Tianshui life so far / Science for the people

Here we are, beginning week 3 of teaching. We are still doing well, and starting to get into the real meat of the classes rather than endless introductions of ourselves and the classes. A typical day looks something like this:

around 7:30 AM: Wake up, make breakfast, get ready, and talk to some family and friends online.
9:55 AM: The third class period, but often when our classes begin.
11:45 AM: We meet and walk to the student cafeteria for a lunch of some of the following: various breads, rice and dishes (like meats, veggies, tofu, eggs), or noodles. Sometimes the students that we sit with (there is just the right number of tables) will talk to us, sometimes we try to talk to them. Often it involves a student saying "My English is poor." Often we think his/her English is great, so we try to diffuse that attitude.
12:30-2:30: Rest time. China operates with a nap time after lunch, much like siesta in Spain. We sometimes rest, sometimes do some class planning, or walk around the campus to get more familiar with it.
2:30-4:20, or 4:30-6:20 PM: More classes. Writing in the late afternoon is sometimes hard, as the students are sick of class by that time. They have classes most of the day in these big 2-hour chunks. They've been good sports so far.
6:30 PM: Find dinner out or cook dinner.
7 PM - 10 PM: More class planning, shopping, or watching movies. Then it's on to bed.

If you have any specific questions, e-mail me and I will put the answers here!

This weekend we took our first trip alone up to the capital city of Gansu Province (甘肃省），Lanzhou (兰州) for a 'Welcome to Gansu' party orchestrated by a lovely volunteer there, Kari. The theme of the party was 'revolution,' and the dress was camouflage. You might think that would be somewhat taboo here (Americans walking around in camo), but the costumes were fairly easy to obtain due to the compulsory military training of all college freshmen. Everyone acted responsibly outside of the party, so there were no problems. Our host sister told me that in Chengdu, sometimes people wear military clothes around because they are durable, and those people don't really have their own clothes. So maybe the general populace thought the Americans were homeless ... anyhow, the party was great, and we got to meet many of our colleagues who arrived in China last year (the China 12s), as well as some American/Canadian/Norwegian guys who work in Lanzhou at an oil company. Which bring me to my next topic: brushes with science in China.

1) Before we arrived here, I was excited about the prospect of finding some science-related things on our campus to be involved in, such as technical writing editing. This has not materialized as yet because I really have to seek it out. The science departments on campus, though internationally published, do not seek out the help of international teachers in their publications (even though they need editing help). Reading one of the articles through online UF subscriptions, I found it to be publish-able, but nowhere near good English. Sometimes publications really loosen their standards for foreign submissions, especially Asian countries. I hope to make time to work on this, and seek out some contacts.

2) One of my students came up to me the first day of class and had me sign multiple pieces of paper indicating that she had changed her major. "Changed her major," you ask, "why?" Well, her major was chemistry last year, and she said that she loved working in the laboratories and the beautiful colors (I assumed she meant that when you burn different elements, the flame can be different colors like red, purple, green, etc). However, over the summer her older brother convinced her that chemistry labs were too dangerous for women, or at least her, and that she should find a safer major. Now she's in my class doing speaking exercises. My first reaction was such disappointment and sadness that a girl who is so smart (you have to test very high in High School here to major in science) switched her major to English from chemistry. My engineering background almost made me tell her to change it back! The most interesting twist to this is that the chemistry labs at this school, or this part of China, or China in general, may not be safe. I have no way to tell. So, her job prospects have gone from product testing and development in a factory (either around these parts or in a bigger city!) to likely teaching English to children at a remote school. Yikes.

3) The American oil company in Lanzhou. At this party was an engineer and a financial assistant there who I was able to speak with about their job and their lives there. Their company is called National Oilwell Varco (NOV), and they are (supposedly) the largest supplier of oil drilling equipment in the world. In Lanzhou, they oversee the fabrication of many standard drilling systems as well as fabrication and testing of custom systems, such as one heading to a country south of China in the near future. The financial assistant visits the fabrication facilities to make sure all is running smoothly, and the engineer does electrical control design and testing of the equipment before it is shipped out. He told me it's cheaper to make the parts here and do an assembly test, disassemble the parts and ship them to Houston (TX), then ship them out to the clients, than it is to make the system in Houston and ship it to the client. It's because of the super-cheap labor costs. They quoted two figures: unskilled fabrication workers make Y500/month (~$67 USD), and skilled workers or management make Y2000/month (~$267 USD). Their jobs seem great initially - travel, be an engineer, etc. However, I don't know how much of the international oil politics they are really aware of, or at least they don't talk about it. I guess an American international company such as that could be heavily embroiled in things like the UN call for China to withdraw its oil contacts in the Sudan. I don't know. In any case, these guys really didn't seem interested in the development work in China. One guy said he admired us Peace Corps volunteers, but he and the other Americans make big salaries and have translators. I guess it's good for China to bring in this kind of business to boost the economy in Gansu.

I make no judgements about science in China, but I am keenly aware of my brushes with it, considering my background. I think overall China is doing a great job encouraging fundamental science as well as developing technologies, especially with their goals to go green. Many of the teacher apartments at Tianshui Normal have solar-powered water heaters on the top.

In other news, I have added some new pictures to our picture website on Picasa (find a link on the right side of the screen under 'Peace Corps experiences'), and I have figured out how to write in Chinese characters on the computer.

See you!
杜娟
Nick, walking up the hill just south of our campus, between two goats.