Toby's Letters from the field

Report One

Dr. Hammett, what's happening? Toby here, Well I'm in the middle of my second week at school in Cheng Du at Sichuan University. Thins are doing pretty. It is most definitely a different culture than our own. The only way I can explain the ambiance of this city is that it a lot like our industrial era of the mid 1900's with computers thrown in, everywhere. It is very peculiar indeed. The pollution here's pretty bad, you have about a half mile visibility on any given day. This is definitely attributed to the pollution of industry.

The dorm I'm staying at is very nice, I have a shower, a western style toilet (which are very hard to come by in this country) and a t.v. and fridge. So I'm pretty comfortable. All the Chinese food that I've eaten in the U.S. is (garbage) compared to the food I've been eating here. It is all fresh (the veggies you eat were all likely picked the same day, as well as the meat being slaughtered) and extremely cheap. You can easily feed two people on seven quai (yuen), which is equivalent to about .80 cents -U.S. So things are extremely cheap here. The people are extremely nice, they are always making sure you are fed. In fact the main form of greeting literally translates to English as "have you eaten?". It is however a very dirty place. The streets are full of all types of funky things. some parents dress their children in garments that are cut out in the crotch, and they freely defecate on the streets, so you can imagine what a hodge-podge of interesting mud gets created after a rain storm. I have never been so happy to own a pair of boots in all my life. You most definitely have to be aware of the pickpocket as well, I've already had friends get a bike and a wallet stolen. This is not to say that the city is full of thieves, it isn't, 90% of the people are very friendly and honest, its just that the people are very, very poor here, and this leads to trivial things and such like. China is most definitely no longer Communist, in any way or form that I've seen, it is instead a blossoming, highly controlled free-market. It's sad to me that a majority of Americans, in their ignorance, still view or perceive China as a Communist country, those days are truly long gone. as I said earlier, I'm in my second week of school. My intensive language study is most definitely the hardest academic task I've undertake. We learn approximately thirty new characters every three days, I study for about ten hours a day outside of class. So I have been very busy. Time goes by fairly quick. I wake up quarter to seven, then before I know it, it's 11 P.M. and time to sleep. Regardless, I've gotten out to see the sights, and have enough time on weekends to mingle with the locals. Very nice people. I hope you are doing well, hope the semester's gotten off to a good start, send me an email, talk to you soon- Toby.

Report Two

Hey, sorry I didn't get back to you sooner, been really busy doing research, and finally got some time today to check the mail. Had kind of a tense last week. China almost invaded Taiwan, both countries were on full military alert. Basically China had threatened Taiwan that they would invade if the independent candidate "Chen" won the election (Chen is for Taiwan being an independent nation). Well, Chen did indeed win. So I just went to sleep that night and hoped I wouldn't wake up to WWIII. Then I got the news that Beijing had decided not to attack, and that they issued a statement to Taiwan saying they would postpone it until "the new candidate demonstrates how he will handle the reunification issue."

So things should be pretty mellow for the duration of my stay. World politics definitely becomes an issue when it's not the world any more, but the country where you are at the time. Anyway, I'll be coming back around the sixth of May. So just a little over a month I'll be telling you about my adventures.

I'm really excited because I'll be graduating around this time. I'll have completed my Bachelors degree upon my return--I'm definitely excited. My Chinese is pretty fantastic these days. I can travel about on my own in this city of ten million Chinese without much difficulty. I can hold conversations and actually talk about things other than the weather, so I'm pretty happy. I have to say that I'm glad I opted to come here for four months, and not the two months that USAC offers in the summer because the Chinese doesn't even start to click until after at least two months. Also, I have had a different opinion of my experience from month to month, so four months was a much better plan. I'm finishing up my third month now, so I'll be back home in little over a month.