One last shout out to the sick, mad, dope, crazy awesome Dragons team. And the rest of the amazing SoS group, I love you guys too. Thanks for making this an unforgettable summer.

And thanks PiA for bringing me to Jishou. I’ll pay you back somehow.

Over and out.

Just planned the last Dragons lecture with Nick. We wanted to do something reflective. Here’s what we came up with:

We’ll start off with a dictation and then read through the text to correct pronunciation, as usual.

Next we’re going to listen to “You’ll Be In My Heart” from Tarzan. Don’t worry, we’re not that sappy and we didn’t quite think of this randomly. Actually we thought it would be fun to do mad libs with the students, and when we were browsing mad libs online, we came across a “You’ll Be In My Heart” mad lib and realized it would be a nice song to introduce to the students. I hadn’t listened to it in a while, but I was quickly reminded that it is a fantastic song. Here are my favorite lines:

I know we’re different but,
deep inside us
we’re not that different at all

The Chinese textbooks at Princeton tend to focus on the differences between the US and China. Last summer at Princeton in Beijing, one of the first sentences we learned was “Chinese people like to shower at night; Americans like to shower in the morning”. Back at Princeton in 3rd year Chinese, our discussions continued to contrast China and the US. We covered differences in spending habits, attitudes towards dating, sex and marriage, attitudes towards education, child-rearing and how to care for parents in old age.

Having been thinking in dichotomies for such a long time, I came to China this summer and saw differences everywhere. And let’s not kid ourselves; they are everywhere. But over the last few weeks in Jishou, I’ve become aware that there are so many similarities between Chinese and American students. We’re sarcastic. We like to make fun of each other. We like to eat. We like to sing. We have dreams and insecurities. We like to talk about relationships (this is perhaps the students’ favorite topic). I’ve seen the dynamics of their friend groups, and I could totally fit in as a student here.

Back to tomorrow’s lesson. We’ll continue with a mad lib version of the song (the students will replace words in the song with words of their own choosing, not knowing where they’ll go). Should be fun.

Last, we’ve planned a 30 minute reflective free-write. The writing will address address expectations coming into PiJ, how the experience compared to expectations, and thoughts about the future. I plan to write along with the students. Then we’ll spend the first hour of precept discussing what we wrote, and the second hour playing King’s Cup (one of the student’s favorite games). Can’t wait to hear what the students have to say and to tell them some of the things I’ve been thinking about.

Somehow this is our last full weekend in Jishou (we’ll be traveling outside of the city the next two weekends). As such, it was necessary to do some exploring. This morning a few of the other teachers and I began the day at a bakery, where I had an iced cappuccino (!) and a sticky bun that had red beans where there would normally be raisins.

Next we explored a public park, where we watched old men and women dance and play mahjong. In an attempt to fit in more with the locals, I felt compelled to roll up my shirt. Surprising how much that actually cools you off. The highlight of the park for me was renting a pedal-boat. As safe and benign as a pedal-boat may seem, something about doing it here made it feel a bit more like a bold move. As we cast off from the dock, the “marina” owner began motioning to us wildly with her arms. We were headed directly for a dam and a short waterfall. Thanks to the superb navigating skills of Alyssa and Christian, the voyage was successful.

This past week was also really awesome as far as connecting with the students. On Tuesday, five students invited me to play badminton with them after chill club. Quite conveniently badminton is one of the few (if not the only) sports I can play. Though my relationships with the students are all very informal, and we always joke around, the dynamic here felt different. The vibe was less teacher-student and more like a group of friends than I had yet experienced. It was great.

One more thing to mention. Every week Arianna, Nick, and myself (the “dragon” teachers) correspond with our students in journals. I know I speak for the three of us when I say that lately, the content of some of the journals has blown us away. I’m amazed both by what some students are willing to share with us and how expressive they can be with English.

Looking forward to another great two weeks.

Can’t believe two weeks of teaching are already finished. For me, the initial euphoria of arrival has died down and I’ve settled into a fairly regular routine. That isn’t to say that something doesn’t surprise me every day.

One interesting discovery from the past week:

One of our lessons this week dealt with teen cellphone use. In our precept discussion, we talked about ending a relationship via text message (anything regarding relationships is an interesting topic for the students). It turns out that breaking up via text message is actually the preferred method in China, because it avoids awkwardness/embarrassment for both sides.

This week I also become quite fond of “cold jokes.” This is a popular kind of joke in China that is funny because it’s not funny. Here’s one I heard from a student: “why did the rabbit hop twice on its left foot and once on its right foot?” Answer: “that’s just the way it is.”

Eliot and I have taken it upon ourselves to continuously make up new ones.

Just this afternoon a handful of students took me and two other teachers to 新吉大, the newer college campus in Jishou. We ate lunch on campus and had a great time exploring with the students. They never run out of energy and are always inviting us to go to new places. It’s awesome.

Last Wednesday we were invited to a banquet with administrators from Jishou Normal University and local government officials. The banquet was in a beautiful private dinning room, and we (about 20 people) were all seated around one enormous circular table. As is often the case in Chinese restaurants, there was a lazy susan in the middle of the table. This one, because it was so large, was motorized.

The highest ranking official there was the vice governor of Xiangxi prefecture (one of 14 prefectures in Hunan province). At the start of the banquet the vice governor gave a speech welcoming us to Jishou and telling us about his city, which he is very proud of. Later on he came around and toasted with each of us individually, as did the other officials present.

The whole experience made me realize how important this program is to the city of Jishou. While I knew how much the program meant to our students, I hadn’t realized that it mattered to the local government as well. I felt quite honored to be a part of SoS.

One more thing. Yesterday some students took us roller skating at a nearby rink. I assumed this was probably an activity they did frequently after class. The big surprise – most had only skated once or twice before. Not much of a roller skater myself, this put us at about the same level. Overall it was a great time with the students.

Last night I woke up at 1:30, 5:00, and 6:30, not too bad for a home stay. I must say I’ve really enjoyed going to bed early and waking up to the crowing of roosters.

It’s hard to imagine what village life is like without being there. I can say that when I voted for the WildChina trip with home stays, I couldn’t anticipate what it would feel like to be there. Last night Jessica and I were wandering around Dali after dinner, when we saw a 9-year-old girl standing outside her house and looking at us. We started to talk to her, and then the father appeared and invited us to come in and eat. We obliged, happy to chat with the family and eat some bayberries. The family was sitting on 1/2 foot stools in what I’ll call the living/dining room, a plate of fish was on the table and the TV was on in the background (this was the scene in just about every house we passed).

So far just about everywhere we’ve gone, we’ve been shown incredible hospitality. One more example – on the way to Dali we stopped at another Dong village, famous for its drum tower. I was wandering with Miryam and Alyssa outside the school, when the teachers invited us to come inside. They brought us to the teachers’ lounge and insisted that we eat watermelon, which we did. We chatted a bit about their school before we had to return to the bus.

WildChina has been amazing – I can’t believe that the farewell dinner is tomorrow. Though I’m also looking forward to arriving in Jishou in a couple of days and settling down.

Two nights ago I found myself people-watching in Times Square, waiting for some friends to arrive. It didn’t matter that it was late on a weeknight; Times Square was bustling with people from all over the world. Except, I would venture to guess, people from Jishou, China. Of course I could be wrong. But in any case, it struck me that the scene I was observing was about as far removed as possible from what I’d be seeing in about two weeks. Should be quite a comparison.

At this point we’ve thought about and planned for Jishou quite extensively; not much more to say before we get there. While so many aspects of what this experience will be like are currently unknown, there is one thing that is completely certain: this is one awesome group of people. While we’ve already had some great times in the planning phase, the best is certainly yet to come. I am so excited to be able to spend eight weeks working and chilling with these amazing Princeton students and know this will be a trip to remember. I’ve been able to contain my excitement only by cooking Chinese food at home.

Fully vaccinated and ready for the middle kingdom,

Reuben