The main reason I’m going to China is because I want to get out of here. I need to get out of here. Here being the United States. I teach World History so I need to see the world. I don’t believe I can truly impart meaningful knowledge or offer significantly diverse perspectives without experiences like the one I’m about to have in China. The Fulbright GPA I’m participating in is focused on this idea of inter-cultural interactions shaping how we teach afterwards.
But everything I just said feels obvious to me. This desire to go abroad and have unique experiences has been gestating in my soul for the last two years. That’s why I thought I should whip up a list of other reasons why I want to go to China.
- To eat crazy food. And by crazy I mean awesome, non-American food.
I’m a big fan of food shows. I just like looking at the awesome foods that are prepared by professional chefs or peoples of other cultures which I could never make without help. That is one of the main reasons why I’m just a little bit chubby but totally okay with it unless you point it out and then I die a little on the inside.
My favorite food show is “No Reservations” with Anthony Bourdain. Okay, it’s actually my second favorite food show but that isn’t really fair because nothing can beat “Top Chef” so long as Padma is the host. If Salman Rushdie stands a chance then so do I.
Anyway, I love “No Reservations” because Anthony Bourdain is awesome and he explores social and historical issues of the regions where he eats but also because he eats food that is crazy only because it is different from what I eat. This is not a show where he is insane and is going to eat poop just because the show is based on eating stupid things like poop.
I really want to go to China because I want to try anything and everything (except poop) that is offered to me. I promised my students that I would eat chicken feet like we saw on the Vietnamese episode of “No Reservations” if at all possible and I will honor that promise. Even if the only time I see chicken feet is on the side of the road at a really dirty looking little stall and everyone says it is a bad idea and that I’ll get STDs (someone rubbed their junk on the chicken?) or Japanese encephalitis (someone filled the chicken with live mosquitoes?) and that they will never talk to me again… I will still eat those chicken feet with gusto.
Did you know that the Chinese food we eat here in the States is actually very Americanized? If your favorite Chinese dish is General Tso’s chicken then I have bad news because it was first cooked up in New York City. Granted, it was prepared by a Chinese immigrant chef but true Chinese food calls for more vegetables than meat and is very, very rarely deep-fried.
- Because China is wicked old.
China was home to some of the earliest civilizations this world has known. And that is awe-inspiring. Many of the places I go will have a plethora of landmarks that are artifacts of this history and that is incredible.
Sadly, we do not get to appreciate that same history in America. Civilizations did develop much later than in China or other parts of the world, but nomadic migrants were busy settling the Americas before civilizations could really develop. So this is not because where we live was devoid of civilization but because almost everything related to these civilizations was wiped out as the peoples of the Americas were subdued and transformed by the actions and influence of European conquerors.
I’m not denying that we have amazing landmarks and a profound history. Nor am I saying that all pre-Columbian evidence and knowledge of native peoples is gone. But we’re missing a significant chunk of what I’ll be able to experience in China.
Consider that two of the most visited or recognizable landmarks in the United States are the National Mall and Statue of Liberty. The National Mall was only a plan in 1791 and the Statue of Liberty wasn’t given to our country until 1885. Now compare that to one of the most visited and recognizable landmarks in China, the Great Wall. That bad boy was started back in the BCE (Before Common Era is the same as BC or Before Christ only politically correct and a bit pretentious) and took the shape we’re all familiar with in the 1400s. Now that’s wicked old.
I really want to go to China because I want to see how one of the cradles of civilization has changed in its many thousands of years of development and growth. How do cities build themselves up from the foundations of past settlements? How do new urban areas emerge from what was previously only a region inhabited by farmers?
- Leo is from China, and I love Leo.
Seriously. Have you ever met my friend Leo? He’s adorable.
We have great conversations about his life in China, how coming to America has affected his views of China, anime, and videogames. Leo has been a great resource for me as I taught about Asian society this year and his passion for studying social studies – despite the fact that his discipline is actually plants and diseases or something – is infectious.
Oh, I totally just made a pun because he studies diseases and then I said infectious. Awesome.
I really want to go to China because then my conversations with Leo will become even more meaningful.
- To represent my school and community.
I’m probably the last person Charlotte would ever want claiming to represent them abroad but I’m all they’ve got. That isn’t entirely true because, surprisingly, a lot of people from Charlotte figure out how to buy plane tickets and get passports but I really am going as a representative of our school and therefore our community.
Okay, not officially but given the nature of my visit (Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad, yo) I can and will consider myself our ambassador of awesome. And that means I’ll be rocking out as best I can as a professional and a human being so that by the end of our month in China they’ll want to give me an award for coming from such an obviously great place and there will be a ceremony and during my speech I will proclaim, “Our Taco Bell has great customer service but the food isn’t quite as good as the Taco Bell in East Lansing on Trowbridge Road but it is definitely better than the food at the Taco Bell on Grand River Avenue. Definitely.”
Seriously though, I love Charlotte. I know for a solid, undeniable fact that we have an amazing staff at our high school and as I entrench myself in the district I’m getting to know amazing educators at all of the other buildings as well. We have some great local organizations like Can Do that are really working hard to make our community a better place. If you haven’t had a chance already, then you need to check out the Facebook page for our International Generosity Summit in September. It is going to be amazing and I am truly lucky to have been invited to participate in the planning. And I love my students so I want to represent their interests while I am abroad and come back better than ever for their benefit.
I really want to go to China so I can rock my green “Because We Care” shirt. That shirt is meant to be a political statement in Charlotte and that’s partially my motivation for getting a bunch of pictures with it in China. But that shirt encompasses so much more for me. The green shirt is a symbol for all of the hard work that is done every year, every week, and every day in Charlotte to make the world a better place. You might not believe me, and I’ll be the first to admit that there are a ton of reasons to think I’m full of it, but there is a significant group of people doing a multitude of amazing things that inspire me to do something astonishing.
- I want to… do a lot of other things.
I think I’ve said quite a few things here so I’m content to start paying attention to my Advanced Placement training again. In my defense, we’re grading papers and it turns out I’m much faster than the other teachers here and that is actually very sad because I hate grading and get distracted easily while grading by cleaning my apartment and shiny objects.
So to sum up why I really want to go to China: I wanna rawk!
