Anren, Hunan Province, China

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Abroad. Adv. at large; in a foreign country.

On my side of the world life is quiet, relaxed, manic, surprising, overwhelming, fun, nerve racking, homely, pure, interesting, old, traditional, fresh, littered, tasty and I am definitely attending the University of Life!

Many people in this tiny rural town have never seen a foreigner so our every move is watched with intrigue, confusion and curiosity. Today we had a line of at least 10 people follow us around the supermarket while trying to do some basic shopping. Everyone stops and stares while we are walking down the street and when we give a friendly hello they seem shocked that we actually talk. But, I feel oh so lucky to have found a place that still feels like China. There are no restaurants, no bars, no KFC or McDonalds, no live music or Tim Tams or chardonnay. But there are hairdressers that give a divine hour-long hair wash for 50 cents and a wonderful memorial where the elderly folk practice their Tai Chi every morning at 6am - and it's free to join in. Life here in An ren, Hunan Province is a whole lot slower than other places I have visited.

I found out today that the town I live in is where Traditional Chinese Medicine was invented or began. Can you believe it!. A wanting of knowledge that I have had most of my adult life and I am in the centre of it! The Qing Dynasty ruled from this exact area and that is when TCM began.

Today we went looking for a reflexology massage house but instead we came across a TCM massage house. The lady and her husband are blind which I was very intrigued by as I remember having to do blind folded massage when I was learning and you can pick up so much more without relying on sight. She read my pulse on both my wrists and then she was away with a tap, tap here and slap, slap there. At the time it was really strange but now I have such clarity.

Besides that life is going along slowly. School doesn’t start for another week. So everyday we walk around the town which has one set of traffic lights situated on a roundabout. That is so funny!! Anything goes with the traffic here and it looks like there are no rules so I guess it seems fitting to have a roundabout with traffic lights!!!..

We get bikes next week so it will be wonderful to be able to explore this beautiful part of China. There is a river 200mtrs from the school and we can see mountains from our apartment.

A student came up today to show Dana (the gal from the US who is teaching for the first time here with me) and I some photos of her family etc. and we saw photos of the town in Winter. It snows! Not little snow flakes but big cover all the trees snow. It is gonna be awesome... I wasn’t ready for it but what can I do? I might have my first white Christmas?!

The food here, although it's incredibly healthy and my diet is more organic than ever before, isn’t anything to write home about (are you at home??).

Dana and I got up early this morning to start Tai Chi in the memorial park. When we got there we realized it is actually a pine forest that is kind of divided into 4. There was aerobics, Tai Chi with a sword, Tai Chi with no sword, slowly traditional dancing with Chinese fans and general excersice which looked like it was a lot of cupping and slapping and patting the body to wake it up. It was so great. We joined in the aerobics this morning. Breathing in the smell of pine trees and jumping up and down on mother earths carpet was a great way to start the day. Tai Chi is so slowly and for a gal like me that likes to do things now, chop, chop, chop, it is going to be a challenge.

I send everyone lots of love and I hope to hear from you soon.

Love always,
Dani

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Photos

Military training
Year 10 students learn how to march and fire rifles before a week before school starts.

Comments

[Aunty]

Dani, I have only just been able to get the blogs again.... i hope that life is still good over there and that the weather in 'the oven' doesn't change to be the weather in the freezer. take care. eagerly awaiting your next blog

[Sara]

Moving to Anren...
Hi Dani. As this was written in 2007, I have no idea if you will receive this! I am taking a job teaching and moving to Anren in August. I am an international teacher, so I am used to the struggles and wonderful experiences that come with living in a new place. However, I have never been to China! If you ever receive this, please let me know if it's possible to email each other and maybe I could ask you some questions about your experience? Thanks for posting this! - Sara