What's new? in 1,000 words or less

Hello again, dear readers.

Fall has arrived, officially. Foreigners around here (mostly me, really) chuckle when the locals talk about the start of fall. "Maybe tomorrow," they say, as if fall comes as certainly and precisely as the postman. But it's true--one minute it is beautiful Indian summer, the next, the rains are here along with a chill breeze. We are only moments from long-underwear season, folks. That's when it gets serious.

Moving on from the weather report--good news! Luzhou grocers now sell canned tuna! I made my first purchase today, upon a tip from some other foreign teachers in town. At the little supermarket, the woman stocking shelves noticed my selection and immediately remarked that some other foreigners also liked to buy tuna ("Americans?" I asked. "Yes, at #2 Middle School," said she. Bingo!) . "Hen hao chi," she said, or very tasty! This year I find myself cooking a lot more, mostly due to my beautiful, bright new kitchen. I cook probably 75% of my meals at home; the other days I go out with friends and students. I'm building my reportoire of Sichuan dishes, which is good news for all of you at home...

Sports: I am learning tai chi, or tai ji as the Chinese call it. I participate in a PE class 2-3 mornings a week, and it is great. My classmates are all undergraduates, though none of them are my students. The teacher, Mao Xu Kai, is a young guy who I met one day buying vegetables in the open market. A model of good cheer and boundless energy, he holds a MS in physical education and seems to know tons about tai chi. He is hoping to pursue a PhD in sports medicine at Tsinghua University (China's version of Harvard) in the future; he just needs to improve his English enough to get the exam score to get in. I hope that our interactions help him become more comfortable speaking English so he can get closer to achieving his goal.

Politics: I learned something interesting the other day. Well, to be precise, it was more hinted at, but I'm beginning to get a glimpse of something I always suspected was there. A young woman in my evening Oral English course (taught to hospital employees, nurses, docs, etc.) stopped by my apartment last weekend to chat with me. She told me that she'd wanted to hang out with me for a long time--she's an exceptionally curious person, and rather individualistic, which is saying something--but that she'd been warned away by the class monitor. To quote her quoting him, "If the police come to question you, I don't want to know anything about it!" When she first told me this, I was surprised and confused--the police? Why would they care if she visited me? I asked her, and her response, "you work for, you know, that American organization..." Then it all sort of made sense. My colleagues are very polite, but definitely distant. I have only been invited to the home of two of them, and one was just a tour of the Dean's huge and impressive apartment.

I am apparently a security risk in the eyes of the Luzhou police. My colleagues should not associate too closely with me, for fear that I might infect them with my democratic ideals, or report details of their lives back to my super-secret government contacts. It's laughable, really, but sad, too. I mean, if I were performing anything resembling spy*ng, I'd expect to be paid a hell of a lot more than I currently am...

All is well. News of Luzhou Medical College Halloween Extravaganza '06 next time...