On May 20, 6:58 pm, Bill Martin <n...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On May 19, 1:04 pm, Robin T <s10wgir1c...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
> > Bill, although I don't know you from Adam, I really liked your
> > slideshow and write-up.
>
> Thank you. I don't know Adam either. I left a lot out of the
> narrative, like about how strange it is to drop out of the sky into
> and ancient culture - thud! Very disorienting for someone like me who
> has not traveled. It took awhile for me come out of that dreamy state
> and to believe what I was seeing was real and not a Disneyland ride.
> Wait a minute... That's kind of how I feel when I'm in Berkeley! Maybe
> that's from the marijuana smoke hanging through the backyards.
>
> Bill
You might be interested in reading Bill Holm's book of essays, "Coming
Home Crazy," based on his experiences teaching English to Chinese
students in the 1980s. His source of the title is something an
anthropologist told him before he went abroad: "In Asia, you either
lose your inner moorings, start to sink, go some kind of crazy, and
just let it happen; or you will leave sooner than you expected and
not learn anything."
If you feel like you're coming home crazy, you presumably learned
something, but did any of the Chinese learn to square dance? I find it
hard to understand what the caller is calling for, and I sort of
understand English. Did you have a translator for "do-si-do" and
"allemande left" and "right-left grand?" We could stand to learn more
about your experiences, Bill, whether in China or Berkeley. It's not
as if anyone else were writing much on this newsgroup. Even finylvinyl
hasn't been heard from lately, much less Kellie.
Lyle
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