At last – I am here! We arrived in Shanghai on Friday evening (7/29). It later occurred to me that I had never read the Daily Office for Friday morning because there had been no Friday morning! It may take me some time to regain the sense of myself in time and space. At night I dream that I’m still in the U.S. getting ready to leave.

I traveled with Amity teachers Ruth (who will be my partner in Lanzhou), Kendra, Rae, Karen, Don and Kate. We had all been together for six weeks of orientation and training in Chicago and Burlington, VT. Here we joined a number of other Amity teachers from the UK, Denmark, and Finland.

My first glimpse of Shanghai from the plane was a billboard for Citibank. Shanghai, on the surface, could be New York. The view from my hotel window looked like Brooklyn; potted plants, laundry drying, air conditioning units jutting from the windows.

But I stepped out of our hotel the next morning into a different world. A stream of bicycles flowed past, people pedaling to their jobs alongside the flow of car traffic. A man’s shirt and pants had been hung out to dry outside the temporary shelter of a construction site. Down the block, a group of women were rehearsing a traditional dance on the wide sidewalk, accompanied by a boom box. Each held a bright blue fan that cracked like gunfire when it snapped open on cue.

We boarded a bus and traveled to Huzhou, where we are spending three weeks in orientation at Huzhou University. Along the toll road we passed suburbs and villages, canals, rice paddies, and countless motorbike dealers. There is scarcely any waste ground. Every backyard is planted with corn and beans; squash vines covered with orange blossoms climb every vertical surface. It is plain that there are no clothes dryers in China. Laundry hangs everywhere, even from the balconies of the most upscale apartments. Apartments without balconies are equipped with railings outside the windows for this purpose. Today I noticed some tank tops drying in a large shrub outside a local shop. (Here in the hotel, where we occupy an entire floor, a room has been set aside for us to dry our laundry!)


Stepping out the front door of the hotel in early morning is stepping into a scene in a movie. Across the street a rooster crows and chickens forage. The little shops are open, and an outdoor wok smokes with the frying breakfast for local workers. The street is clogged with bikes and motorbikes. One day I saw a truck that the owner had cobbled together from an industrial lawnmower and an old truck bed. It wasn’t much to look at, and the noise was incredible, but it was getting the job done. At that early hour, the heat is almost bearable. Later in the day, we scurry around with umbrellas to shield us from the relentless sun. Today is was 39 C!

I’m falling in love with China. The people, the language, the marvelous ingenuity. (For instance, the sidewalks are paved with decorative square tiles, but there is a path down the center with vertical grooves made especially to guide the blind.) I’ll post as often as I can!