Oh, the joys of my home away from home.

Kunming is a wonderful, wonderful city. The people are friendly, the weather is perfect, the food is good. It is easy to watch the days slip by here. Which is my excuse for waiting over two weeks to write. I’ve also fallen more or less into a schedule, so aside from the daily drama that no one is interested in reading (and I’m not interested in write), it is hard to find new things to write about.

I remember my first day here several months ago. September 9th or 10th. I was sitting with my new group at this outdoor Chinese restaurant eating spicy food and sipping yogurt (yogurt here is a drink, you are given a straw which you use to punch through the lid and drink the yogurt.) I called my parents and excitedly exclaimed that the city was amazing (and therefore China as it was the only Chinese city I had been in to that point) and I could see myself living here for the rest of the year. Of course, at that point I had no idea what would actually happen. I was yet to meet Michelle (now my boss), travel the rest of China and see that Kunming is really a wonderful, unique city in China, yet to even commit to spending the whole year here. Funny that nearly 7 months later, I find myself sitting in the Program House, my first destination in this country and only a half block away from the location of that phone call, and my feelings about Kunming haven’t changed much. I know more about it now, I know the ups and the downs and my opinion is more complex than it was that first day, but overall I am quite happy to be living in what I think is the best city in China.

My mother is coming to visit me next weekend (!). She will only see two cities: Kunming and Hong Kong, neither of which in my mind are necessarily “China”. Kunming is a city that you cannot come to appreciate until you’ve seen the rest of the country. You have the see how dull smaller, middle of nowhere Chinese cities are and how polluted and dusty, even if more exciting, Beijing is. You have to be happy with not having the same versatility as Beijing. There are no salsa clubs here, for example, and the range of western food is a bit more limited (but with frequent trips to Hong Kong to stock up on chocolate, English books, and cheese, a person can get by just fine!). The city is very very clean. The streets are wide, but not overwhelming like in Beijing. Everything is very centered, so you feel like you can get anywhere you need to by foot, bike, or bus. And it is the center of the most versatile province in China. You’ve got Dali and Lijiang and Tiger Leaping Gorge (three of China’s most popular tourist sites for the more acquainted, aka, outside of the Great Wall and the Terra Cotta Warriors). You’ve the border town Ruilli and the south-east Asian type area Sichuanbana in the South. You’ve got Burmese and Tibetan cultures overflowing along the borders as well as more minorities and villages than any other province. The city itself is surrounded by hills and Dian Chi lake – great for getting back out into nature, hiking or rock climbing or fishing. I could go on for a very long time, but on the whole I am very happy here.

I’ve also made several friends. I finally put myself out there in the foreigner community last weekend and expanded outside my small group of friends. I think my idea of why I am here has evolved since I last wrote. Being in China is about being in China, of course, but it is also about not being at home. It’s about making a life for myself in another city without any one’s help. I resisted the foreigner community because I didn’t want to behave like I was in America, but the truth is that even the foreigner community is fascinated. I have very few American friends – mostly Italian and German and Irish and Australian and Indian – so it isn’t like being at home at all. Meeting other travelers gives me this wonderful feeling of being part of a global community. Simply be being and living outside of my home state, I’m given a membership to one of the more interesting clubs in existence – that of travelers. Everyone is interested in where you’ve been and what you’ve seen and willing to share with you some of their stories. Friends may be a bit more transient, but at least they are never boring. It changes the idea of friendship altogether. Here today, gone tomorrow, enjoy tonight and don’t be sad when it’s over – you’ve got a hundred more interesting people to meet and enjoy the company of.

On a slightly different note, I’ve joined a gym and I take yoga or kungfu classes every day. It is a very Chinese gym, and classes are held in Kunminghua (the Kunming dialect). For the most part I get by, but I do sometimes wonder if what the teacher is saying that I don’t understand is useful. I found a yoga book in the Program House that I’m now reading through – learning all the things about breathing and meditation that I miss out on in class thanx to the language barrier. I’m surprised at how much I like it. More on this later when I’m a bit more acquainted, but for the moment I would definitely recommend anyone who hasn’t tried it give it a go. You might be surprised.

That’s about it for exciting in my life. My upcoming trip to Hong Kong to meet my mother and the following week in Kunming should produce some good stories. Especially if I decide to take her to the Speak Easy (that somewhat dirty, underground ex-pat bar right next to my apartment).