Long-Overdue Update

The short update goes like this:

I've returned from China a week ago and have been preparing for my research trip to Bejing in September. The previous month has provided a taste of China and what to expect, but more importantly, it has left me with human faces that I can remember and love. In its essence, teaching middle school students has left a burning reminder of why I wanted to do research on middle school students in the first place. More on this in the long update ;).

In the meantime, I've been revisiting Baldur's Gate 2 (old computer RPG), my church in Taiwan, my grandparents, the National Taiwan University library (NTU... which by the way is a fantastic university and has a gorgeous campus), and plenty of email/phone calls to work out logistics.

Since then, some highlights of my past two weeks in China have been the following:

a) 去爬愛民後山、黃山，去漂流 (Climbing the back mountains of Ai Min, Yellow Mountain, and going river rafting)
b) 在學校裡有奧運活動
c) 在村裡面搞營火晚會 (Having a bonfire night at the village)
e) 最後一天上課，大家哭哭啼啼的 :( (The last day of class, with everyone in really low spirits)
f) 去南京...江心洲、明孝陵、中山陵、澳體、總統府、夫子廟、同胞紀念館、等！ (touring Nanking...and lots of places that are ridiculously hard to translate ;p)

Call that a menu for what comes beyond. The long update goes something like this:
-*-*-*-*

a) 經過媽媽細心的教導，學到這句話：「我見青山多嫵媚，料青山見我應如是。」
Growing up in Taiwan, I've always had an affinity for the ocean and mountains. Soaking in the fog at the top of a peak, I find those seemingly mundane burdens dispelled in the enthralling breath of the mountain. The trek up Yellow Mountain started at 6:00am in the morning at the 'waist' of the mountain (山腰) and ended for me at 5:30pm as we made our final steps into the 'North Sea Hostel.' Most of the trail was well paved granite, sometimes cut directly into the rock face. Along the way were 挑夫 (pictured here), who would shoulder burdens up to fifty kilograms up the mountains. A well-organized national park, the best indicators of this are the immaculate and modern bathrooms!

Needless to say, walking up steps isn't easy when there's a whole day's worth. What I find most fascinating is how climbing mountains easily reflects the way humans approach life. Sometimes (especially in our American volunteers!) Yellow Mountain is a challenge, something of a race to the top. Each step was working toward a goal, each rest to charge up for the next stretch of climbing. The enjoyment from overcoming a challenge as formidable as Yellow Mountain manifests itself in victory shouts at the peaks, plenty of drinking, and for myself, the rush of adrenaline that matches that last step into the hostel. Sometimes the scenery is the focus. For the photographer in me, finding the best vantage point for the sea of clouds on the other side of the peak was my driving force. Along the way were elderly folk whose wrinkles resembled peach pits, stopping every twenty steps to stretch out and comment on the scenery, and riding cable cars (索道) up to the mountain peaks. Sometimes the people are the focus. Losing the other 30 people in Learning Enterprises was a little daunting, and for a while, I was calling all the people I knew frantically. There's a little bit of apprehension associated with hiking with strangers in a mountain that you know little about, but more importantly, the fact that people can whittle away whole afternoons talking to their friends in coffee shops is testament to how a hike (generally the last thing one would endeavor alone) can become pleasurable in the presence of friends. I eventually met up with 曉丹，another volunteer from my village along the way, but we never saw any other volunteer on the way up. Sometimes its the memories that matter. Trails would experience traffic jams as one or two tourists decided to turn around and photograph or call their relatives. Being able to document a trip as fully as possible for future reference seems to be the forte of middle aged fathers with video cameras and prosumer SLRs. I can't tell you how many times fathers would stop to photograph their families. It's also testament to China's developing economy, but that's another story.