Above:The Baha'i House of Worship of Asia. Below:Life and times of your fellow World Citizen, Kolya

fter a lovely two month stay in New Delhi, India, I arrived back in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China for round two, my second year in China. Baotou is north of, and not too far from, the western reaches of the Great Wall and west of but very far from it’s eastern reaches. It’s one hour’s flight west of Beijing. A day trip from Baotou will take one to the memorial mausoleum to Genghis Khan or to a choice between two different large Tibetan Buddhist monasteries. I would still like to visit them but haven’t gotten around to it yet…perhaps this school year…
While I was still in India I seemed to be able to think of more things I liked about India then China and wasn’t missing China at all (except for my friends in China). However, now that I'm back I'm remembering more and more things. On the basic level the electricity is better in China and there are very seldom any power outages. (As opposed to daily outages in India). Also I’ve never had any stomach problems here unlike the “Delhi Belly” I had in India a few times this summer. Another great thing about China as I’ve experienced it here in Baotou is the great friendliness of the people as exemplified by the friends I’ve made among the regular attendants of the English corner in 8-1 Park. On the first Sunday after my arrival I went with the other foreign teacher at my school to the English corner and after chatting with the crowd that quickly surrounded me for an hour I went with the long time members and a few newer ones to a restaurant for lunch.
It was a typical Chinese meal at a big round table except that it was more crowded than normal with about 13 or 14 people around the table. As is usually the case (unless there’s a Mongolian hotpot there instead) there was a very large lazy-suzan at the center of the table for the various dishes from which everyone helps themselves. There was maybe a foot, or a little less, of space between the edge of the lazy-suzan and the edge of the table. Each person has a set of chopsticks, a bowl and a Chinese tea cup and saucer. The saucer can also be used as a catch plate in case you don’t have a good hold of something with your chopsticks and you need a resting place between the food dish and your mouth. They ordered to my tastes (as well as their own) and so the meal was very good and filling although out of maybe at least 20 dishes I especially liked maybe 6 of them. However, that was still plenty to fill me to over the brim! Everyone, myself included, seemed to be happy to just drink tea with the meal. (This was perhaps due to my presence as most Chinese [men especially] are pretty big drinkers [of alcohol]). There was more than enough for everyone and, in fact, it struck me at the time as a feast fit for a king. After most of the eating was done we went around the table with almost everyone singing a few songs, starting with me. I sung “Help!” by the Beatles, “Aquarius” and “Manchester, England” from the musical Hair. The Chinese seem to love to sing and break into song much more often than westerners. It’s great! There was much joking and camaraderie and although I couldn’t understand it all I still got the gist and spirit of it all. I had a great time, and who, finding themselves in a situation such as this, could help but think to themselves, “it’s great and wonderful to be back in China!”