IN OBSCURE URBAN CHINA EVERY DAY IS A CELEBRATION

The kitchen is clean. I repeat. The kitchen is clean.  After eight or ten hours (I am not exaggerating) of concerted work, we have transformed our miniscule kitchen from place in which food would instantly become inedible into a place in which food can be prepared!! Quite a change, to be sure, and it was not easy: WE HAD TO CLEAN EVERY SINGLE ITEM. And once we have gas in our stove, we will be IN BUSINESS.

Let me rewind. There have been a lot of changes in the past two weeks, so I have constructed a HELPFUL GRAPHIC for clarification.

So last time I wrote, I was on the long train ride from Beijing to Hong Kong, where, as you already know (thank you, HELPFUL GRAPHIC!), we spent 10 days in teacher training. 

Hong Kong was pretty sweet. For one, I finally met all the fellows on the program. There are twelve of us this year, split into three sites: Changsha, Hong Kong, and a small town in Anhui province. Each site has two second years and two first years, which is an awesome system, because all of the clueless newbies (who can't always manage to read street signs, order food, deal with the post office, or lock bathroom doors) get to move in with wise, competent, wonderful people who have lived our new lives for an entire year. They know what is up, and that is a crazy thing. As you'll see, this post's photo has captured all of the fellows (minus photographer extraordinaire Sabrina!) having a nice professional meeting in business attire. Sorta.

We stayed at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, where four of the fellows teach during the year, and, um, turns out it is the most beautiful place in the world. The campus is on a hill, and our dorms were at the very top, so we could see out over the water, which has grassy mountain islands emerging out of the mist. Yeah. For the ten days we were in meetings pretty much nine to five (real world, I do NOT remember giving you permission to enter my life), but afterward we were FREE TO EXPLORE HONG KONG. 

Sadly, we did not explore Hong Kong.

Truth be told, I have never spent so long in a major city of the world and seen so little of it. But before you get all judgey on me here, let me inform you that learning how to be a teacher is hard and at times little stressful (we each had to give two 20 minute practice lessons, using each other as our practice students, and if you think that it trying to explain what the word "direction" means to your friend who speaks perfect English and is maybe definitely just messing with you is not stressful, clearly you have never tried it), and we were tired. And even if we did not go in search of Hong Kong's finest cuisine, THE CAFETERIAS AT CUHK WERE PRETTY DARN TASTY. And even if we did not experience Hong Kong's most renowned tourist attractions, THE SWIMMING POOL AT CUHK WAS PRETTY DARN FUN. I have no regrets.

And in actuality, Yale-China took us on some adventures, including a nighttime ride in our own private trolley through the streets of Hong Kong. This was pretty awesome, not least because we were served AVOCADO sandwiches on board. Plus I sat next to Abigail, one of those wise second-years I was telling you about, who is one of the CUHK fellows. Given that she's lived there for a year, she actually knows things about Hong Kong, and she told me interesting things about the different districts of the city we were passing through like that one of the buildings is supposed to look like giant koalas are climbing up the side of it!! So I learned some things and, better yet, I learned them from the top deck of an avocado-laden private trolley. Not too shabby.

And our last night, we went on a ferry ride to Lama island, where we had a delicious seafood dinner. The food was wonderful, but the rides to and from were even better-- it was dark on the way back and we zoomed by the Hong Kong harbor (including, you guessed it, the building that looks like koalas are climbing up the side of it!!), lit up really beautifully.

And then, the next day, we were off in many different directions. Some of the CUHK fellows stayed put, others went off traveling for the week before classes started, and the Anhui fellows (including, very sadly, Beijing buddies Gabe and Alex!!) peaced Anhui-ward. Hayley and I, accompanied by one of our wise second-years made our way to Changsha. And one glorious overnight train ride later (Get on the train. Go to sleep for 9 hours. Wake up. You have arrived. I think I love trains.), we had arrived at our new home.

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And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, is the story of how I have come to live in Changsha, otherwise known as Obscure Urban China. Thanks to HELPFUL GRAPHIC, you already know where in China the city is. And thanks to my hooky in medias res opener (I was an English major, after all)(but actually I just wanted to brag with no context about how clean our kitchen is because it took a long time to clean and is really very beautiful now), you know a little about my apartment. Here are some other facts about Changsha:

1.   Changsha is the capital of the Hunan province.

2.   Changsha has a population of about 7 million, which, if it were in the US, would make it the second most populous city, second only to New York. But, get this, it is only the FORTY-FIRST MOST POPULOUS CITY IN CHINA, which makes it the Colorado Springs of China. GUYS, the Colorado Springs of China has 7 MILLION PEOPLE. And now I am one of them.

3.   Changsha is some big entertainment capital, so the nightlife is supposed to be pretty cray. I have not sampled it yet, and, sadly, I'll be unlikely to report on it here if ever I do. 

4.   The food in Changsha not as spicy as everyone warned us it would be. Or else everyone is just taking pity on the poor clueless waiguoren and toning it way down. OFFENDED.

5.   Not too offended, though, because the food in Changsha is really, really good.

6.   Changsha cabs are extremely inexpensive. Yesterday, a ten-minute cab ride for four people cost 11 kuai, which is less than $2. WHAT? Also, when you get in, a soothing voice says, “Welcome to take cabs in Changsha,” which is oddly comforting.

But, best of all, Steph tells me that Hunan manufactures something like 80% of the world's fireworks. So there is a massive fireworks display every single Saturday of the year. I caught the tail end of this week's, and even partially obstructed by buildings and through unglassesed eyes, it was pretty badass. The hilarious thing is, there are fireworks going off ALL THE TIME here. I hear them at least three times a day. 

HERE IN CHANGSHA WE CELEBRATE ALL DAY EVERY DAY. Why? BECAUSE WE'VE GOT THE FIREWORKS, DAMMIT, AND WE’RE GONNA USE THEM.

I think I am going to love it here.