A Day in the Life of a Political-Economic Section Intern

6:00 AM: Wake up, turn on electric teakettle, grumble about the lack of good coffee in China.

7AM: Finish drinking coffee, actually wake up, check personal email, reply to new comment on your last essay written for the IIP Summer Internship course, check Facebook, wonder why no one is online, remember that there is a 13 hour time difference between Chengdu and Madison, log off and finish getting ready.

8:00 AM: Arrive at the Consulate, log onto computer and begin reading all of the email updates Washington sent last night.

8:30 AM: Begin going down rabbit hole of Wikipedia pages in an attempt to understand Thailand's refugee policies because of a report that was sent out from the U.S. Embassy in Thailand.

8:45 AM: Remember that you have 12 other emails to read and several projects that need starting, close the Wikipedia page, and continue to read emails.

9:00 AM: Head of Pol/Econ section stops by office to say hello, also mentions that he would like to see a draft of the report sometime this morning, begin rewriting large sections of the draft as soon as he leaves.

10:00 AM: Finish up latest round of edits on cable (State Department parlance for an internal report), email to supervising Political Officer, Political Unit Chief, and Chief of Political-Economic Section, quietly sneak downstairs for second cup of coffee and a quick chat with the Management intern.

10:30 AM: Back at desk, coffee in hand, resume intensive Google searching for an academic paper or census that has some statistics that I need for a different cable.

11:00 AM: Message other interns asking what they would like to do for lunch because one of the TDY-ers (Temporary Duty officer, usually only at Post for a few weeks or months) is leaving tomorrow, agree to join a small celebration at the Ambassador (a restaurant that is run out of what used to be a local family home that famously hosted the U.S. Ambassador to China a few years ago when he requested authentic Chinese food).

11:30 AM: Meet briefly with one of the local staff and ask her if she can find the number of certain universities, colleges, and vocational schools in Sichuan province, and if she has had any luck contacting any of the organic farms for a visit and interview.

12:00 PM: Meet the six other interns, two summer hires (adult children of Consulate employees), and TDY-ers in the lobby to head out to lunch.

1:00 PM: Return to desk, again begin reading through emails.

1:30 PM: Reply to PAO (Public Affairs Officer) call for volunteers for an English language movie night attended by local students, add event to calendar, remember that you also wanted to schedule a meeting with a Management Officer to learn more about the Management Cone (there are five career tracks in the Foreign Service: Management, Political, Economic, Public Diplomacy and Consular).

2:00 PM: Check in with the Consul General's (CG) executive assistant, ask if she has any tasks for me or needs any help with preparations for an upcoming event.

3:00 PM: Receive edited cable from Political Unit Chief, begin slowly approving changes and making notes about content holes that still need filling.

3:15 PM: Run over to Political Unit Chief's desk to ask about a particular comment he made, find that he is already gone to another meeting, quickly decide that he doesn't need to be bothered with this, and leave yourself a note to check back on the fact in question tomorrow morning.

3:20 PM Head down to the Consulate's Information Resource Center (IRC; basically a small library) to help with set up for this week's college chat, double the number of chairs because we have no idea how many students will show up.

3:30 PM Begin presenting to a room stuffed with students, feel nervous, but excited because everyone seems pretty interested.

4:00 PM: Open chat session with the students, other interns grapple with questions on admissions processes, entrance exams, and sports teams, you work with random eight year old and find major U.S. cities on the map.

5:00 PM: Reluctantly escort students out of the Consulate as official hours are over, and all of the interns can finish for the day.

5:15 PM: Actually begin to leave, say good-bye to all of my colleagues.

6:00 PM: After returning home, checking my email again, and changing out of business professional clothing, grab dinner at local noodle and dumpling shop with other interns, wonder why there aren't more hand-pulled noodles available in the USA.

7:30 PM: Begin working on essay for IIP course, get distracted by new idea for a blog post.

8:00 PM: Interns gather together to watch Frozen and eat Chinese snacks.

10:00 PM: Message Mom for a while, reassure her that I am still alive and well.

11:00 PM: Go to sleep, because tomorrow will bring a whole new set of challenges and adventures.

Now, obviously I can't claim that every intern everywhere is going to have the same experience, and not every day is like this for me. But, I think that this is a pretty good representation of what I do. My major duty is to write cables. Fortunately, the Chengdu Consulate is small and flexible, so I was able to pick some topics that interest me. Right now, I hope to publish three cables by the time I leave in mid-August. Each cable is the product of a considerable amount of research, so even finishing three is an accomplishment.

To me, an internship is like a first draft. You have time to go over questions and problems again and again, trying new things and gathering feedback. Not all of your changes will be successful, not all of your days will be fun, and not all internships lead to careers. But, ultimately, by having gone through the process of revision, editing, and reflecting, you come out with a fuller picture of what you want your life to be.

On Sichuan Cuisine

You may had heard of Sichuanese cuisine, or szechuan... which is an older translations of 四川. You may have even ordered the infamous Kung-pao Chicken from your favorite take-out place (which is actually pronounced gong-bao jidan 宫保鸡丁) or even gone to a Sichuan style restaurant in Beijing or Shanghai. I am here to tell you, none of that is real Sichaun food. Not even close.

A collection of spices, peppers, and chili powders that are liberally thrown on every Sichuan dish

I though that I hated Sichuanese cooking. Honestly, I don't really remember how or why I got this idea in my head. Possibly, it was last summer when Dreux ordered some insane Sichuan-style dish. I distinctly remember biting into a Sichuan pepper (huajiao 花椒) and a burst of soapy mouth-numbing flavor exploding in my mouth, ruining the rest of the meal. Back in Madison, I would sometimes join Jon and his friends and go to a local Chinese restaurant and order hotpot with half of the broth being clear and the other half a boiling soup of oil, spice, and pain.

My first hotpot in Sichuan. I was still horribly jet lagged and confused, and really couldn't figure out what the shop owner was saying. Eventually she just threw some things together and gave me as little spice (flavor) as possible. 

When I got word that I was going to Chengdu in Sichuan province, after I stopped freaking out about how excited I was to have gotten the internship, I immediately began worrying about the food. By this point, I had a fairly limited range of dishes I could order with any confidence. Beef noodles, steamed buns, home-style tofu, rice, and dumplings were pretty much ubiquitous on the east coast, but who knew what they would have in the southwest. It was like starting back at square one.

After the hotpot fiasco, I tried to stick with what I knew. This plate of oil, pain, and noodles was completely unlike any beef noodles I had ever eaten before. By then end of the bowl I was crying because of the heat.

These past two months, I have eaten a lot of new things. There was the big plate of chicken (da pan ji 大盘鸡) which is an entire chicken, including the innards, diced and boiled in spicy oil with Maddy and Morgan. Scott introduced us to a variety of stomach and tripe based dishes, most of which were pretty good. I've eaten a few rabbits, sampled some yak meat, countless plates of mapo tofu (mapo dofu 麻婆豆腐), an abundance of taro and lotus roots, noodles named after the Uyghur autonomous region (xinjian banmian 新疆拌面), dozens and dozens of dumplings with a variety of fillings, molasses steamed bread (hong tang mantou 红糖馒头), pig's feet soup (which I really didn't like), and and incredible number of bowls of hand-pulled or hand-cut noodles.

Over the course of many fantastic (and a few terrible) meals, I've begun to really appreciate Sichuan's food. Everything is oily, spicy, and incredibly fresh. Even more so than other areas of China, Sichuanese people insist on the freshest of produce, cooked quickly, and served immediately. I can't tell you the number of times I have burned myself by quickly chomping down on a piece of eggplant or biting into a dumpling. The heat and oil, in a perverse way, is intended to help keep you cool on a hot summers day. And that huajiao which is responsible for the ma la (麻辣 numbing heat flavor) actually adds a lightness and freshness to dishes that would ordinarily be weighted down by the grease and salt. 

With this in mind Maddy, Morgan and I took a cooking class with one of the Consulate's Chinese language instructors. Translating her father's instructions, we tried to copy his deft movements as he prepared fish-flavored eggplant (yuxiang qiezi 鱼香茄子), tiger skin peppers (hupi qingjiao 虎皮青椒), and a variation on kung pao chicken, by substituting pork for chicken. 

Somehow, we managed to hold our own. Starting from selecting food from the market, learning new knife skills, practicing stir frying peanuts, pork, eggplants, learning how to blister peppers, making sauces, and ultimately standing back as her father made the last two dishes to complete our lunch (twice cooked pork, and fried tomatoes and eggs. Everything was delicious, doused in oil, liberally sprinkled with peppercorns, sugar, and vinegar, and fried to perfection. 

Stir-frying eggplants!

Learning how to work with the cleavers.

Kung pao pork! It was fantastic!

Tiger skin peppers were perhaps my favorite dish, lightly spicy with a hint of sweetness and sourness from the sugar and vinegar sauce. 

Fish flavored eggplants, which don't taste like fish at all... instead they are wonderfully sweet and spicy!

All in all, I love Sichuan food, but I don't think that it is something I need to eat anywhere other than Sichuan. There must be something about the Sichuan atmosphere that promotes food that is so spicy that it forces you to slow down, take a breath, talk with your friends, and wait for the cooling affect to take hold. 

Whirlwind Weeks

Hello everyone! Sorry for the long gap between posts... I'm finally settling into my internship and beginning to really dig into a couple of projects (more on that soon!) For now, I will try to catch up on writing about some of the fascinating places I've been and things I've seen in and around Chengdu.

One of the first tourist attractions Maddy, Morgan, and I went to was Dufu's Cottage in the northern section of the city. He was a poet during the Tang Dynasty, and lived in Chengdu for about five years before moving into what is now modern day Chongqing.  Many of his works were oblique social critiques and histories, and stylistically very simple, omitting many of the details he assumes the reader will fill in.

漫兴

熟知茅斋绝低小
江上燕子故来频
衔泥点污琴书内
更接飞虫打著人

I know well that my thatched hut is very low and small,
Because of that, the swallows on the river often come.
The bits of mud they bring in their mouths get into my zither and books,
And trying to catch the flying insects, they drive them into me.

江碧鸟逾白
山青花欲燃
今春看又过
何日是归年

The river's blue, the bird a perfect white,
The mountain green with flowers about to blaze.
I've watched the spring pass away again,
When will I be able to return?

后游

寺忆曾游处 
桥伶再渡时
江山如有待
花柳更无私
野润烟光薄
沙暄日色迟
客愁全为减
舍此复何之

I remember the temple, this route I've travelled before,
I recall the bridge as I cross it again.
It seems the hills and rivers have been waiting,
The flowers and willows all are selfless now.
The field is sleek and vivid, thin mist shines,
On soft sand, the sunlight's color shows it's late.
All the traveller's sorrow fades away,
What better place to rest than this?

What you may notice is the lake of a cottage in any of these photos... we were actually so impressed with the large (free) park surrounding the cottage that we didn't even go into the (60 RMB) cottage. Maybe a week or two later, we went back again, fully intending to see his cottage. 

春夜喜雨

好雨知时节
当春乃发生
随风潜入夜
润物细无声
野径云俱黑
江船火独明
晓看红湿处
花重锦官城

The good rain knows its season,
When spring arrives, it brings life.
It follows the wind secretly into the night,
And moistens all things softly, without sound.
On the country road, the clouds are all black,
On a riverboat, a single fire bright.
At dawn one sees this place now red and wet,
The flowers are heavy in the brocade city.

 

江畔独步寻花 

黄四娘家花满蹊
千朵万朵压枝低
留连戏蝶时时舞
自在娇莺恰恰啼

At Huang Si's house, flowers fill the path,
Myriad blossoms press the branches low.
Constantly dancing butterflies stay to play,
Unrestrained, the lovely orioles cry.

漫成

江月去人只数尺
风灯照夜欲三更
沙头宿鹭联拳静
船尾跳鱼拨剌鸣

The moon's reflected on the river a few feet away,
A lantern shines in the night near the third watch.
On the sand, egrets sleep, peacefully curled together,
Behind the boat I hear the splash of jumping fish.

Obviously, we were again distracted by the beautiful park surrounding the cottage. If we ever actually managed to get inside, I will post pictures.

Other than that, I've toured a fantastic little Chinese/Tibetan Buddhist temple (no pictures allowed), a slew of museums that deserve their own post, and some other wonderful parks.

Sichuan University is the top school in western China, and it is across the street from my apartment! Also, UW Madison should seriously consider investing in a pagoda.

In addition to the zillions of little parks scattered throughout the city, there are lots of little green ways (绿道）which are pedestrian only walkways that cut through the city and a frequented by the elderly. This particular green way is in the Yulin (玉林）neighborhood just a few blocks away from the consulate. 

Also, once you get to the far south of the city (世纪城）the city becomes a strange mash-up of expensive high rises and older communities. These guys were fishing along the dammed river that flowed alongside a vegetable garden that covered the plot of land next to an expensive gated community. It's a bit surreal seeing western sedans fly past these old fishermen.

People's Park (人民公园）is just a few blocks from the heart of the city, and is a bit of an urban oasis. In addition to having fantastic public spaces for karaoke and dancing ladies, there is a thriving Tai Ji practice, lots of gambling, lots of little kids running around. My favorite part, however, was the bonsai exhibit. There were dozens of little trees, each clinging precariously to some rock, looking like a microcosm of the ancient Chinese mountainsides. 

秋兴八首 (四)

闻道长安似弈棋
百年世事不胜悲
王侯第宅皆新主 
文武衣冠异昔时
直北关山金鼓振
征西车马羽书迟 
鱼龙寂寞秋江冷
故国平居有所思

I've heard them say that Chang'an seems like in a game of chess,
A hundred years of world events have caused unbearable pain.
The palaces of the noblemen all have their new masters,
Civil and military dress and caps are not like those before.
Straight north over mountain passes, gongs and drums ring out,
Conquering the west, carts and horses, feather-hurried dispatches.
The fish and dragons are still and silent, the autumn river cold,
A peaceful life in my homeland always in my thoughts.

All poems were taken from the Du Fu Index