Temple Stay at Shebaoshan

Shebaoshan is a small Bai(ethnic Chinese minority) village situated on the side of a mountain. The air, I feel, is much heavier and we all get tired pretty easily if we physically exert ourselves for too long. Every day, the crepuscular clouds cover part of the mountains to form an Arcadian landscape unlike any I’ve yet to see. As the day goes on, the mountain comes alive with the incessant howling of the thief monkeys who stole our grapes. Their howls seem to attrite the clouds, driving them away gradually, and call forth the sun. The giant incense burners are lit to pay tribute to the Buddha ensconced at the side of the mountain and the temple doors open to welcome the devoted. 

In the coming days, a GeHui(music festival) will be held and travelers from around Yunnan will come to see the performances. When night falls, the temple fills with random people dancing and singing. On a couple of occasions, they even taught us their dances and we were able to join in. In one instance, we were even shooed downstairs by the temple owners who were afraid we would break the second floor with our dancing and our jumping. At Shebaoshan, barely anyone speaks Mandarin yet as evinced by our ability to partake in their fun, it really doesn’t matter.

A Fresh Start in Kunming

The first day in Kunming, we headed over to Cui Hu Gong Yuan(Green Lake Park) a few blocks away. We met Long Yun, another one of our Dragons instructors, who taught us some Taiji. As we were going through the motions, a crowd of people surrounded us and continued to stare at us throughout the entire session. I just laughed and lost my balance a couple of times because of it.

After Taiji, we headed to a noodle shop for breakfast, but before getting there we had to cross a couple of streets, which is actually a big deal for an inexperienced foreigner in China. I first look across the wide gap that stands between me and the next place where I’ll feel safe. The entire group tries to steadily walk across, but a herd of Lamborghinis and Mercedes impede our path. We dart pass them and simultaneously swerve through the wild motorcycles. First street, done. Even now that I’m back in Kunming, I still ask myself where the traffic lights are?

That same day, we visited a temple in the middle of the city and it was incredible to see the ancient nestled in the midst of so much modern. There was a large door through which was found an even larger gate designed in a style appropriate with its age. Here, we were given some time to reflect and meditate on our new environment as well as a chance to become Ninja(a fast-paced, hand-slapping game) champions.

At night, we went to see a show hosted by Miao people that Jesse invited us to. The Miao were converted to Christianity in the nineteenth century and religion plays a major part in their culture, so many of the songs were actually hymns.

The very next day, we prepared to leave Kunming for Shebaoshan(Stone Treasure Mountain) a few hours away by sleeper bus and mianbaoche(literally “bread vehicle”).  

Goodbye, U.S.A. and Ni Hao, China

We left the US on August 28^th and we arrived in Beijing on August 30^th. What? Yes, we lost an entire day upon crossing the International Date Line.

While in Beijing, the novelty had already begun. As we walked across the long halls of the Beijing Airport, we received a little more than a couple of stares (or a lot of stares). Jessie, our Dragons instructor, reassured us and said that in China, it wasn’t considered rude to stare, and that frankly, we were a strange sight for them. While there, we all played a card game called Tarot, a game which we would play very often as a group in the weeks to come. While we were playing, a couple with a child was staring at us blatantly. The man came up to us and asked if he could take a picture of all of us with his little girl. We all felt a mix of awkwardness, but acquiesced nonetheless. When the little girl came towards us,however she started crying and the picture was never realized.

After waiting for a couple of hours in Beijing, the plane headed to Kunming finally arrived. It would take another four hours to get to Kunming and upon hearing that, I felt uneasy. I had never before experienced any sensation like claustrophobia, but I would imagine it feels somewhat like what I felt during that fourteen-hour ride: a forlorn sense of desperation as your mind cries out for rescue from the unbearable tedium(yes, it was very dramatic). I was mentally preparing myself before takeoff and attempting to call forth sleep, so that the tedium would be bearable when the man next to me introduces himself. I also introduce myself with the little bit of Chinese I know and he asks me to sit next to him. The gesture makes me feel welcomed (and slightly uneasy just because that doesn’t happen very often in the US) and though we both have elementary knowledge of each other’s language, we were still able to talk for almost the entire four hours. He told me a little bit about himself. He is from Sichuan, but works in Beijing and was heading to Kunming to visit a friend and his sister. He also had a meeting the next day, so after a while I tried assuring him it wouldn’t be rude of him to go to sleep. He eventually did, but not before he taught me a couple of phrases in the Sichuanese dialect and some animal names from a kids’ show that was playing. Upon arrival to Kunming, we headed to the Lost Garden Guest House, and without any resistance, collapsed under sleep’s unrelenting hold.  

Back to Kunming...with some good and bad news

Our group arrived in Kunming on October 4th, but since then I've been unable to access blogger from my own laptop. Unfortunately, blogger is banned in China and my VPN refuses to work, however I will be continuing to blog by writing the posts on my own laptop and borrowing a friend's to post them up every so often. This coming week, I hope to put up one or two posts about the last seven or so weeks that I've been in China as well as upload some pictures, so continue checking up on the blog! I apologize for the wait and hope you can bear with me for these coming weeks!

As the clock ticks away

As I write this post, my eyes continue darting towards the bottom-right of this page as my mind creates the vibration of each tick. Each vibration seems to me like an uncomfortable cleave at the already-deteriorated allowance of time I've been given in this country that I'm sure to miss. I may just be tired, but the Earth itself seems to be stretching as the forty-five minute drive back home to my family and friends seems to elongate to an almost 7000 mile distance and Beijing suddenly seems a mere car ride away. Only 28 more minutes remain until saddening goodbyes are given to the rest of the Bridge Year participants, each of whom must depart for their own journey. I consider myself privileged to have met all these incredibly intelligent and talented people who (unfairly) just happen to be some of the nicest people I've ever met. It's weird; I've never had such a mix of feelings of excitement and doubt, of fear and confidence, and of homesickness, while still home. I'll miss the wonderful people who helped me get here and I thank them for everything they've done. Fifteen minutes left and I must go! Zai jian for now!

So what's up with the name(withthewesternwind)?

Since creating the blog and becoming a bit more active in it, a couple of people have asked why I chose the name "with/the/western/wind". I thought it would be fun to write a little bit about how I chose that name. Because the blog was set up mostly for the purpose of detailing what I do on my voyage to China, I thought it would be appropriate to choose a name that somehow referenced or included some aspect of Chinese culture or language. I watched a couple of YouTube video(thank you Ben from learnchinesenow) and researched a couple of sayings and I found one that really fit my situation. 

In Chinese, when you want to see somebody off before they go on a trip or some type of voyage, you say 一路顺风(yi2lu4 shun4feng1), which would be the equivalent of saying "have a good trip". Literally, the saying means "one path(which is the way you say 'the whole way' in Chinese) with the wind". So, a couple of names popped up into my head. "One path with the wind", "Journey with the wind", "Walk with the wind", and "Wend with the wind"(gotta love that onomatopoeic alliteration) were some of the names that came into my head, but then I remembered another Chinese saying, 万事俱备只欠东风 (wan4shi4 ju4bei4 zhi3qian4 dong1feng1). This one would translate to "everything is prepared, all we lack is the eastern wind." This line is actually a reference to what a Chinese military strategist(ZhuGe Liang) said to his emperor during the Three Kingdoms Period when the state of Wei was at war with the state of Wu. He and the general had prepared a strategy to oust the opposing forces of the state of Wei and for it to work, they needed the eastern wind. You can see the full story here: full story from learnchinesenow.

I thought I finally had my name "with/the/eastern/wind", but I was slightly disappointed that I had lost my onomatopoeia, so I decided to change direction and use the western wind instead. Coincidentally, this actually made a lot more sense. The western wind was considered(in western tradition, at least) to be the mildest and most helpful wind in travel. The wind also happens to originate in the West(like I do!) and travels east(as,hopefully, I will eventually). So the name stuck and there it is! Hope that wasn't too long an explanation and thank you for taking the time to read it! 

Why Bridge Year?

To start off, I thought it would be useful to let others know why I wanted to take part in the Bridge Year Program in the first place. Because that was actually a question on the rather lengthy(very,very long) application, I felt that it would be good to post the essay that I used to answer that very question on the application. While I was trying to complete my application, I had absolutely no idea how to express my want to be accepted into the program. I knew why I wanted to go, but I couldn't put it into words, so I decided to write down everything I thought as I thought it(granted, I had to pause for a few brief moments as my fingers caught up to my rambling mind) and this was somewhat what resulted, with the exception of a few initial grammar and spelling errors. Hope you enjoy!

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            Articulate my reasons for applying to Bridge Year? Hmm, well what can I say? I know why I want to be a part of the program, but how do I say it? How do I let them know that this is an opportunity I could only dream about without sounding as cliché as I just did. I’m sure that everyone who applies will say roughly the same thing. How do I stand out amongst all the applicants?

How can I tell them that I would love to stop fantasizing over Youtube videos like Yong An’s “Three Inches of Heaven” and actually see and hear an erhu being played for the first time? How can I tell them I’ve watched Mohabbatein’s “Soni, Soni” about nine times in the past three or four hours without sounding a bit, what’s the word, crazy? Do I even have an English playlist? I think I might, somewhere.
Maybe I can tell them that I would like the opportunity to dedicate myself to a cause and to the bettering of the lives of other people. Now I sound like a Miss Universe contestant. How can I say I want to learn selflessness without being so blatant? Still, I really do want to help. I want to say I contributed to a water harvesting projecting in Yunnan province or maybe taught some English to little kids in India or Senegal. Maybe those kids can teach me some Chinese or Hindi or Wolof.

Is it too general to say that I want to learn how to be a member of the global community? Sure, the US is home to a large percentage of all the world’s different peoples, but how often can I interact with them as I would like? I want to form lasting relationships with people I may not be able to meet here or play some charades with people I can’t speak with fluidly. How difficult would that be? Would our shared humanity be enough to allow understanding even if we came from different worlds? What exactly does it mean to be human? How different does a different upbringing really make us? Great, now I’m just getting philosophical.
            Even just the fact that I can take a year off to recover from those four years of nerve-wrecking high school sounds appealing. I would have a few more months to ponder about my future, what I’m going to major in, what I’ll do with a degree, or wait, I could also use the extra time to learn to play my dizi or practice enough to impress people with my abacus. It would be such a different experience to be able to learn without the pressure of grades looming over you. I would no longer have to plan my schedule for some Chinese calligraphy or some Indian dancing. I would be able to do it as part of the experience. For once, I could learn solely for the sake of learning. Wow, that sounds selfish. Didn’t I just talk about learning selflessness? Well, that’s a problem.
            How long has it been? Two hours? Four hours? A couple of days, maybe? Ok, maybe not. Still though, I can’t seem to think of how to say what I want to say. Maybe, I just need some songs from Mohabbatein. “Soni, Soni” is a possibility. Think, Luis, think. Well, maybe the words will come to me eventually. Maybe.