SO WHAT'S THE DEAL, YO?!

Here’s what my situation is as I know it thus far.

I’m at Shanxi Agricultural University (山西农业大学) otherwise known as NongDa to the people in the area. I am teaching English to two classes of Graduate students, one class of PhD students and one class of Undergraduate English Majors (the Graduate and PhD majors have various concentrations...but mostly related to agriculture). The Graduate and PhD classes meet 2 times a week for two hours, the English Major class meets once a week for two hours. (I'll admit that I'm a little terrified, especially of teaching the PhD classes, but super excited too.)

There are 5 of us foreign teachers: Ben Reitz, Beth Rogers, Nick Hatt, Alex Paik and I. (Full names for those of you who are/were Obies and know these characters.) Yes, we are all from Oberlin, and Ben, Beth, Nick and I are on the same 2 year commitment to the Shansi Fellowship. Alex came on his own so he will probably only stay for a year. Ben and Beth share a house and each have an individual apartment in it (as in there is a shared livingroom, but each has a separate bedroom/study, kitchen and bathroom). Nick and I have a simliar housing situation, and Alex, as of yet, has no housemate, but has a similar apartment in a house.

As for the classes themselves, well, we aren’t guided too much at all. Basically they tell us when and who we are going to teach and the rest is up to us. English is the goal. I assume oral English since that is our specialty, but who really knows. Luckily, both Beth and Ben were here last year so they have been preparing us and reassuring us that the students are super respectful and really nice. You have to work hard to make them not like you. (Apparently it has been done before though...although not by a Shansi Fellow.) We start class on Monday, September 1st. As in 2 days from now.

The school has a beautiful campus, full of trees, gardens, and lovely old buildings. It’s pretty unusual in China to have a big famous University in a small town (small in China is 40,000 people), and so NongDa is exceptional in many ways. The University was founded by a Chinese man (H.H. Kung) who grew up with some Oberlin Missionaries. He himself, after the Boxer Rebellion and the death of those Missionaries, later went to Oberlin College to study and then to Yale. He came back to China and became a wealthy businessman (well, he was already wealthy to begin with) and founded this school. He also invited Oberlin missionaries (through the Shansi Memorial Foundation—the same organization that sends us here now) to come back and teach at the school. During the Communist Revolution, the school was taken back by the government. In the early 80s, NongDa and Shansi started talking with each other again, and again Oberlin graduates, no longer religiously affiliated, were invited to come and teach there. (Some NongDa teachers also go to Oberlin to study and teach through Shansi.)

The town of Taigu is a typical, dusty, dry, small Shanxi Province town that holds lots of little secret spots of historical interest. It is full of dirty streets, lots of small shops and some lovely old (and mostly falling apart) buildings with courtyards, old carvings and all. It has no city wall remaining, the way that Pingyao, its famous, touristy nearby neighbor, has. But it does have some old stone streets, lovely old buildings, some old houses that used to belong to some wealthy merchants, a few temples nearby, the old drum tower and a-thousand-year-old pagoda downtown. Apparently, 100 years ago, Taigu was full of wealthy merchants (mostly bankers). Now, it seems to be full of pretty ordinary, perhaps relatively poor people.

Shanxi Province is known for its baijiu (a strong kind of alcohol), its noodles, its vinegar, and its coal mines and coal processing plants. The province is dry and in the mountains to the west and slightly south of Beijing. The weather, they say, is similar to Oberlin, but a lot dryer. The Province is relatively poor compared to its wealthier coastal neighbors, but there are a few absurdly rich people who own the mines and factories. We are lucky because the campus is so green and Taigu itself is not a coalmining city, but we get some nice pollution from the neighboring capital of Shanxi—Taiyuan. We are about an hour bus ride or train ride from Taiyuan, (which we only go to if we are crazing luxuries like cheese, pizza and good chocolate, because, though modern, is not a particularly beautiful city).

Basically, overall, I feel really lucky to be here. It will be an experience unlike what many foreigners would ever get to experience when traveling in China. It will be tough at times I know--I’ve already heard stories—but I also have heard that it is super hard to leave here after two years. So I'd better start enjoying it now.