Goal two, check.

Peace Corps Volunteers aspire to fulfill three main goals of service. Our first goal is to provide skilled individuals to inviting countries. Our second goal is to share our culture with the host country; when fulfilling this goal, it is important to remember to inform, not indoctrinate. Lastly, we PCVs hope to share some of our cultural learning of our host country with fellow Americans (and, in this global age, perhaps any other world citizens) back home.

I believe that more goals exist, goals that extend far past the first three, but those three are the most important (and published) goals of the PCV.

Last night, I went to my local gym to get in a work out. I was excited because I knew Mr. Yang, my casual personal trainer, would be there to lead me through a solid leg workout. The past few days I had worked my arms, back, and core during the day, when the weight room, dance hall, and yoga den are nearly devoid of life or movement. Yesterday, though, I found time to exercise at night, which is preferable becasue the gym is alive, swarming with yogis, meat-heads, belly dancers, and the odd gangling teenager. And, of course, Mr. Yang, with his deadly workout routines.

Anyways, back to the goals. Sitting in the men's changing room last night, a youngish chinese man greeted me (He said 'good morning' even though it was 7:30PM) and took interest in my Ipod Shuffle. I forget the words that were exchanged, but the conversation culminated in us swapping Ipods for the evening, his older shuffle model for my newer brushed steel clip. My model lacks the normal buttons of an Ipod, eschewing them in exchange for weight and size reductions, so I had to teach my new friend to us the remote control built into the headphone wire. That was an adventure in pantomime.

In the end, we swapped Ipods for the better half of the workout. It was great, I was listening to older US stuff like Linkin' Park's breakout album and some new Chinese music, while he was jamming out to Bruce Springsteen, Xavier Rudd (I recommend him highly), and about a dozen Dave Matthews albums.

Cultural exchange is not simply watching ethnic minorities practice their ancestors dances, or what they think are their ancestors dances. Culture is dirty, grimy, and in this case a little sweaty and shaped like an earphone.

Goal two, check. And, seeing as you're reading this, check off goal three, too.