Hu´s in China Now?

I´m sorry, that joke is so overdone. But yes, I am back in China! We are at our university´s sister school in Fuzhou, which is tucked away in a cute little neighborhood I would describe as Beverly Hills: Third World. I´d upload some pics but my batt´s dead in my camera, so I´ll do that soon. Basically the city is hilly with palm trees and alleyways of high concrete walls, twisted around in labyrinths and topped with shards of broken glass instead of barbed wire. See, I told you there was recycling in China!

Every day we go to class at the University, where Prof. Fields from UPS is teaching us a course on Nationalism. The balcony outside the classroom has a terrific view of the city, which is split down the middle by a huge river (Ming? Ying?) and looks remarkably like LA: blue sky, bright sun, and subtle layer of pollution. At night, the sun burns orange and bathes the sides of the skyscrapers in that fiery CO2 glow. I have to admit, it sorta feels like home...

We´ve got assigned buddies here with the Chinese university students, which is really terrific. My buddy´s name is Ivy and she is a real pistol, in the best sense. Absolute sweetheart, but not afraid to bargain down from four dollars for a pair of sunglasses (winking at me while doing so) or afraid to shove her way onto a bus when everyone is easily a foot taller than her. She talks fast, smiles big, and says things like ¨I´m so full but to leave food is waste, so eat eat eat!¨ We´re hiking a mountain on Thursday, apparently. Whew!

I´ve been making friends with the locals on my quests for food, which occur after class (elevensies), at noon (lunch), at 3:30 (second lunch), at 6 (dinner) and at 8:30 or so (after-dinner snack). I´ve been getting noodles at one diner in particular...I always go in the afternoon when the cook´s favorite kung-fu drama is on, so I order before it starts and then we watch it together (far away from each other but we´re the only people in the diner), and then I ask for my check during the commercial break. It´s a nice system. He´s got two little boys, one with really red cheeks and the other a tiny version of the first only jollier, like that ubiquitous Chinese laughing Buddha. They say hi to me and then murmur in Chinese and laugh hysterically. Joke´s on me, I´m sure, but I don´t care.

If you walk across the street there is a knick-knack shop, and inside the knick-knack shop lives a small dog(?). If he were my pet and I lost him and had to describe him in a poster, it would probably read something like this:

¨LOST: SMALL THING WITH GINORMOUS EARS. LOOKS LIKE LARGE SQUIRREL, FACE LIKE EWOK. RESPONDS TO THE NAME ´ALFRED.´¨

I named him Alfred because he looks like a grouchy old man abruptly woken from his afternoon nap with rebellious, disheveled eyebrows. I say, ¨Here, Alfred¨ when I walk by, but he sniffs at me and then jumps into his bed, which is under a tarp draped over two motorcycles. It looks really warm in there, I would totally curl up in there with him if that wasn´t weird and this wasn´t China. Anyway, I´ll try to snap a picture of him soon so you can all meet him.

Today Marlene and I were carrying our leftover trash from dinner while walking back from the university and spotted a trash can and stuck our garbage in. Then I noticed the can was one of two baskets, attached by rope to a long flat stick strung between them. This is the thing people use to carry stuff on their shoulders.

Suddenly I just felt really strange... I dumped my trash into a basket that someone will carry on his or her back tomorrow morning.

I need to think about that.