One year ago, for deeply personal reasons, I decided to join the Peace Corps. After applying in April 2013 and interviewing in May, I received my placement in the English Education sector and accepted an invitation to China. On June 22 of this year, I’ll be leaving the USA and will shortly begin teaching English in a Chinese university.
Despite the past year, when it should have been sinking in, I remain thoroughly bamboozled by this reality.
It wasn’t exactly something I’ve always wanted to do. It wasn’t something I knew much about, or had ever really thought about, and it wasn’t what I’d imagined myself doing after netting a bachelor’s degree. It wasn’t even remotely in my plans at all, until I sat down and thought long and hard about my options.
I’m not an adventurous person, if I’m honest with myself. It wasn’t the prospect of brave new worlds, thrilling vistas, strange foods, the chance to travel, or the excitement of leaving the comfortable for the exotic that drew me to the Peace Corps. That’s all fine. I’m willing to brave a few adventures, if I absolutely have to.
The truth of it is, I’m going to learn. It’s more than my hobby. It might be the best part of living. It’s one thing to hear something, one thing to see it, something else entirely when you experience it – and if you roll all that together, and then think about it, really think…
But maybe that’s not quite learning, at least in the way I think of it. You know those little conversations people have, the ones that start offhand and take a great spiraling turn somewhere? Afterwards you might think ‘that got deep,’ and go back to sipping your coffee, but a bit of your mind is still teasing at that talk, taking it in, absorbing it, wondering why you’d never considered it before. That’s the kind of learning I’m talking about, and the sort of thing I think the Peace Corps can give me.
In China, where I’ll be spending the next two-and-change years, the word ‘to chat’ is ‘liáo tiān’ (written above). It’s a pretty, musical phrase that, literally translated, means ‘to talk about the sky.’ Quite a neat little term – it invokes the familiar refrain of Western smalltalk (‘great weather, eh?’), and yet suggests, to me at least, the possibility that even the littlest chat with anyone could end up broadening our outlook or stretching the limits of our assumptions.
This blog, then, is not exactly going to be focused on what I’m doing as much as what I’m thinking. It will just be me, talking about what I learn in China – about Chinese language and culture and food and who knows what else, and also about America. I’m confident things will be revealed to me about myself and my own culture as much as the reverse. It will be a record of little conversations that I have with my Chinese students, colleagues, and friends, with my fellow volunteers, and sometimes even with myself. And if anyone reading this would like to join the conversation, I’d absolutely love that. But I hope you take something away from this blog, even if it’s just a thoughtful little ‘huh, never would have thought’ before clicking away.
Thanks for reading, and let’s chat again soon.
Let's Talk About the Sky 
Hi, is this the Reannon Dykehouse from Northern Michigan? Vince from Mill Creek Camp
It is! My China blog. Back Stateside now, though.