Seattle?

Returning to Seattle is like visiting an ex whom I dated for five years except that Seattle is exactly the same person I broke up with four years ago, and I am not exactly sure if I still like the city. There were reasons why we broke up and re-uniting is kind of weird. Memories flood the body, busing from Northgate to Ballard, walking the Ave and moving from Capitol Hill coffee shops down to the Space Needle. I'm amazed how little the city has changed. Very little has closed (exception my favorite bookstore). All the old restaurants, stores, and supermarkets still exist. Bus 44 is still a mix of college students and the homeless.

It is a city of past memories, of a younger Jennifer who feels nostalgic for the past but can't see Seattle in her future. She loved Seattle and who she was as a student in this cool hip healthy exercising city. But now? Now... she feels old. She feels out of place. She feels Seattle has remained the same, and she has just gotten older with a desire for something new, a new adventure. She doesn't feel the desire to live in the past of a younger Jen.

Maybe it is time to try making money. Is that an adventure? Instead of picking a place for an adventure, try what the rest of the world is doing? Working a nine to five? With no passion to guide her to a new place, no questions she is trying to answer about herself, maybe it is time to just give up, settle down, and put money into her Roth IRA.

Questions of self-discovery have always led her from place to place, from jumping to one dream to the next. It started with college. What will it be like to live independent of her parents amongst a minority group of the USA? Then, the question is she a city West coast (Pacific Northwest) girl? led her to Seattle. Africa helped her answer the question will she be able to thrive and enjoy living with only the basic necessities of life without modern conveniences? Currently in China she is discovering, is she Chinese?

At 33, she feels like she has run out of questions to lead her to the next quest. Instead she is left with the natural life progression of an American citizen, job, house, life partner, family, retirement. Will her next adventure be work, feel tired, flop in front of the TV, dream of retirement when she'll be free again?

Goodbye Alabama, Hello Seattle

I spent ten days visiting family and hearing story after story about rental properties and tenants as well as comparing our lives abroad. I visited my friends who have the sweetest twin boys. I went running in the countryside and biked on trails. I spent a lot of time in a car accompanying my mom on daily errands. I ate refried beans for breakfast and blended iced drinks every day. I spent my initial reactions to cultural differences from China in the South.

Picture 1: sister, Jen, dad

Picture 2: Jen, mom, sister

Goodbye family, hello coffee shops and Shakespeare in the park...It is time to leave for a new place, Seattle...Will there be more reverse culture shocks?

House I Might Buy

Recently a tenant stopped paying rent and eventually after $2,000 of debt told my parents that he would move because he couldn't pay anymore. We spent the morning cleaning out the house. I filled five garbage bags and the pregnant girlfriend of dad's worker filled the back of dad's truck with kitchenware and furniture. There is still a ton of furniture and boxes of books left. Things that my mom felt were valuable and usable entered our house like shampoo, body wash, vitamins, Christmas decorations, clipboards, coins, and a piano. I felt like I was in a show that my parents talk about, "Hoarders: Buried Alive."

Dad bought this house, a total wreck, for $20,000 at auction. He cleaned it up, rebuilt a lot of it and rented it out for fifteen years for $350-390 per month. Now he wants to sell it. He might wait a year and try to re-coop the money he is spending to put on a new roof and fix up the floor.

Chinese American in America

I haven't lived in the South in a really long time, but since living abroad I've always had the optimistic hopeful expectation that white America was finally recognizing and accepting minorities as Americans rather than foreigners, immigrants, and illegals. I thought that minorities have made a showing to America that we exist as Americans. We are on TV, in movies, in schools, in politics, at church, in the workplace. We are visible. We are actively participating in American society, living in America, speaking English. Our cultural instincts and customs are American. I thought America was ready to accept us as Americans regardless of skin color.

Sitting on a bench in a supermarket waiting for my mom to finish her errands, a white haired man sat down and started to make small talk.

Man: Is it hot enough for you?

Jen: It sure is.

Man: Is it as hot as where you're originally from?

Jen: Well where I am working now, it isn't as hot. (Thoughts: originally from? What if I was born and raised in America, generations and generations. Why does my skin color label me as an outsider, who has an original country when everyone even the white people have their original countries?)

Man: Are you from Korea? Is it hot there?

Jen: No. I was born in Taiwan but I've lived most of my life in America.

Man: Oh Taiwan. Do you visit often? Is it hot there?

Jen: Umm... I don't remember I was too little. I am working in China though with the American Peace Corps. I'm on home leave.

Man: Oh China. Isn't there a lot of flooding there now?

Jen: Yeah in some parts. I've gotta go. Here is my mom. Bye.

In China, I always observed that I was perceived as Chinese first and never as American. My Chinese students would always tell me that I could become even more Chinese if I learned the culture and spoke the language, but my white American counterparts even if they lived longer in China, spoke better Chinese, and knew the culture better would never be Chinese because of their skin color. I always thought it was absurd because isn't it your actions and language more important than skin color that labels which country you belong to and are a citizen of?

Apparently not.

Even in America, a place that was built by immigrants and slavery, a country that has had to deal with the diversity of its population, my skin color labels me as a foreigner, an immigrant, maybe an illegal, an outsider, not American. Today is there still a perception amongst the US majority that American citizens are white and everyone else isn't? If certain laws start passing across the USA (laws like in AZ " that called for police officers to check a person’s immigration status while enforcing other laws and required immigrants to prove that they were authorized to be in the country or risk state charges"-NYtimes), will I be assumed to be illegal until I can prove that I am not? Will my skin color be used against me? Will I no longer be an American, but be an illegal foreigner until I can prove otherwise?

Lost Jennifer

I can see myself fitting back in with English speakers, finding the people I connect with, creating my own voice to express my thoughts, no longer limited by my Chinese novice language abilities. I can see myself enjoying being able to express myself, instead of always having to censor myself talking only about safe subjects. But right now I feel kind of lost, not exactly sure how to express myself, not sure what my voice wants to say. I feel like my thoughts and voice are like a turtle, slow and hidden away in a shell.

I've for so long tried to fit in the best I can to African and Chinese culture that my individualistic American personality with its freedom to be whomever I want has been forgotten. I don't know who I am as an American, as an individual influenced from within me rather than allowing the peer pressure and cultural norms of a different country to shape who I am. I feel like a waiting silent seed who hasn't bloomed into an individualistic, bold, opinionated American yet. I am still just a quiet observer, making comparisons, and like for the past four years trying my best not to make waves.

Many Americans are not silent. They are opinionated, loud, talkative, create conflict by arguing and defending their thoughts. They are not into creating harmony by sacrificing their beliefs and wants to agree with the majority. I've been practicing creating harmony for four years and have lost my individualistic voice, have lost me.

I was excited to come back to America where there is a freedom to be me, instead of the censored me, but I've forgotten who I am. Instead of being this world traveller with adventure stories, of being a queer liberal American, I am a mute human being who goes through the motions of staying alive. I may be reflective and talkative on paper, but in person I feel like I am on the bottom tiers of Maslow's hierarchy of needs: physiological and safety levels.

Penny Candy

Owning a lot of rental properties, my mom has to run a lot of business errands driving all around town, dropping off receipts, collecting rent, visiting the bank and the utilities. I spent 2-3 hours in a car accompanying her the other day. Most of the time we could just use a drive through like at the bank or at fast food restaurants. Going to the utilities though, we had to get out. Aren't bubble gum machines cool?

Driving and Horns

Driving an automatic car is like eating. You just do it without thought. It is like playing a video game except you don't need three extra lives coz you're careful. You've only got one life. Don't risk it by being a crazy driver.

Driving in America feels somehow simpler, easier, safer. There is an order to the driving that in China was hard to figure out. American people basically follow the laws. It feels ordered and safe like we are sheep being herded by a border collie. In China, the roads are a mess of confusion and noise making it impossible even after two years to make sense of the number of people going their own chaotic way.

Most of the time while living in China, I felt that the people are less individualistic following a mass order of things except when it comes to the road. In the USA, a major feature of our mass following culture is our cars. We may diverge from the mass with our individualistic thoughts, fashion, and politics but when it comes to cars we are united in our experience. In China, I feel that there is a mass following of fashion, politics, and thinking, a traditional culture where students' essays reflect one unified thought rather than something original or controversial; however, when driving, walking, or biking there is no mass order. Instead there is a huge population each taking their own mathematical random walk. Being on the road is hard to predict. In America as a driver I feel safer with the expected regularity of the roads.

What do you think the original purpose of a car horn was? They were used as warning devices. In America, they are used as "I'm mad at you." In China, they are used as warning devices. I feel a bit scared on bikes in America. In China cars will honk to let you know that they are there. In America, they silently pass and scare me. On a bike, I like being warned by noisy horns. On American roads, I feel a bit unsafe because of the silent moving killers.

Plastic Bags

Countryside seen on last night's bike ride. Riding on a bike with gears is like riding a motorcycle compared to riding my Chinese gearless bike. I actually could bike up a hill rather than walk it up. I could ride super fast and feel the power of movement with the wind blowing through my hair. It was fantastic. It definitely motivates me to buy a GIANT when I return to China.

I went to the supermarket for the first time since coming back and it was HUGE, empty of people, full of too many choices and had a tiny produce section full of super expensive fruits and vegetables. The cheapest fruit was Georgian peaches for $0.99 (6 RMB) a pound. I think if I was back for good, I would have to adjust to the expensive fruits and veggies and would have a really hard time spending money on them.

I bought some instant pudding boxes yesterday as a present for my Chinese tutor who ate some at C's women's club and really really liked them.

As we were leaving the store, mom asked, "Where's your plastic bag?"

Oh... Her question made me realize that I was doing what I do in China. When I don't have enough to fill a plastic bag, I always answer the supermarket worker, "No bag," and I just carry it out.

Plastic bags in China cost money.

Plastic bags in America are free.

The baggers will put one thing in one bag and the next thing you know an American's shopping cart is full of plastic bags with 1-2 items in each. In my Chinese city because very few people have cars, what you buy you have to be able to carry. Everything goes into one bag and on a rare occasion if you have a friend with you, everything might go into two bags, one handle for each person, one bag's weight being distributed over two people's hands. The groceries are then walked home. Because plastic bags cost money, many people bring their own cloth bags.

Reverse Culture Shock

Moving to China, I expected differences in culture and customs. I expected that when I returned to the USA, there would be a few American customs that I too would notice and feel, but I never expected that there would be SOOOOO many!!!! The degree of reverse culture shock that I am feeling is pretty shocking. Having lived in America for over 20 years, I assumed that America would be familiar. With the click of my fingers, I would be instantly changed back to being an American. Instead I am realizing that I am super flexible and have absorbed a lot of Chinese culture and customs making American ones feel strange. I am feeling more like an international citizen who has the tools to observe different countries' customs, make comments about them, and then adapt to them.

Steak and America

Yesterday we drove two hours to Lake Guntersville for a $14 all you can eat brunch that had an omelet, waffle bar, and a guy in a white uniform with a chef's hat slicing huge slaps of rib-eye. Guess what I got! Thank you America. The only thing missing from the buffet was vegetables. There

was a ton of meat, fish, chicken, beef, but veggies were really scant- a salad bar and canned green beans.

It is incredible to realize that a majority of a Chinese meal is a variety of veggies. Americans often complain that in China there are no salads. Well it is true, no lettuce salads (lettuce goes in hot pot), but there are a lot of cold dishes full of crispy raw veggies. Plus the cooked vegetables are not mushy but fresh and crunchy.

I miss the humongous chunks of beef that Americans serve.

I miss that the main portions of a Chinese restaurant's meal are crunchy vegetables.

I am not sure how I feel about American waitresses. At yesterday's buffet a blond with a Southern drawl hovered at our table asking questions every other minute:

What do you want to drink?

I like your hair. My sister has a similar haircut.

Can I refill your water glass?

How is everything?

Can I get you anything?

More coffee?

Here's your bill. (We didn't even have to ask for it.)

The people at the meat buffet eat super fast! Instead of drawing out a meal for 2-3 hours, they grab 3 plates of food, 3 plates of dessert, shovel it in and are done in 30-40 minutes, stuffed and hurting with a stomach ache. My family ate for about an hour, but because of the cold air condition we left the table earlier than I would have liked.

Commercials on American TV are driving me crazy especially the infomercials.

• For $20 and the cost of our diet food, you can lose weight. "I lost 45 lbs."
• Are you weak and unbalanced? Then buy this bracelet that will put your body into the right frequency. Look at these real people and how they become stronger and balanced when wearing this magnetic bracelet.
• Buy this juicer and you'll no longer have to eat solid unhealthy food.

I feel bombarded by false information that only costs $9.99. It gets into your head. A phone is dialled. A credit card is charged and some gimmick sits in the closet for years only being used once. How do I know? Look in my parent's closet.

One thing that I totally forgot about that is an absolutely brilliant invention that can be found anywhere is an ice cold water fountain. I love them and had totally forgotten about them until yesterday when after a two hour hot drive, I was thirsty, with no 1 RMB bottled water in sight.

Today's Tidbits

Inside my family's Southern country house full of knick knacks

If you work indoors and because of car culture, it is rare to feel the Alabama heat as people are shuffled back and forth from one energy cooled place to the next. Jet lag is tough. I woke up at 3 am, ate 6 spoonfuls of ice cream, and a piece of cheese. I went running at 5:30 am to escape the heat, yet during the 50 minute run I still lost about 3 lbs of water. The morning had a gorgeous sunrise over rolling fields of green covered with a layer of a ghostly mist. I realized that no matter where you are in the world there is always something beautiful to be felt.

Jet lag is tough. After helping my family clean out a rental place and after eating hamburger helper, instant scalloped potatoes and canned chicken breast, I crashed for three hours.

Sweet Home Alabama

Our Backyard: All of the bird houses were built by my dad

Life in America is busy. There is always something happening. Someone to talk to. Someone to listen to. Somewhere to go. Time for breakfast. Time for lunch. Time to watch a movie (Despicable Me is a GREAT film. The 3-D version was quite amazing!) Time to sing karaoke on a PlayStation. Time to go for a run. Time to drive somewhere. We spend a lot of time in cars. Time to blend a fruit smoothie. I have barely been able to sit and knit, sit and write, sit and read. If I didn't get carsick while knitting, I could have finished a hat by now. I find it funny that while being surrounded by farmland that I am more busy here than I am in China. It feels like there is a busy schedule of things to do even though the things to do aren't really big things.

Custom Difference: My feet feel naked without house slippers. Walking around barefooted feels so American and now I understand why the foreigners in hostels walk around barefooted. It is our habit. We don't use house shoes.

China to Alabama

Wanting to have a nice closure and to say goodbye to a person I have gotten to know and have gotten close to over the past years, I decided to help my sitemate carry her luggage to Chengdu and keep her company for her few last days in China. She is one of the last of our group to close her service (COS) which could make Chengdu quite lonely.

The luggage though! Whew! The water distiller was HEAVY, actually not heavy but the weight was distributed on two tiny cords which cut deeply into my fingers that turned white with the weight. Her rolling suitcase was much heavier, but people helped her carry the thing up and down the train station stairs. We both had huge backpacks.

Note to COSing volunteers, try to take ALL of your PC stuff back to Chengdu during the COS conference! Or else suffer the consequences of having to lug books, a water distiller, a medical kit, plus all your own stuff. In the pictures do we look lighter? Yeah because in these pictures we have dropped off all the Peace Corps stuff. Were we such good sitemates that we even owned the same backpack? Nah... We traded packs so that she could pack her southern China basket that she will use to carry her future children in. We'll trade back our packs in a couple of weeks.

We left Gansu at 7 am on Saturday to catch a 1 pm train which was delayed till 2 pm. The train ride usually takes about 16 hours, but this time it took 34. The rains have been causing mudslides and we had to wait for at least 10 hours for the tracks to be cleared.

Luckily we had some great cabin mates, a family of four. It was fun. It was like having a host family. They fed us apples and seeds. We understood a lot of their Chinese and they communicated using gestures which is really rare to find in China. We played some oral English games to help the high school and college aged boys with their English. We played the same games in Chinese to help our Chinese. The mother even finished the collar of the sweater I was knitting for C, a going away present to the best sitemate ever. The mother taught me a new bind off method using a tapestry needle. So the 34 hours imprisoned on a train wasn't torture. It was a nice way to say goodbye to China, the loops that China throws you mixed with the learned flexible attitude of "Don't get mad. It'll all work out. Find a way to enjoy what's happening around you."

Here is the finished Plain and Simple Pullover pattern by Veera Välimäki. You can download the free pattern at the free knitting community called Ravelry.

On Wednesday we both left for the USA sharing the cost of a 5:30 am taxi to the airport. C's flight to Beijing was first, leaving at 7:30. My flight was next leaving at 10 am except after climbing two flights of stairs to board the plane, we all had to turn around and be driven back to the terminal. I followed the four obvious looking foreigners who were led by a non-English speaking airline representative back to the check-in counters going not through an exit, but through security backwards. The flight had been cancelled due to mechanical problems and we had to get new tickets. The foreigners were NOT happy because they were going to miss their flights back to Europe. We stood around the counter for thirty minutes trying to get new tickets. Everyone was stressed at missing their connecting flights and we were using customers who spoke English to help translate what the airline workers were trying to tell us. Eventually I heard the Chinese phrase, "Airplane. Good." We were handed our original tickets, ran back to the original plane, boarded it and I made my connecting flight. The others, doubtful. I am betting they got stuck in Beijing.

So...15 hours on a luxurious method of transportation compared to buses in China, I made it back to Alabama. Chicago was a hassle with 1.5 hours of immigration and customs. The lines were long.

It is strange being back. I think the reverse culture shock is greater than my home leave from Africa to the USA. Humans are so flexible. Habits and expectations after 2 years change. Just like how China was a bit overwhelming when I first arrived, the US is now overwhelming. The USA seems to be the same except that I am different.

One big thing that doesn't seem to be the same from two years ago is the number of people who are occupied with their cell phones. You don't see people's eyes anymore, and the noise is people talking on their mobiles.

There were lots of moments of ding.... "Woah that is strange. Woah my habits aren't American anymore."

Examples:

1. My seatmate commented, "Oh you don't want ice anymore?" My response was "Oh... there's ice?" I remember back in the day when I would drink every airline beverage with ice. After two years in China, I have forgotten about cold drinks and ice.

2. I was surprised that I could understand a lot of the Chinese announcements on the airlines and didn't mind if the airline workers spoke to me in Chinese first. I remember my first flight to China being super self-conscious about not being able to speak Chinese when everyone expected me to.

3. After four years of sleeping without a pillow, on a rope cot, and on a thin pad on plywood, I find the beds in America to be too soft.

4. Before I can remember to put the toilet paper into the toilet bowl, it is dropped into the trash can.

5. During my morning run, I knew that it was culturally appropriate to raise a finger in greeting to drivers coming your way, but it took me several cars before I felt brave enough to do it. It was like how living in Africa or China, I was sometimes too afraid to bargain even though I knew it was culturally appropriate. I find it funny that with a US custom I too would feel resistance to doing it.

6. Instead of dodging cars and people, during my run I saw only five cars, a frog, a turtle, a country mouse, kids and their goat moms and piglets and their moms.

7. Even though America has a huge car culture, Alabama seems empty compared to China. The streets are empty. The sidewalks are empty. Even the parking lots seem empty.

8. Waiting in the back room of the doctor's office felt extremely lonely. Unlike China, where at the doctors' you are always surrounded by people, always accompanied by friends and family, being isolated in a small room felt really awkward.

9. I am still Chinese in America. Because the doctor knew I was serving in Peace Corps China, I guess he assumed I was Chinese and asked, "So what part of China are you from?" It is the same question everyone in China asks me. I guess I will never escape that question.

10. I was surprised at how much information was given out by public announcements at the airport. "The plane is delayed because we are waiting for another plane to leave the terminal." I was surprised at how well people followed rules and would wait at yellow lines marked, "Wait here," instead of bunching around empty space. Or would stay seated with seat belts fastened until the sign was turned off.

Yarn

During the next year in China, I plan on learning how to knit, crochet, or macrame, the sandals and slippers in the picture.

Today is the last day at site. It feels weird to be leaving to go back to the states because I have a HUGE backpack. I usually travel with one carry on back pack, but I am pretending it is the end of my service. I have to take everything back home. My house is still full of stuff but it is all stuff that I will leave behind, clothes that are worn out, pastels, art supplies, CDs, speakers, and more...

I am packing my knitting case and preparing knitting projects. I am almost finished with one sweater, have prepared the supplies and notes for a second sweater and a small hat project. It is always confusing which needles are essential. Also are blunt tapestry needles even allowed in the carry on?

This week has been a good running week, five days of jogging a time pyramid 40 minutes, 50 minutes, 60 minutes and back down again. Today it was raining. Perfect weather except I hate the puddles. Even running on the sidewalk is annoying. The sidewalks are tiled so if you hit one that isn't fixed, mud and water splash into your shoe. Ugh... I had to do some major leaping over rivers that ran across roads. Felt like I was in a video game.

While running, a computer game idea popped into my head. Peace Corps Volunteer adventure game where the player has to overcome all the trials and tribulations of living in different countries while trying to get work done. For example, in Africa the player would have to find the right balance of eating, getting sick, and losing or gaining too much weight. They'd have to figure out how to implement a project and meet the right people so the project would be successful. They'd have to learn some words in a new language. They'd get points for bargaining and getting a good price. In China, the player would have to navigate crossing the street, or going on a bike ride without being hit or hitting anything.

Big Smiles

Today and tomorrow then we are off to the USA by way of Chengdu. Every night is a goodbye dinner. See what kind of fun we will all miss when she the sitemate leaves, leaves forever?

But actually for me a goodbye in Chengdu, doesn't mean I will never see her again. I'm planning on meeting the parents in Ft. Collins and then going backpacking in Crested Butte.

Pink Building

This is the corner where workers gather to wait and be hired. This downtown pink building is a stinky one. Can you guess why?

What can I write about? Not much happened yesterday.

With the rest of the grant money, I bought yarn and got 3.5 kg of yarn for about $25.

I bought some fabric to fix my Togo African print melange bag and hopefully communicated to the tailor that I wanted a new bag with the African prints transferred to the new one.

We had dinner with our counterparts eating the same food we ate the very first time we visited our site. It is amazing how our taste buds have changed and how our stomachs have gotten bigger compared to that first meal. The first meal was a bowl of battered fish in a soup of spiciness and a tofu sour spicy soup. Our counterparts remarked, "You didn't eat much during that first meal." This time there was nothing left.

Cave Houses

Yesterday in front of my window was a loud funeral day. Family members dressed in white gather at a tent. Guests throughout the day bring colorful paper made arrangements from flowers to cars and houses. Firecrackers go off and music, a loud piercing horn, is played on every hour until 10 pm.

Countryside Carpentry

After riding my bike at least three times a week for at least seven hours per week for the past four weeks, I wanted to make my fifth and final week in China the peak of my biking and wanted to bike for fifteen hours in five days. Alas, this morning I woke up to a flat tire. Not sure if it is a flat because of a puncture or because of something else, so I'll pump it up and see how it is later today. I guess I'll go for a forty minute run.

Chinese Wedding

I went to Lanzhou for four days to celebrate two PCV's birthdays and to say goodbye to a transfer from Benin whose close of service date is coming up after summer project. We were not the only ones celebrating. Here is a wedding procession with a bride hidden from view being carried to her husband's home.

The highlights of Lanzhou were

• food: tacos, brownies with melted Andes on top, peach pie, chocolate chip cookies, beef noodles, BBQ sandwich, and gazpacho
• seven hour bus ride movies: an extremely dramatic movie about the Sichuan earthquake and the heroes who rescued people, 2012 dubbed in Chinese, Chinese comedies where demons possess people and kill others, where a Tibetan monk goes to Hong Kong to find a Buddhist artifact to save the world, and a couple romantic comedies.
• chilling

During the first year of living in Gansu, it was a pretty isolating year because there were only four of us volunteers and we were very far from each other. It was difficult to take a trip to see each other with only two days of weekend leave. Now though, with more than twenty volunteers in Gansu, it feels more like a Peace Corps region like in Africa where volunteers would get together and socialize. It is nice. I like it.

Little Farmers

These little farmers were helping their grandpa. I wanted to get a picture of the grandpa but then the brakes in my head didn't want to halt. I road past him and when I caught a glimpse of what was behind the cart, I had to stop and back peddle.

Yesterday while biking, a motorcycle road along side me and asked, "What kind of hat is that?"
I replied, "It is a hat I bought in America."
He replied, "Oh you're a girl."
I guess my biking outfit disguises me pretty well?

The bike ride yesterday was sometimes frustrating because I had to stop for traffic jams created by farmers who use up half the narrow country road that is actually a "major" highway to dry out their harvest.

Two big trucks with over thirty people sitting in the truck bed made me curious. Are they migrant workers? Prisoners? Workers being hauled to a factory? After about twenty kilometers, I found out. They were being trucked to a big empty field at the edge of a plateau to learn how to drive buses, cars, and trucks through an obstacle course.

I followed a taxi down a side road and ended up at another driving obstacle course and a "tourist" spot at least that is what the sign said. The tourist spot was a restaurant with rooms that are caves in the mountain with a great view of a valley.

I find it surprising that in the middle of nowhere, twenty kilometers in the countryside there are so many driving schools.