FIELD TRIP Post 1: Where Do I Begin?

There’s no good way of getting out all of the things that I wish I could say about the past nine days, they were definitely some great ones. I’ll probably steer away from the generic descriptions that, let’s be honest, aren’t that interesting. We stuck pretty closely to the rough schedule that I posted last week, so you can refer to that, but I’ll try to expand a little more. Today, let’s talk in superlatives:
Best food/meal: Cut mini cucumbers in some ridiculous garlic/vinegar sauces. I think I ate the equivalent of six mini cucumbers in one sitting. Other than that, though, Shaanxi province food isn’t my favorite. It’s very dense and they like to shove all grains imaginable into a meal with very little meat. You end up eating three or four mantou (basically rolls but very dense) and noodles and rice and potatoes and corn bread and other starchy things. There were some delicious mashed potatoes with onions in Yanan, though.
Best part of Yanan culture: Folk singing. And waist drumming. And paper cutting. Okay, I like it all. It’s really neat how involved everyone is with the culture, they are all so proud of it and were so excited to demonstrate it all to us students. The people demonstrating weren’t professionals; they were just regular Yanan residents who were proud of their heritage and wanted to share it with us. Honestly, the pride that I saw in Yanan put the US to shame.

Favorite Shaanxi Folk Song: Dong Fang Hong or “The East is Red”. It really captures the Yanan spirit, but I actually really like this song. Especially when it starts talking about Mao Zedong. There’s really no way for me to describe this song, I can basically only hope that some of my camera recordings were good enough for you to understand a little bit of the experience. Trust me, if all you knew of Chinese revolution was based on this song, you would be ready to revolt. Guaranteed.

Most uncomfortable moment: Let’s talk for a minute about toilets. They are wonderful creations, even if they are technically dirtier than ditches. So my most uncomfortable moment was using the “bathroom” at the farm on the way to the Yellow River. No stalls, no privacy, no flush, basically just a stone platform with holes. I have added it to my “conquered” list.

Best bus ride: Ride to the Yellow River. Incredibly windy, but I was surprisingly okay and the scenery was beautiful! I felt like I was somewhere in South America rather than Northwestern China.
Best motion sickness drug: Dramamine!! Don’t ask how many of these pills I took.

Best souvenir: My waist drum from the Yanan communist government! They gave every student a full sized waist drum complete with sash at our opening dinner. The best part of these drums is that they have our faces and names painted on them. Oh, Yanan.
Most lasting impression: Yanan took amazing care of us. We were escorted by police everywhere we went, the mayor of the city spent a ridiculous amount of time with us, we were all given waist drums, we were housed in their nicest hotel, the mayor sent her people to all of the restaurants we planned on visiting to test the food, the entire hotel staff greeted us upon our arrival, the mayor saw us off on our way to Xi An, and we were treated so hospitably in so many other ways. We talked in our small group discussions (more on these later) about why they were willing to do that for us and whether or not we deserved it. We concluded that, even though we definitely did not merit such care, the people of Yanan were so willing to treat us so well because they were so proud of their culture and so excited to share it with us. There’s no way I can describe how welcomed these people made us feel and I can definitely say that I’ve never seen anything like it in the states. I was really, really touched by the Yanan people I got to know and, honestly, I would go back in a heartbeat.


It’s safe to say that I had a great time. As much as I thought I would never say this, I think Yanan will always have a little piece of my heart. The community is so alive there, infinitely more alive than Shanghai, even though it has a very small fraction of the people; it definitely created a lasting impression on me.