We made it. Despite heading out in different directions and under different time assumptions - Hana and I took the long route to China via Europe, while Patrice and Julia went the more direct over the Pacific - we all arrived in Xi’an little worse for the inevitable hiccups (delays, rescheduled flights, lost luggage) that come with travel to the other side of the world.
The girls have already gotten established in their all day school routines (7:40 – 6:00 in Hana’s case, 8:00 – 5:10 for Julia) and were both able to rejoin the classes they attended when we were here for a semester in 2008. It made my morning to hear the applause that greeted them when they joined their 60+ classmates for their first day. While the day is long, it is divided into two sections with a two hour lunch break / siesta. Meanwhile Patrice’s group of UNL students is already well into their exploration of Chinese culture and current realities. They are a great group that appears to be soaking up all of the diverse experiences and sensations that China offers to the first time visitor. I am quite confident it will prove to be an invaluable learning experience for everyone in the group.
After some false starts, Patrice and I have gotten established on the internet and thus have glided into productive work routines. It is absolutely amazing to me that you can be so immediately connected with people so far away. It is a far cry from the Patrice’s and my first experience abroad as exchange students back in the late 80s in Poland, where we would go months without any connection with anyone stateside. While my attitude probably exposes my age, despite the obvious advantages for work, it seems to me much of the value of travel – the forced introspection that comes from the lack of grounding that being an outsider in a foreign land evokes – is lost in the age of instantaneous connections with the world back home. It is a tradeoff that I know probably has more plusses than minuses, but in the process the experience is fundamentally altered.
First impressions of China? Still a country on the move – so much construction everywhere. The quality of the construction seems to have raised a bit since we were last here – new, seeming luxurious apartments atop shopping developments that include a Subway now take up the vast space where we used to walk on mud roads to buy fruit and oven baked pizzas from street vendors. During our 2008 stay, we watched the local government evict residents from their homes and businesses before they leveled this space to make way for this development, which admittedly, is a DRASTIC enhancement of this property. Amazing how quickly they can move on projects of this scale. At first blush, things seem cleaner and operating a little bit more efficiently.
Another impression is that there always seems to be something major going on here – earthquakes, floods, Olympics, World Expo, and, for this trip, confrontation with the Philippine’s and domestic political intrigue. Despite the façade of an inexorable march toward world domination (at least global economic domination) that China evokes in much of the international press coverage, this is a country that faces a variety of serious internal challenges. The recent dramatic political upheaval related to the removal of the Chongcheng party boss and the escape of the blind civil rights lawyer combined with a once in a decade transfer of political power only bring to light what we have increasingly seen to be a major characteristic of China’s re-emergence – this is a society on the edge with lots of internal friction as it moves with breakneck speed toward an uncertain future.
We are all looking forward to the next few weeks of unexpected and diverse learning experiences.
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