Last Day in Kunming

I’ve spent the last two weeks living with my host family; my host mom, dad, and little brother. Just like before, I had class in the morning, then Taiji, then more class…Only today was my last day. I had two tests this morning, turned in my Life History paper and the rough draft of my ISP proposal. Tomorrow we leave for, eventually, Dali, Lijiang, and Zhongdian and I won’t be coming back to Kunming for probably about a month.
My Life History paper was actually a lot of fun to write. I interviewed one of my friends, July (her Chinese name is Sun Manli). She’s a student from Sichuan studying English at Minzu Daxue. She was very eloquent in describing her life; her English is pretty fluent. More importantly, she was very open about talking about her life, telling me stories about living with her grandparents and, later, her parents. For this reason, I’m glad I picked a friend to interview. I don’t think I would have gotten such detailed responses without having already established a friendship. However, later on I will have to interview people I don’t know very well, although I’ll probably use a translator and hopeful that will help. My Chinese has improved so much, especially my speaking, but I don’t think I would be able to understand the answers to the kind of questions I’m going to ask people…
Speaking of asking people questions, I’ve picked out an ISP topic. I’ve decided I want to research ethnic (specifically the Naxi) women’s representation in the tourist industry. I’m wondering to what capacity they are involved in the construction of this representation and how it affects their lives. I’m going to be doing my fieldwork in Lijiang, which I’m going to in a few days as part of the group excursion. I’m excited to see the place I’ll probably be spending some of the next few weeks in, but I’ll miss Kunming.