I'm off to Sichuan + ACC report, part 1

Tomorrow, I head off to Sichuan province for a week's vacation. Sichuan is in southern China, just east of Tibet, and is known for it's spicy food, giant pandas, and beautiful scenery. To stretch my legs after the 26 hour train ride, I've got plans to climb Emei Shan, a 3000m mountain with supposedly incredible views to see, Buddhist monasteries to visit, and lots and lots of angry monkeys to and/or run from. I've been advised to not wear any red clothing- as this color apparently upsets the monkeys. And as long as a monkey doesn't steal my camera, in my next post I promise there will be lots of pictures.


But this will be probably my last post for a week, although I'm hoping one of those monasteries on Emei Shan has Wi-fi. I had intended to write more, but I've got a three-hour exam tomorrow morning, and I want to be well-rested.


So because there might be some Yalies who recently won Light Fellowships that are checking out this blog, I wanted to use this post to write about my ACC experience so far. But, since the experience has been so rich, and my 3 hour exam tomorrow morning is so soon, I only have time to publish the first part of my post, about why I enjoy ACC's hard-working but relaxed and down-to-earth community.


When you get to know a fellow student in China, one of the questions that inevitably gets asked is: why did you decide to come to China to learn Chinese? I anticipated that many of my fellow students would say that the reason they're studying Chinese is because it looks good on a resume, or because they're grooming themselves to become CEOs .


But surprisingly, the majority of the students aren't ruthlessly set on becoming Chairman of the Board. And this laid-back attitude results in a lot of opportunities for great conversation and fun times. So even though we all work hard, in the background everyone is fairly laid-back.


The teachers have a similar attitude- because many of them are young graduates of Chinese universities. Although our classes are often ruthlessly efficient, the teachers are always willing to joke around and relax. I've played ping pong with my teachers and even run into some of them at Bar Blu, an ACC weekend hotspot. And aside from all the fun, they're great teachers- I would say that good teachers are responsible for the quality of Chinese I can currently speak.


This coming week, I'll find out how good that quality actually is, as I bargain with monks on Emei Shan and try to figure out how to order Sichuan's famous dishes. And on the 26 hour train journey, I hope to queue up some blog posts for the next few weeks, which will give me time to withstand China's unbearably slow internet and upload some pictures of monkeys, monks, and mountains. Zai jian!