Hi C,

Thank you sooooo much for taking the time out to write to us. I think I speak for everybody who is about to leave, we welcome every little bit of information we can get our hands on. I have a silly little question since you mentioned about getting clothes in cetain sizes. I have heard that generally when women serve overseas they tend to gain weight and guys tend to lose. I was just curious if this is true to your knowledge, maybe I’ll pack stuff that fits looser on me Did the peace corps reassigned you and your husband after you left china?
Thanks, again for all the info.

M

p.s. did you find that the stipend you received was enough?

Hi,

No problem at all–you can probably guess that I loved my PC time, and take a lot of joy in talking about it.

As to the weight gain question–unfortunately, yes. Most of the boys in China dropped a ton of weight and the girls tended to put it on. Not a lot, but definitely some. A lot due to the inability to do much physical exercise, as well as eating a lot of rice and noodles, and so much oil in the dishes. Plus, everyone tends to go thru a phase where you want things that taste like home–which in China unfortunately limits you to fast food, chips a hoy, oreos, and some chips like Bugles or Pringles. Not so good for the waistline. If you can resist this stuff, you might be ok. I think it’s kind of similar to the freshman 15 thing. I’d bring some sort of baggy stuff, at least for part of your wardrobe. Especially since it is just so freaking hot sometimes that loose clothing just feels better. Bring some looking good clothes too though–for nights out at the bars or clubs when you hit the big cities. If that’s your thing!

The stipend was plenty for living in China. In fact, most of the time my husband and I lived on just his and banked all of mine. We used it to buy our plane tickets to Thailand for holiday. It’s only about 100 bucks a month US, but in yuan/kuai (the Chinese currency), that was plenty. One qualifier–my husband and I didn’t go out very often, it wasn’t really our scene. So, it was easy to save. If you see yourself wanting to go out to bigger dinners, buy a lot of fast food, drink a lot of beer or drinks, etc.. then you will go thru it a lot faster. To each their own.

Yup, b and I transferred to PC Jamaica after we got evacuated. We finished up our time doing community health work down there. The health work was really interesting, but out exeriences with in-country PC staff were leagues different from China. I think PC China staff is the best in the program. You all need to be prepared to be treated amazingly. They are so helpful and supportive. I didn’t know how good we had it!

Keep the questions coming if you have them! Later, C