October 6, 2001

Dear Friends,

Home sweet home. Can it be that I’ve already been to Baotou, Inner Mongolia and back again? For the whole month of September Ilse and I were looking forward to our "big trip up north" to visit John and Dan at their teaching site. Our trip is now done after clocking 40 hours on the train, and we’re back in Yuncheng preparing for our second one-month training program.

While riding on the train home, Ilse made a comment that struck me, for it’s something that’s crossed my mind a few times already. She simply said, "Caroline, can you believe that we are living in China?" Sounds kind of obvious, I know. However, this train ride was taking us home. We had been on vacation and were returning to Yuncheng to get ready to begin teaching again. We weren’t preparing to fly back to the United States after a fun little "tour of the Orient," nor were we returning to our study abroad site for a
few more months, after which we’d return to our homes in America. No, we were returning to Yuncheng, Shanxi province, in the People’s Republic of China, and this is our home.

Everything here is so obviously Chinese in comparison to my white American self: black hair galore, people everywhere, squat toilets that always smell wretched, chopsticks, hot tea, Mandarin and Chinese dialect speakers, Chinese characters on all of the signs and roads flooded with bicycles. Why is it hard for me to believe that I’m really living in China? I don’t know. I can’t really explain it, but the sensation is there. Maybe it’s one of those college-to-real-world transitions that I’m being faced with. The reality that I’m not on a long break from school increases as the weeks left in this year decrease. Or maybe I have traveled enough between here and the U.S. that it is beginning to get hard to distinguish between the two? I’m sure it’s a number of things, for these types of emotions, thoughts, and feelings always seem to be triggered by more than one aspect of my life.

I do, however, feel like I am beginning to be rather settled into my new home here, despite the disbelief about actually living in China. During my stay in Baotou, I caught myself playing a little comparison game between Baotou and Yuncheng: Wow, they have three- and four-lane roads here and we only have one- and two-lane roads in Yuncheng…. Man, these city parks are gorgeous!—and they have them every few blocks? Gosh, I wish Yuncheng had more greenery…. Baotou is bigger than I thought. I kinda’ prefer the smallness of Yuncheng, for it’s easier to get around and become familiar with the area…. Taxis start at six kuai here? That’s expensive, ours in Yuncheng start at three! You get the gist. I think I was actually sticking up for my little city, rough edges and all.

Yes, by the end of our five-day trip, despite the fun I was having being with fellow American teachers and friends, exploring new areas and eating different foods, I was looking forward to returning to Yuncheng. Returning to Yuncheng means returning to my own personally decorated apartment, riding my bike down that rough road to work, eating pumpkin soup at a restaurant near campus, attending church and sitting next to the same ladies each week, going on shopping adventures with Ilse and having students or the little
neighborhood girls over to my home to chat or play. I live my day-to-day life in Yuncheng: it is my home.

Yours,

Caroline