So I had no opportunity to write in CPH, well that isn't necessarily true, but the cost of internet was extremely prohibitive, and I didn't take my computer, so I could write ad nauseum for all you travel blog junkies.
Anyway I'm back in SEA, only to be off to the Midwest this weekend to see my cousin Greg's wedding. I should be able to get something down about the European trip, and hopefully get some photos up on facebook.
Well, here's to the start of another year of grad school...
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Thursday, August 20, 2009
not so much travel, but more work
So I have been back in Seattle for a few weeks now, and I happened into work. I leave for Copenhagen in two weeks, and I have been working for one of the professors here on campus. The project has several parts but all parts involve green roofs, and I'll post a link once we start the website up and running. The format will be blog style, so you all will be able to see what is going on from a relatively day to day progress. Like I said I'll keep y'all posted.
Friday, July 24, 2009
...the beginning of the end
Chengdu 19-20-21-July
End of Studio wrap up.
So as it stands, this post might turn into several, and it might jump back and forth between the past few days like a boring, non-violent Tarrentino movie. I have been off of our project for a few days, and as Amy can attest, I usually go through a bit of a funk after everything has been finished and turned in. I get so involved in a studio project, that when the deadline passes, I dunno, I call it my own silly little version of post-studio-partum depression. It usually hits a few days into finals week, and only lasts a couple of days, but none the less, I think it has been compounded by the fact this crazy pirate ship of a studio has finally come to an end, and some of the Chinese students, hell let’s be realistic, most likely all of them, I will never see again. Be that as it is, I haven’t been blogging, one day out of not wanting to, the other of not wanting to have to face the end of this trip.
My impressions of China were fantastic and amazing. The people here, man there are a lot of them, but the ones with which I came into contact were awesome. All the SU students were so helpful. They wouldn’t leave us alone. Not in a bad way, either. They all wanted to show us the city, make sure that we understood everything that was being said, dealt with many moments of akward silence of two people who do not speak the same language stumbling around their home town.
I have to say I have a new found fond spot in my heart for the city of Chengdu. As I said, I haven’t been writing for the past few days, but I‘ll summarize, and when I get around to it, I’ll finally get all the notes in my head out on to the blog. We have been in Chengdu, and from Friday, when we arrived, till Monday morning, we had been working on our final paper presentations of the research we collected in Taoping. That was a quick eight hours working, so roughly 40-48 man hours of work to put together a 33 page document on the hydrology and human impacts on the watershed in the Taoping area. I really got to know a few of the students well over the trip, and then back in Chengdu.
Okay, looks like I got time on my hands, stuck in Chengdu, bad weather in Beijing has us grounded. So as I mentioned, on the 18th we worked and had hot pot. On the 19th we met again to finish up our hydrology work, and then Nan, Chen, Xiao, and I all went to Sichuan food to celebrate. I know that I may have mentioned it to a few of you, but sweating is a common tableside occurrence at Sichuan food. The food is spicy. The strange thing is I think I have really gotten used to it.
So after hot pot, Dana, who had dropped out of the program, was in Chengdu, but only for a night, then she was travelling with some newly found friends to Beichuan. We met up for a couple of beers, and she had been in contact with Lindsey via email over the course of the trip, but wanted to hear first person about some of the crazy times in Taoping. So we chatted, and called it an early night, since she had to catch a bus at 6:30am the next morning and still needed to pack.
Monday morning had our final meeting in store for us. We were to turn in our reports and reflections on the trip and visits to the different villages. After the reports were turned in, we had beers, at 10 am on a Monday. Now, normally I wouldn’t think anything of drinking a beer after a deadline, but these were school purchased beers, at 10 am, on a Monday. Dan Abramson had said they wanted to put together more of a party, but the timing didn’t allow it. So anyway, we drank beers, and took pictures and traded email addresses, and we all had fun.
So I have been in Chengdu for two extra hours waiting for weather to clear, and it looks like it is going to take a little longer than expected to get home. I think I got a voucher for a hotel when I get to Beijing, but again, it is all in Chinese, and I have no idea what it says.
So as I was saying we had a good time drinking beers at ten am, and then someone got the idea to go to karaoke. The Chinese take their karaoke very seriously. It is kinda like that scene in “lost in translation” when Bill Murray sings “more than this.” You rent a booth, and you friends stare at you while you sing. It is much more intimate than the American version. The Chinese also seem to know all the lyrics to all the songs anyone picks, even the English songs. Anyway, I will disavow any knowledge of singing in falsetto Celine Dion’s “my heart goes on, “ or Air Supply’s “I’m all out of love.” This is the last I will mention of those two artists in any sort of written work for the rest of the blog’s history, promise. It was good fun, the kids love their singing, and some of them actually can hold a tune. There ended up being enough students to rent two booths. It was fun to run between them and sing with different groups. As I said, this is a serious endeavor. We arrived at about two-two thirty, and they rented the booths until seven pm. That is a marathon. I am not totally ADD, but even that is a long time to sit and listen to mediocre at best music. But we sang and sang, and by then Josh, J-bo and I all ended up at the Western style restaurant, Peter’s Tex-Mex. After dinner, Josh and I went back to the dorms, it’s hard work drinking beer morning, noon, and evening.
Oh my, I just realized that I haven’t even mentioned the “Thumbs Up, Two Thumbs Up” grading system. After we turned in the reports, the instructors gave out scores of our design solutions from the twenty four hours worth of work in Taoping. I should preface this all with the fact that the students in Chinese schools always know what their position is in school. They are ranked, and the rankings are public knowledge. Needless to say this creates a crazy bloodthirsty competition in the classroom, and one they were happy to have left behind while all the group work with the American students was happening. Anyway back to the grading, so in the meeting they announced the “grades.” And I should also mention that there were groups that received “no-thumbs.” So the groups that received one or two “thumbs up” received a gift. It was really weird. And if you must know I was in a “two thumbs up” group.
I woke up on Tuesday, and I had this listless feeling, that end of studio feeling. So I decided to sleep in. I woke up a bit later, and my stomach wasn’t feeling so great. I spent quite a bit of time near the toilet that morning. Josh had a bunch of stuff to take care of, and some of the students to see, so I ended up napping most of the day away. He came back around 3pm-ish, and we had some instant noodles in the room. He had another meeting with students, but he mentioned the Opera. I felt I needed to get out of the room, so I asked if I could tag along, and we found Jason and Yiran, a student that had been helping him get a plane ticket to Kathmandu. So Jason, Yiran, and I met up with Josh and Dai Xinchen, and the five of us went to the Sichuan Opera. Now, this isn’t quite what you would think of when hear opera. It was more like traditional and folk music, acts and performances. There is also a traditional act of changing clothes in the blink of an eye. Now that I write that, it sounds far more kinky than anything could ever be in China. The act gave the appearance of the performers’ entire clothing changing colors instantaneously. It was actually pretty nifty. So, we didn’t have time to eat before the opera, and we ended up back over at the Uygur restaurant, which is the first place I ate at in Chengdu, with Tiger. Fitting way to end the day and time in Chengdu.
That reminds me, I never was able to find Tiger again. I went by the coffee stand for the last three days I was in Chengdu, and the store was closed. I don’t know if that was because of the school calendar, but, to no avail, I wasn’t able to give him my thanks, and say good-bye. If I had any regrets from this trip, that would be the biggest.
I am on day two of trying to get home, and still need to finish all of this. The flight to Beijing was over three hours late leaving. So I got to Beijing and there was no flight to the USA until tomorrow.
End of Studio wrap up.
So as it stands, this post might turn into several, and it might jump back and forth between the past few days like a boring, non-violent Tarrentino movie. I have been off of our project for a few days, and as Amy can attest, I usually go through a bit of a funk after everything has been finished and turned in. I get so involved in a studio project, that when the deadline passes, I dunno, I call it my own silly little version of post-studio-partum depression. It usually hits a few days into finals week, and only lasts a couple of days, but none the less, I think it has been compounded by the fact this crazy pirate ship of a studio has finally come to an end, and some of the Chinese students, hell let’s be realistic, most likely all of them, I will never see again. Be that as it is, I haven’t been blogging, one day out of not wanting to, the other of not wanting to have to face the end of this trip.
My impressions of China were fantastic and amazing. The people here, man there are a lot of them, but the ones with which I came into contact were awesome. All the SU students were so helpful. They wouldn’t leave us alone. Not in a bad way, either. They all wanted to show us the city, make sure that we understood everything that was being said, dealt with many moments of akward silence of two people who do not speak the same language stumbling around their home town.
I have to say I have a new found fond spot in my heart for the city of Chengdu. As I said, I haven’t been writing for the past few days, but I‘ll summarize, and when I get around to it, I’ll finally get all the notes in my head out on to the blog. We have been in Chengdu, and from Friday, when we arrived, till Monday morning, we had been working on our final paper presentations of the research we collected in Taoping. That was a quick eight hours working, so roughly 40-48 man hours of work to put together a 33 page document on the hydrology and human impacts on the watershed in the Taoping area. I really got to know a few of the students well over the trip, and then back in Chengdu.
Okay, looks like I got time on my hands, stuck in Chengdu, bad weather in Beijing has us grounded. So as I mentioned, on the 18th we worked and had hot pot. On the 19th we met again to finish up our hydrology work, and then Nan, Chen, Xiao, and I all went to Sichuan food to celebrate. I know that I may have mentioned it to a few of you, but sweating is a common tableside occurrence at Sichuan food. The food is spicy. The strange thing is I think I have really gotten used to it.
So after hot pot, Dana, who had dropped out of the program, was in Chengdu, but only for a night, then she was travelling with some newly found friends to Beichuan. We met up for a couple of beers, and she had been in contact with Lindsey via email over the course of the trip, but wanted to hear first person about some of the crazy times in Taoping. So we chatted, and called it an early night, since she had to catch a bus at 6:30am the next morning and still needed to pack.
Monday morning had our final meeting in store for us. We were to turn in our reports and reflections on the trip and visits to the different villages. After the reports were turned in, we had beers, at 10 am on a Monday. Now, normally I wouldn’t think anything of drinking a beer after a deadline, but these were school purchased beers, at 10 am, on a Monday. Dan Abramson had said they wanted to put together more of a party, but the timing didn’t allow it. So anyway, we drank beers, and took pictures and traded email addresses, and we all had fun.
So I have been in Chengdu for two extra hours waiting for weather to clear, and it looks like it is going to take a little longer than expected to get home. I think I got a voucher for a hotel when I get to Beijing, but again, it is all in Chinese, and I have no idea what it says.
So as I was saying we had a good time drinking beers at ten am, and then someone got the idea to go to karaoke. The Chinese take their karaoke very seriously. It is kinda like that scene in “lost in translation” when Bill Murray sings “more than this.” You rent a booth, and you friends stare at you while you sing. It is much more intimate than the American version. The Chinese also seem to know all the lyrics to all the songs anyone picks, even the English songs. Anyway, I will disavow any knowledge of singing in falsetto Celine Dion’s “my heart goes on, “ or Air Supply’s “I’m all out of love.” This is the last I will mention of those two artists in any sort of written work for the rest of the blog’s history, promise. It was good fun, the kids love their singing, and some of them actually can hold a tune. There ended up being enough students to rent two booths. It was fun to run between them and sing with different groups. As I said, this is a serious endeavor. We arrived at about two-two thirty, and they rented the booths until seven pm. That is a marathon. I am not totally ADD, but even that is a long time to sit and listen to mediocre at best music. But we sang and sang, and by then Josh, J-bo and I all ended up at the Western style restaurant, Peter’s Tex-Mex. After dinner, Josh and I went back to the dorms, it’s hard work drinking beer morning, noon, and evening.
Oh my, I just realized that I haven’t even mentioned the “Thumbs Up, Two Thumbs Up” grading system. After we turned in the reports, the instructors gave out scores of our design solutions from the twenty four hours worth of work in Taoping. I should preface this all with the fact that the students in Chinese schools always know what their position is in school. They are ranked, and the rankings are public knowledge. Needless to say this creates a crazy bloodthirsty competition in the classroom, and one they were happy to have left behind while all the group work with the American students was happening. Anyway back to the grading, so in the meeting they announced the “grades.” And I should also mention that there were groups that received “no-thumbs.” So the groups that received one or two “thumbs up” received a gift. It was really weird. And if you must know I was in a “two thumbs up” group.
I woke up on Tuesday, and I had this listless feeling, that end of studio feeling. So I decided to sleep in. I woke up a bit later, and my stomach wasn’t feeling so great. I spent quite a bit of time near the toilet that morning. Josh had a bunch of stuff to take care of, and some of the students to see, so I ended up napping most of the day away. He came back around 3pm-ish, and we had some instant noodles in the room. He had another meeting with students, but he mentioned the Opera. I felt I needed to get out of the room, so I asked if I could tag along, and we found Jason and Yiran, a student that had been helping him get a plane ticket to Kathmandu. So Jason, Yiran, and I met up with Josh and Dai Xinchen, and the five of us went to the Sichuan Opera. Now, this isn’t quite what you would think of when hear opera. It was more like traditional and folk music, acts and performances. There is also a traditional act of changing clothes in the blink of an eye. Now that I write that, it sounds far more kinky than anything could ever be in China. The act gave the appearance of the performers’ entire clothing changing colors instantaneously. It was actually pretty nifty. So, we didn’t have time to eat before the opera, and we ended up back over at the Uygur restaurant, which is the first place I ate at in Chengdu, with Tiger. Fitting way to end the day and time in Chengdu.
That reminds me, I never was able to find Tiger again. I went by the coffee stand for the last three days I was in Chengdu, and the store was closed. I don’t know if that was because of the school calendar, but, to no avail, I wasn’t able to give him my thanks, and say good-bye. If I had any regrets from this trip, that would be the biggest.
I am on day two of trying to get home, and still need to finish all of this. The flight to Beijing was over three hours late leaving. So I got to Beijing and there was no flight to the USA until tomorrow.
Monday, July 20, 2009
"Cherish Life Apart From Drugs"
so much to talk about, so little sleep. I promise, tomorrow, sometime after sleeping in and witnessing a total solar eclipse, I will update you guys and regale in stories of school sanctioned beer at ten a.m., karaoke, the "thumbs up, two thumbs up" grading system, and many more.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
“And we only soiled our shirts and not our shorts!”
Chengdu 18-July
Back in Chengdu, we started today with a quick breakfast, then to the presentations of the design solutions we had come up with in Taoping. Our group produced some great material, and I over heard one of the UW students say, “This group produced a lot of material.” At least our work into the night showed and paid off. I have to give a shout to Zhao Nan who rocked the presentation as well. She said after wards she was really nervous, but it didn’t show at all. After the presentations we met back up with one of our original groups, and we are responsible for producing a document of all our research done in Taoping. So we set a time and broke for lunch. Josh and I ended up back at Peter’s Tex-Mex, knowing that we were going to Hot Pot that evening.
Hot Pot, this is something that really has no American equivalent. Well, maybe fondue, but that would be a stretch. The broth of the Sichuan hot pot is full mouth numbing Sichuan peppercorns, hot as hell red chilis, and more Sichuan peppercorns. The premise is you go up to a buffet, grab plates, and then take them back to you table and cook the food in the hot broth. It is pretty tasty, but man you get a pretty good sweat going, and if you are a gringo like me, your face gets all red. I haven’t had any indigestion this whole trip, save that little episode of illness, but this might just do me in. Josh and I went to a great local place with Dia Xinchen, Liang Xaio, and Zhao Nan. Here’s the list of food stuff we got from the buffet line; eel, river fish, bacon, marinated bacon, pork skewers, flank meat, beef tenderloin, chili rubbed beef, duck tongue, duck feet, shrimp, lotus root, potatoes, two types of noodles, lettuce, pumpkin, enoki mushrooms, beef lung, tripe of some unknown ungulate, quail eggs, shrimp dumplings, and one mystery vegetable (it looked like Chinese long bean, but wasn’t) and fried banana and fried sweet potatoes for dessert. The food was good, really hot temperature wise as well. I don’t know if I’ll be back, but it was sure worth doing once in my lifetime.
After that, we headed home, tomorrow is a long day, we will go to a few parks around town, and then our group will meet up to finish up our report. It shouldn’t be a long night, hopefully, but since the reports are due on Monday, who knows.
Back in Chengdu, we started today with a quick breakfast, then to the presentations of the design solutions we had come up with in Taoping. Our group produced some great material, and I over heard one of the UW students say, “This group produced a lot of material.” At least our work into the night showed and paid off. I have to give a shout to Zhao Nan who rocked the presentation as well. She said after wards she was really nervous, but it didn’t show at all. After the presentations we met back up with one of our original groups, and we are responsible for producing a document of all our research done in Taoping. So we set a time and broke for lunch. Josh and I ended up back at Peter’s Tex-Mex, knowing that we were going to Hot Pot that evening.
Hot Pot, this is something that really has no American equivalent. Well, maybe fondue, but that would be a stretch. The broth of the Sichuan hot pot is full mouth numbing Sichuan peppercorns, hot as hell red chilis, and more Sichuan peppercorns. The premise is you go up to a buffet, grab plates, and then take them back to you table and cook the food in the hot broth. It is pretty tasty, but man you get a pretty good sweat going, and if you are a gringo like me, your face gets all red. I haven’t had any indigestion this whole trip, save that little episode of illness, but this might just do me in. Josh and I went to a great local place with Dia Xinchen, Liang Xaio, and Zhao Nan. Here’s the list of food stuff we got from the buffet line; eel, river fish, bacon, marinated bacon, pork skewers, flank meat, beef tenderloin, chili rubbed beef, duck tongue, duck feet, shrimp, lotus root, potatoes, two types of noodles, lettuce, pumpkin, enoki mushrooms, beef lung, tripe of some unknown ungulate, quail eggs, shrimp dumplings, and one mystery vegetable (it looked like Chinese long bean, but wasn’t) and fried banana and fried sweet potatoes for dessert. The food was good, really hot temperature wise as well. I don’t know if I’ll be back, but it was sure worth doing once in my lifetime.
After that, we headed home, tomorrow is a long day, we will go to a few parks around town, and then our group will meet up to finish up our report. It shouldn’t be a long night, hopefully, but since the reports are due on Monday, who knows.
Friday, July 17, 2009
“Bizarre Must Awesome Should”
Chengdu 17-July
We made it back to Chengdu. Travel days are always a beast. The bus ride was about four hours and we did a little drinking last night to celebrate leaving Taoping, and Lindsey’s birthday. The bus ride was uneventful, which for Chinese traffic is amazing. We are now staying at the dorm I originally stayed in when I first arrived, which doesn’t seem as dingy as I remember it being before. Anyway as we arrived, we came across Fong. I must confess at this point, I am guilty of forgetting about mentioning her and what was going on. I mentioned that Ching had a bit of a fever, and then it moved along to Fong, and she got it a little worse than Ching. She ended up coming back to Chengdu with Bob and Manesh. She was staying at a hotel, and had a few Sichuan students looking after her, but not really. It was good to see her on her feet again, but she still isn’t up to snuff.
Josh and I are sharing a room here at the dorms, and it is really nice to have our own bathroom and shower. And not one that stands over a Turkish toilet either. After we checked in, Josh and I headed out to get a late lunch. We started walking, and just about as soon as we were out the door of the dorm, it started to rain. We had both brought our rain jackets, so no problem. Our current living quarters are on the opposite side of campus from all the amenities with which we are familiar, so we had a good twenty minute walk across campus. The rain let up, and we finally decided on eating at this place that caters to the expat crowd called Peter’s Tex-Mex. Josh had a hamburger, and I had a Philly Cheese Steak, and they were damned good. Josh and I were discussing how we felt we hadn’t eaten much protein in our time in Taoping. We had a lot of bacon fat, plenty of veggies, rice, potatoes (new crop of ‘em harvested while we were there), and noodles. So, lots of simple carbs, but no protein. Big meat sandwiches hit the spot.
As we were finishing up dinner, we had noticed the rain had come back, and this time it was really coming down. We decided to go to the grocery store since we were only four blocks away, and then the rain started coming down harder. By the time we arrived at the store, Josh’s shoes were soaked through, and our pants, not waterproof, were drenched. We bought some food stuff, yogurt for breakfast, some beers, and chocolate, silly Americans. When we got back outside the rain was letting up, but that was short lived, as the rain came down even harder. The walk back was long and wet. We were thoroughly soaked by the time we got back to the dorms. I haven’t seen rain like that in a long time, and then the claps of thunder started. It has been a long day with the travel, so early to bed for this trooper.
We made it back to Chengdu. Travel days are always a beast. The bus ride was about four hours and we did a little drinking last night to celebrate leaving Taoping, and Lindsey’s birthday. The bus ride was uneventful, which for Chinese traffic is amazing. We are now staying at the dorm I originally stayed in when I first arrived, which doesn’t seem as dingy as I remember it being before. Anyway as we arrived, we came across Fong. I must confess at this point, I am guilty of forgetting about mentioning her and what was going on. I mentioned that Ching had a bit of a fever, and then it moved along to Fong, and she got it a little worse than Ching. She ended up coming back to Chengdu with Bob and Manesh. She was staying at a hotel, and had a few Sichuan students looking after her, but not really. It was good to see her on her feet again, but she still isn’t up to snuff.
Josh and I are sharing a room here at the dorms, and it is really nice to have our own bathroom and shower. And not one that stands over a Turkish toilet either. After we checked in, Josh and I headed out to get a late lunch. We started walking, and just about as soon as we were out the door of the dorm, it started to rain. We had both brought our rain jackets, so no problem. Our current living quarters are on the opposite side of campus from all the amenities with which we are familiar, so we had a good twenty minute walk across campus. The rain let up, and we finally decided on eating at this place that caters to the expat crowd called Peter’s Tex-Mex. Josh had a hamburger, and I had a Philly Cheese Steak, and they were damned good. Josh and I were discussing how we felt we hadn’t eaten much protein in our time in Taoping. We had a lot of bacon fat, plenty of veggies, rice, potatoes (new crop of ‘em harvested while we were there), and noodles. So, lots of simple carbs, but no protein. Big meat sandwiches hit the spot.
As we were finishing up dinner, we had noticed the rain had come back, and this time it was really coming down. We decided to go to the grocery store since we were only four blocks away, and then the rain started coming down harder. By the time we arrived at the store, Josh’s shoes were soaked through, and our pants, not waterproof, were drenched. We bought some food stuff, yogurt for breakfast, some beers, and chocolate, silly Americans. When we got back outside the rain was letting up, but that was short lived, as the rain came down even harder. The walk back was long and wet. We were thoroughly soaked by the time we got back to the dorms. I haven’t seen rain like that in a long time, and then the claps of thunder started. It has been a long day with the travel, so early to bed for this trooper.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
The meeting was a bust. We didn’t get the job. We drank anyway
*posted by Amy*
Taoping 16- July
So, in the meeting, which was very similar to the government meeting in Lijiang, we basically were told there was likely to be no chance that any ideas we provided would be approved, let alone applied to Taoping. Bummer. I felt as soon as we left the room, this whole trip was a bust. We spent a lot of money, spent a lot of time, burned a lot of energy, lost a lot of sleep, and sunk too much work into this effort for them to just brush us out the door. A few other students shared this opinion, but I started to re-evaluate this frame of mind. It is short-sighted to think that all was lost from one meeting. We at least got in the door. They heard us out. They could have kicked us out when we mentioned community participation, let alone never even let us in the room, but we were heard. And then I started to think of the real world. You can’t expect to get every job you go after. We did our best in the time allotted, and that is all I have to say about that. I am proud of the work we did in the past ten days, and seeing as all the actual design work was done in twenty-four hours, I am DAMNED pround of what our group brought to the table.
So after dinner, we were told there was a chance of a presentation for the villagers in the morning, and the instructors would present the material we created. This was somewhat of a relief, and we decided to have a few beers to celebrate the end of the project in Taoping. We had a couple of beers in the court, told some stories, cracked some jokes, commiserated over the defeat at the hands of the Chinese Government, but all in all, we blew some steam. And at midnight, Lindsey turned twenty-one.
Breakfast came early. Lack of sleep made me want to skip breakfast, but there is usually important daily instructions that come down the pipe at breakfast. That, combined with having a TA for a roommate doesn’t help. We heard, last minute of course, there would be a presentation at 8:30am for the village leader, who didn’t commit until the last minute, in hopes of not having a large crowd turn out. We broke from breakfast, met up in the courtyard, and headed over to the meeting hall to hear the presentation. The instructors presented the material, and then asked to hear what the local residents thought of what we had done. There was some hesitation to comment on their part, but then the flood gates opened. Everything from lack of confidence in the government, local on up, frustration from lack of leadership and delayed rebuilding schedules, the fact that we were the first group to talk to them and ask them their opinions since the earthquake happened all came up. We can only hope that some of our ideas can stick in their minds and cause them to repeat them over and over to the officials, and hope something changes.
After the meeting, we headed to lunch and pretty much have a free afternoon. Seeing as it is our last full day here in Taoping, I am off to buy some true local handicrafts. And I probably won’t bargain or haggle either. Next stop; back to the heat, humidity, and smog of Chengdu.
Taoping 16- July
So, in the meeting, which was very similar to the government meeting in Lijiang, we basically were told there was likely to be no chance that any ideas we provided would be approved, let alone applied to Taoping. Bummer. I felt as soon as we left the room, this whole trip was a bust. We spent a lot of money, spent a lot of time, burned a lot of energy, lost a lot of sleep, and sunk too much work into this effort for them to just brush us out the door. A few other students shared this opinion, but I started to re-evaluate this frame of mind. It is short-sighted to think that all was lost from one meeting. We at least got in the door. They heard us out. They could have kicked us out when we mentioned community participation, let alone never even let us in the room, but we were heard. And then I started to think of the real world. You can’t expect to get every job you go after. We did our best in the time allotted, and that is all I have to say about that. I am proud of the work we did in the past ten days, and seeing as all the actual design work was done in twenty-four hours, I am DAMNED pround of what our group brought to the table.
So after dinner, we were told there was a chance of a presentation for the villagers in the morning, and the instructors would present the material we created. This was somewhat of a relief, and we decided to have a few beers to celebrate the end of the project in Taoping. We had a couple of beers in the court, told some stories, cracked some jokes, commiserated over the defeat at the hands of the Chinese Government, but all in all, we blew some steam. And at midnight, Lindsey turned twenty-one.
Breakfast came early. Lack of sleep made me want to skip breakfast, but there is usually important daily instructions that come down the pipe at breakfast. That, combined with having a TA for a roommate doesn’t help. We heard, last minute of course, there would be a presentation at 8:30am for the village leader, who didn’t commit until the last minute, in hopes of not having a large crowd turn out. We broke from breakfast, met up in the courtyard, and headed over to the meeting hall to hear the presentation. The instructors presented the material, and then asked to hear what the local residents thought of what we had done. There was some hesitation to comment on their part, but then the flood gates opened. Everything from lack of confidence in the government, local on up, frustration from lack of leadership and delayed rebuilding schedules, the fact that we were the first group to talk to them and ask them their opinions since the earthquake happened all came up. We can only hope that some of our ideas can stick in their minds and cause them to repeat them over and over to the officials, and hope something changes.
After the meeting, we headed to lunch and pretty much have a free afternoon. Seeing as it is our last full day here in Taoping, I am off to buy some true local handicrafts. And I probably won’t bargain or haggle either. Next stop; back to the heat, humidity, and smog of Chengdu.
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