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River Town by Peter Hessler pgs 399
This is a great memoir about a peace corp english teacher that was one of the first American's to live in the Chinese city of Fuling. He and another teacher are the only two (waiguorens, chinese for foreigner) in the city. Even though I reside not in China but in a certain renegade province, the book was full of descriptions and details that I quickly recognized. A personal favorite that is still making me laugh is Hesslers realization that the pollution causes his snot to be black when he blows his nose. He decides that instead of focusing on how bad the pollution is and how it' s unhealthy and horrible, he will just stop looking at his snot after he blows his nose. This attitude should be somehow injected into anyone that will be living overseas. It's a great example of creative problem solving or rather........just getting over IT!
Great read if you want a taste of what Chinese culture is all about and how to thrive within it. It's also really funny.
River Town by Peter Hessler pgs 399
This is a great memoir about a peace corp english teacher that was one of the first American's to live in the Chinese city of Fuling. He and another teacher are the only two (waiguorens, chinese for foreigner) in the city. Even though I reside not in China but in a certain renegade province, the book was full of descriptions and details that I quickly recognized. A personal favorite that is still making me laugh is Hesslers realization that the pollution causes his snot to be black when he blows his nose. He decides that instead of focusing on how bad the pollution is and how it' s unhealthy and horrible, he will just stop looking at his snot after he blows his nose. This attitude should be somehow injected into anyone that will be living overseas. It's a great example of creative problem solving or rather........just getting over IT!
Great read if you want a taste of what Chinese culture is all about and how to thrive within it. It's also really funny.
posted by Nomad at 2:51 AM
2 Comments:
Glad you liked the book! I thought it was hilarious, and identified with many of his experiences -- although I was greatly humbled by his ability to learn the language (spoken and written). I suppose if I actually put any time into it, I might learn, too....
Hessler is living in Beijing now; he recently had an article in The New Yorker, also quite funny. I hope he comes out with a sequel.
That's gross and hysterical at the same time. I'll have to ask all my friends who've lived overseas a lot if they can relate to that.
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