This post concerns a dream I had last night. I've heard that reading and listening to other peoples dreams can be one of the more boring subjects, so I've added some pretty pictures of my parents house, my pre-staging staging spot, in New Hampshire. If you don't want to read about my dream, you can look at pretty pictures. And theres even a puppy!I dreamed about the PC last night; I guess I've been thinking about departure so much that its permeated my subconscious. I don't imagine that China/PST/Chengdu will be anything like what I saw in my dream, but it was neat. I'll just
paraphrase some of the notable moments:The dream started with me waking up on a dirt country road with all my gear, in medias res, if you will. So very Dante-esque. I wasn't scared, although I knew that I needed to get huffing because I needed be at PST by 8 AM. SO I started to move it, running along this road with valleys and lakes to my left and pretty hefty granite rock slope/cliff on my right. On the walk I noticed three things: China looks a lot like New Hampshire (I don't believe this is true), I couldn't figure out what time it was back home so I was afraid to call (I'm not planning on carrying a
phone), and my luggage felt rediculously light (80 pounds is 80 pounds in any country).After running down a well worn dirt road, I found that PST was being held in a building that minutes late and looked quite a bit like an American public middle or high school. I arrived about fivefound a room full of Americans. Assuming the were all PCVs I set my gear down an searched for a bathroom. I think the difficulty I had with finding the restrooms symbolizes my apprehensions surrounding the Mandarin lanuage; I couldn't find what I needed, I couldn't ask for what I needed, and I really had to go pee.
2 comments:
"Abandon all hope ye who enter here" seems like an insensitive thing to say right now. But it's already out there and my back-button doesn't work.
By the way, I was really relieved when I got to China and found out that they don't just throw you into the Chinese community. We spent almost a week at a hotel, which was a good time for bonding and the initial venturing out into the scariness that is China. We even had a language tutor that went with us the first time we ate at a restaurant.
And by the way, the area of Chengdu that you'll be in during that first week is awesome. There are about a million Western restaurants, so if you're feeling tired of the Chinese food, you can check those out. There's also a great import store where you can buy anything from cream cheese to Doritos. Finally, lots of volunteers live in Chengdu who can show you around. And all of the ones who don't will be popping in and out all summer for medical crap.
So while anxiety is probably unavoidable and natural, they really do take care of you there at the beginning. The hard stuff starts when you get to site, so the first two months are a breeze. :-]
Sorry, that's long and rambley.
I had a weird dream last night, if it makes you feel any better. I was sentenced to a year in jail for eating in an illegal cafe. Or something.
Love the title of your blog! ;-) Best of luck packing.
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